Prairie Period Research Articles

Development of a landscape in NE Minnesota, from the Early Holocene to Forest-harvesting, Agriculture and Industry

An array of lake sediment proxies including paleobotanic, geochemical, and historical records has been used to determine former environments of Bugbee Pond, a small, mesotrophic pond in northeastern Minnesota. Much research has been produced on the history of climate and vegetation change of the region, yet we have little information on the impact of human settlement. This well-dated, high resolution, multi-proxy record is important for its length and concentration on the historic period. The lake itself became established by ~7000 years ago. Pollen evidence suggests a transition between the regional Prairie Period to the Great Lakes mixed conifer – hardwood forest was established in the region at this time. XRF data suggest dry basin accumulation early in the record after ~7000 cal yr BP, but lake levels substantially increased by ~5600 cal yr BP, during a regionwide climatic transition to more humid conditions. Birch and boreal conifers increased after about 3800 cal yr BP; further increases in boreal conifers occurred by ~2000 cal yr BP. Anthropogenic vegetation changes during the Historic period, beginning in the late 19th century, is well represented by forest clearance of white pine ( Pinus strobus), followed by increases in early successional species and an increased sediment accumulation rate due to land clearance. Establishment of farming communities locally are shown by occurrence of corn ( Zea mays) and oat ( Avena sativa) pollen, and pasturing and grazing are documented by Rumex, Fabaceae and Poaceae pollen, as well as coprophilous fungi, such as Sordaria. The increase and subsequent decline in Pb and S concentrations in the uppermost sediments are mirrored by historically documented, nearby industrial activities.

라이트의 유소니언 오토매틱 주택 시스템에 나타난 재료 및 공법에 관한 연구

This study is to investigate the meaning and value of Usonian Automatic House System(UAHS) of Frank Lloyd Wright in his later period, focused on materials, methods, and his thoughts. The results of this study are follows. UAHS was the outcome of moderate cost and prefab house which Wright had successively attempted after the early Prairie period. The construction was simple and comparatively cheap, but subsequent automatics were difficult and expensive to build. Nevertheless, it was sufficiently flexible to support a rather wide range of house designs. Concrete was the inert mass and a plastic material. Wright saw a kind of weaving coming out of it. He also saw a kind of concrete masonry, steel for warp and masonry units for woof in the automatic concrete block. The reinforced bars in hollowed joints of concrete block increased the safety factor and affected the expression of the construction through the stabilization they provided. But they did not give concrete block the capability of structural span. Standardization as the soul of the machine might be seen in UAHS. The concrete blocks were more cheap, lighter, and larger hollowed plain than textile blocks in 1920s. But the variety of pattern and different block types in the UAHS were achieved at some sacrifice of standardization. The repetitive nature of production was compromised for artistic goals. The sense of compromise was not maximized, however, because the units as installed looked far more repetitive than they actually were.

Sources of Sediment in Lake Pepin on the Upper Mississippi River in Response to Holocene Climatic Changes

Sediments from Lake Pepin on the Mississippi River, southeastern Minnesota, are used as provenance tracers to assess variations in hydrology and sediment-transport during the middle Holocene. Three rivers contribute sediment to Lake Pepin, and each catchment is characterized by a distinctly different geologic terrain. The geochemical fingerprint for each drainage basin was determined from the elemental composition of heavy minerals in the silt-sized fraction of modern sediment samples. Down-core elemental abundances were compared with these fingerprints by use of a chemical-mass-balance model that apportions sediment to the source areas. We observed a decreased contribution from the Minnesota River during the interval ~6700–5500 14C yr BP, which we attribute to decreased discharge of the Minnesota River, likely controlled by a combination of precipitation, snow melt, and groundwater input to the river. This hydrologic condition coincides with the mid-Holocene prairie period recorded by fossil pollen data. The occurrence of this feature in a proxy record for hydrologic variations supports the hypothesis that the mid-Holocene prairie period reflects drier conditions than before or after in midwestern North America.

Reconstruction of hydrological changes and response to effective moisture variations from North-Central USA lake sediments

Ratios of the stable isotopes of oxygen and carbon in benthic ostracodes and marl from cores taken from two lakes in north-central Minnesota reflect Holocene hydrological and vegetation changes. Oxygen isotopes show that Williams and Shingobee Lakes, located in the same watershed but with different positions along a hydrologic gradient, were connected before 9.8 ka as part of a larger lake, Lake Willobee. From 9.8–7.7 ka, the level of Lake Willobee fell as a result of glacial retreat and increasing evaporation, leaving small separated basins. Further decreases in lake level after 7.7 ka due to increasing aridity triggered the inflow of ground water in Williams Lake at about 7 ka, and in Shingobee Lake at about 5 ka. After 4 ka effective moisture increased. The carbon-isotope record reflects changes in vegetation with higher δ 13C values during the prairie period (7.7–4 ka) and lower values during preceding and succeeding forest periods. The differences in timing of hydrological events show that the biotic and geochemical response of the lakes to climate variations is mediated by their hydrologic systems. The response may be strongly spatially heterogeneous and can result in contrasting information from geochemical and biotic proxies from the same paleorecord.

Speleothem evidence for Holocene fluctuations of the prairie-forest ecotone, north-central USA

Carbon and oxygen isotopic trends from seven Midwestern speleothems record significant offsets in the timing of middle-Holocene vegetation change. Interactions of dry Pacific and moist Gulf of Mexico air masses maintained a sharp moisture gradient across Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin such that the arrival of prairie was offset by 2000 years between caves and pollen sites located only 50 km apart. Oxygen isotopes shift concomitantly with carbon in most cases, although these changes are believed to represent increased evaporative enrichment of 18O prior to infiltration during the prairie period.

Comparison of two interglacial records from the midwestern U.S.A.

The sediment records from 2 kettle lakes were used to compare the magnetic signature of interglacial climate. Pittsburg Basin in southern Illinois recorded Sangamonian climate variations, while Holocene climate variations were studied at Kirchner marsh, Minnesota. Pollen studies from both sites indicate the occurrence of a dry prairie period during both interglacials. Both magnetic records show many similarities in their response to climate change. Glacial sediments are characterized by an abundance of coarse grained magnetic grains, while deciduous forests and oak savanna tend to be characterized by SD and SP grains which occur in very low concentrations. These fine grains are likely to be biogenic. The two prairie periods showed an increase in magnetic concentration, but the grain-size of the magnetic fraction depends on the effects of chemical dissolution and pedogenesis in the catchment and may reflect the evolutionary history of the basin.

Stable isotopes and sediments from Pickerel Lake, South Dakota, USA: a 12ky record of environmental changes

Sedimentological parameters and stable O- and C-isotopic composition of marl and ostracode calcite selected from a 17.7-m-long core from the 8-m-deep center of Pickerel Lake, northeastern South Dakota, provide one of the longest (ca. 12ky) paleoenvironmental records from the northern Great Plains. The late Glacial to early Holocene climate in the northern Great Plains was characterized by changes from cold and wet to cold and dry, and back to cold and wet conditions. These climatic changes were controlled by fluctuations in the positions of the Laurentide ice sheet and the extent of glacial Lake Agassiz. We speculate that the cold and dry phase may correspond to the Younger Dryas event. A salinity maximum was reached between 10.3 and 9.5 ka, after which Pickerel Lake shifted from a system controlled by atmospheric changes to a system controlled by groundwater seepage that might have been initiated by the final withdrawal of Glacial Lake Agassiz. A prairie lake was established at approximately 8.7 ka, and lasted until about 2.2 ka. During this mid-Holocene prairie period, drier conditions than today prevailed, interrupted by periods of increased moisture at about 8, 4, and 2.2 ka. Prairie conditions were more likely dry and cool rather than dry and warm. The last 2.2 ka are characterized by higher climatic variability with 400-yr aridity cycles including the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age. Although the signal of changing atmospheric circulation is overprinted by fluctuations in the positions of the ice sheet and glacial Lake Agassiz during the late Glacial-Holocene transition, a combination of strong zonal circulation and strong monsoons induced by the presence of the ice sheet and high insolation may have provided mechanisms for increased precipitation. Zonal flow introducing dry Pacific air became more important during the prairie period but seems to have been interrupted by short periods of stronger meridional circulation with intrusions of moist air from the Gulf of Mexico. More frequent switching between periods of zonal and meridional circulation seem to be responsible for increased climatic variability during the last 2.2 ka.

Ostracode ?18O and ?13C evidence of Holocene environmental changes in the sediments of two Minnesota lakes

Stable oxygen and carbon isotope geochemistry of ostracode valves, abundance and assemblages of ostracode species, and sedimentological parameters from cores taken in Williams and Shingobee Lakes in north-central Minnesota show changes in climatic and hydrologic history during the Holocene. Isotopic records are consistent with the following scenario: Before 9800 yr B.P. the two lakes were connected. Increasing evaporation through the jack/red pine period (9800-7700 yr B.P.) led to lower lake levels, leaving small separated basins. The prairie period (7700-4000 yr B.P.) reflects high aridity, and lake levels reached low stands shortly before 6500 yr B.P. Low lake levels are associated with groundwater discharge between 6500 and 6000 yr B.P. The hardwood period (4000-3200 yr B.P.) corresponds to long cold winters and warm to cool summers with lower evaporation rates and slower sedimentation. During the white pine period (<3200 yr B.P.) evaporation increased and/or precipitation shifted to the summer months. These changes can be related to shifting atmospheric circulation patterns. Zonal flow was probably dominant during the early Holocene until the end of the prairie period (c. 4000 yr B.P.). During the hardwood period a combination of zonal and meridional flow patterns caused long and cold winters and wetter summers. During the white pine period wintners were shorter and the meridional flow pattern more significant. Today meridional flow dominates the circulation pattern.

Early-Holocene geochemical evolution of saline Medicine Lake, South Dakota

Medicine Lake is a highly saline, meromictic, magnesium sulfate, closed-basin lake in northeastern South Dakota. The geochemical, mineralogical, and magnetic stratigraphies of sediments deposited from about 10.8 to 4.5 ka B.P. document the evolution of the saline brine in response to climatic change in the early to mid-Holocene. During the spruce occupation of the Medicine Lake catchment (10.8–10.0 ka B.P.), dark-grey massive basal sediments with low total-sulfur and carbonate content, upwardly increasing organic-carbon content, and high magnetic susceptibility were deposited in a deep freshwater lake. As the vegetation in the area changed from spruce to birch to oak and elm and finally to prairie between 10.0 and 9.2 ka B.P., and as the lake became shallow and salinity increased from 10%, light-and dark-grey calcareous and organic-carbon-rich banded sediments with low total-sulfur content and low magnetic susceptibility were deposited. Previous studies have shown that during the forest/prairie transition the lake then changed abruptly from fresh to saline as it lost a substantial portion of its volume. During the early prairie period (9.2–5.5 ka B.P.), alternating sections of aragonite-rich laminae and grey massive sediments with high total-sulfur content and multiple gypsum layers were deposited in a meromictic environment under conditions of fluctuating lake levels and salinity. Continued aridity during the mid-Holocene (5.5–4.5 ka B.P.) probably maintained the lake at relatively low levels and high salinity as dark-grey generally massive sediments with moderate total-sulfur, carbonate, and organic-carbon content and no measurable magnetic susceptibility were deposited.

Near-IR Identification of Woods for Restoration of Historic Buildings and Furniture

Frank Lloyd Wright is perhaps the most widely known of American architects. Wright's Prairie period, devoted mostly to residential architecture, is characterized in part by the use of indigenous woods that were neither planed nor painted (though they were sometimes stained). Residences are more likely to be altered over time than are other buildings, often without good documentation of the changes that were made. This research seeks to aid restoration efforts by providing a means of identifying the original woods used in construction.

Patterns of Holocene climatic change in the Midwestern United States

The Holocene pollen sequence in the Minnesota area is “asymmetric” around the so-called prairie period: the early Holocene is dominated by elm (with pine in the north) and the late Holocene by oak. The elm zone is interpreted as a manifestation of summer monsoonal rains enhanced by the Milankovitch insolation maximum, and the pine in the north is interpreted as a result of summer cooling near the retreating ice sheet. As the summer insolation waned during the Holocene, its associated monsoonal rains from the Caribbean moisture source lasted longer in the south (northeastern Iowa and southern Wisconsin), where the inferred mesic elm forest changed to prairie as late as 5000 yr B.P., compared to 8000 yr. B.P. in Minnesota (and 9000 yr B.P. in the Dakotas).

Holocene climate of New England

Stratigraphic studies of pollen and macrofossils from six sites at different elevations in the White Mountains of New Hampshire demonstrate changes in the distributions of four coniferous tree species during the Holocene. Two species presently confined to low elevations extended farther up the mountain slopes during the early Holocene: white pine grew 350 m above its present limit beginning 9000 yr B.P., while hemlock grew 300–400 m above its present limit soon after the species immigrated to the region 7000 yr. B.P. Hemlock disappeared from the highest sites about 5000 yr B.P., but both species persisted at sites 50–350 m above their present limits until the Little Ice Age began a few centuries ago. The history of the two main high-elevation conifers is more difficult to interpret. Spruce and fir first occur near their present upper limits 9000 or 10,000 yr B.P. Fir persisted in abundance at elevations similar to those where it occurs today throughout the Holocene, while spruce became infrequent at all elevations from the beginning of the Holocene until 2000 yr B.P. These facts suggest a more complex series of changes than a mere upward shift of the modern environmental gradient. Nevertheless, we conclude that the minimum climatic change which would explain the upward extensions of hemlock and white pine is a rise in temperature, perhaps as much as 2°C. The interval of maximum warmth started 9000 yr B.P. and lasted at least until 5000 yr B.P., correlative with the Prairie Period in Minnesota.

Postglacial diatom stratigraphy of Kirchner Marsh, Minnesota

Fossil diatom assemblages from a 12-m core from Kirchner Marsh were compared with modern surface assemblages from 159 Minnesota and labrador lakes using cluster analysis. The deepest levels of the core (spruce pollen zone 13,000 to 10,200 yr B.P.) resemble modern diatom assemblages from deep oligotrophic lakes of northeastern Minnesota. Diatom assemblages of the pine pollen zone (about 10,200 to 9500 yr B.P.) have few modern analogs. In the oak zone (9500 yr B.P. to present) after a brief pulse of diatom species indicative of eutrophication, the assemblages are dominated by species characteristic of shallow lakes, suggesting a drop in the lake water level during the prairie period (5500 to 7500 yr B.P.). Macrofossil data of W. A. Watts and T. C. Winter (1966, Geological Society of America Bulletin 77, 1339–1360) show that this shift to shallow-water diatoms occurred when aquatic macrophytes appeared at the site in abundance.

Climatic Changes in Southern Connecticut Recorded by Pollen Deposition at Rogers Lake

Rates of deposition of pollen grains throughout late— and postglacial time were determined from the pollen concentration in radiocarbon—dated sediment. Changes by a factor of 5 or more for all except rate pollen types from one level to the next were considered significant indication of changes in the pollen input to the lake, reflecting changes in the pollen productivity of the surrounding vegetation. Low pollen deposition rates in the oldest sediments reflect the prevalence of tundra vegetation between 14,000 and 12,000 years ago. An increase in the rate for tree pollen occurred 12,000 years ago, when boreal woodland became established. The rates continued to increase until a sudden sharp rise for white pine, hemlock, poplar, oak, and maple pollen 9,000 years ago marked the establishment of forest, similar perhaps to modern forests of the northern Great Lakes region. Pine pollen rates decline 8,000 years ago, and deciduous tree pollen became dominant. Ragweed pollen was deposited at relatively high rates 8,000 years ago, reflecting changes in the vegetation associated with the "prairie period" recorded in the Great Lakes region at this time. Subsequent changes in pollen deposition rates reflect the immigration of beech (6,500 years B.P.), hickory (5,500 years B.P.), and chestnut (2,000 B.P.) to southern Connecticut. During the past few hundred years pollen deposition rates reflect changes in the vegetation caused by disturbance by European settlers. Throughout much of postglacial time the pollen assemblages deposited at Rogers Lake are different from assemblages known from modern sediment. This makes climatic interpretation difficult and suggest that the forest associations of the region as they are recognized now are of quite recent origin.

Stevens Pond: A Postglacial Pollen Diagram from a Small Typha Swamp in Northwestern Minnesota, Interpreted from Pollen Indicators and Surface Samples

The pollen assemblages of a core in the coniferhardwood formation in northwestern Minnesota are compared with the floristics of the recent vegetation in the region. Percentage levels of the main tree components have been compared first with those from recent surface samples taken at the same short distance from various types of upland forests and second with the regional values of the pollen rain in this area (McAndrews 1966). To that end all the data were recalculated on the basis of special pollen sums. The regional diagram of Stevens Pond shows basically the same assemblage zones as established by McAndrews but without the late-glacial Picea-Populus assemblage zone. The pollen in the following Pinus-Pteridium assemblage zone has been interpreted as derived from a pine forest. During the midpostglacial expansion of the prairie eastwards the regional vegetation must have been a Quercus savanna, locally with prairie. Corylus reaches relatively high percentages in this zone. Among the prairie elements especially the occurrence of Lilium philadelphicum may be noted. In the next zone the pollen diagram shows a rise of the curves of mesic elements. In spite of this the comparison with recent surface samples indicates a xerophytic Quercus forest rather than a mesophytic deciduous forest. In the following Pinus assemblage zone pine was present along the margin of Stevens Pond and is therefore overrepresented in the diagram. In the uppermost zone the pollen curves show the effect of logging of the forest about 1900. Pollen of cultivated and introduced plants appear in this zone. Many local pollen types were found, on account of local overrepresentation. This made it possible to compare the local Stevens Pond sequence with the composition of recent lowland vegetation types. The pollen sequence was similar to a large extent to the recent pattern of lake filling, starting with a eutrophic vegetation of Typha latifolia and Salix in the prairie period and leading to a Larix forest and then to a mesotrophic Picea mariana forest, the present edaphic climax on peaty soils. There is a delay, however, in the introduction of acidophilous species, the Larix forest being without Sphagnum and Ericaceae. This is explained by assuming an influence of the vegetation of the surrounding slopes upon the local vegetation. About 1900 the bog forest was destroyed by logging operations and replaced by the present Typha latifolia mat.