Paleoclimate reconstructions for the western US show spatial variability in the timing, duration, and magnitude of climate changes within the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA, ca. 900–1350 CE) and Little Ice Age (LIA, ca. 1350–1850 CE), indicating that additional data are needed to more completely characterize late-Holocene climate change in the region. Here, we use dendrochronology to investigate how climate changes during the MCA and LIA affected a treeline, whitebark pine ( Pinus albicaulis Engelm.) ecosystem in the Greater Yellowstone Ecoregion (GYE). We present two new millennial-length tree-ring chronologies and multiple lines of tree-ring evidence from living and remnant whitebark pine and Engelmann spruce ( Picea engelmannii Parry ex. Engelm.) trees, including patterns of establishment and mortality; changes in tree growth; frost rings; and blue-intensity-based, reconstructed summer temperatures, to highlight the terminus of the LIA as one of the coldest periods of the last millennium for the GYE. Patterns of tree establishment and mortality indicate conditions favorable to recruitment during the latter half of the MCA and climate-induced mortality of trees during the middle-to-late LIA. These patterns correspond with decreased growth, frost damage, and reconstructed cooler temperature anomalies for the 1800–1850 CE period. Results provide important insight into how past climate change affected important GYE ecosystems and highlight the value of using multiple lines of proxy evidence, along with climate reconstructions of high spatial resolution, to better describe spatial and temporal variability in MCA and LIA climate and the ecological influence of climate change.
more »
« less
Fluvial responses to late Holocene hydroclimate variability in the midcontinental United States
Long-term relationships between mean-state climatic conditions and flood frequencies in the midcontinental
United States (US) are not well established because instrumental records of fluvial processes
are limited to the current warm period (CWP; the last ca. 150 years) and continuous paleo-flood records
are exceedingly rare. Here, we investigate climate-flood relationships in the midcontinental US by
reconstructing flood frequencies at Half Moon Pond, a 1600-year-old oxbow lake on the lower White
River, Indiana (watershed ¼ ca, 29,000 km2). We used sediment accumulation rates and clastic fluxes
constrained by high-resolution radiocarbon (14C) dating. Frequent flooding, as indicated by high sedimentation
rates and clastic fluxes to Half Moon Pond, occurred leading up to and during the Medieval
Climate Anomaly (MCA; 950e1250 CE) when paleoclimate records suggest the predominance of oceanatmosphere
mean states resembling the negative phases of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (-PDO-like)
and Pacific North American Mode (-PNA-like). Reductions in sedimentation rates and clastic fluxes,
indicating reduced flooding, subsequently occurred during the transition out of the MCA and into the
Little Ice Age (LIA; 1250e1830 CE) as ocean-atmosphere conditions shifted to þ PDO-like and þPNA-like
mean states. Sedimentation rates and clastic fluxes increased again after ca. 1800 CE, indicating increased
flooding during the CWP as ocean-atmosphere conditions returned to -PDO-like and -PNA-like mean
states. The White River trends were notably antiphased with sedimentation-rate-based flood frequencies
for the lower Ohio River (500,000 km2 watershed) prior to 1830 CE. This antiphased relationship is
consistent with flooding in moderate to small watersheds in the Midwest being sensitive to the occurrence
of rainstorm events, which were more frequent leading up to and during the MCA, and flooding in
large watersheds being more sensitive to large spring melts associated with extensive snowpacks, which
characterized the LIA. That both the White and Ohio rivers experienced their most frequent flooding
during the CWP suggests deforestation and changing land use practices increased flooding on Midwestern
watersheds across scales despite a current climatic mean state that in the past only resulted in
increased flooding on moderate to small watersheds. Continued increased in midcontinental rainfall are
therefore likely to enhance the occurrence of floods in Midwestern watersheds across different
geographic scales.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1903628
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10471340
- Publisher / Repository:
- Quaternary Science Reviews
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Quaternary Science Reviews
- Volume:
- 301
- Issue:
- C
- ISSN:
- 0277-3791
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 107939
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
We present oxygen isotope and charcoal accumulation records from two lakes in eastern Washington that have sufficient temporal resolution to quantitatively compare with tree‐ring records and meteorological data. Hydroclimate reconstructions from tree‐rings and lake sediments show close correspondence after accounting for seasonal‐ to centennial‐ scale temporal sensitivities. Carbonate δ18O measurements from Castor and Round lakes reveal that the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) experienced wetter November‐March conditions than the Little Ice Age (LIA). Charcoal records from Castor, Round, and nearby lakes show elevated fire activity during the LIA compared to the MCA. Increased multidecadal hydroclimate variability after 1250 CE is evident in proxy records throughout western North America. In the Upper Columbia River Basin, multidecadal wet periods during the LIA may have enhanced fuel loads that burned in subsequent dry periods. A notable decline in biomass burning occurred with Euro‐American settlement in the late nineteenth century.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)Abstract. Simulations of climate of the last millennium (LM) show that external forcing had a major contribution to the evolution of temperatures; warmer and colder periods like the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA; ca. 950–1250 CE) and the Little Ice Age (LIA; ca. 1450–1850 CE) were critically influenced by changes in solar and volcanic activity. Even if this influence is mainly observed in terms of temperatures, evidence from simulations and reconstructions shows that other variables related to atmospheric dynamics and hydroclimate were also influenced by external forcing over some regions. In this work, simulations from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 and Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project Phase 3 (CMIP5/PMIP3) are analyzed to explore the influence of external forcings on the dynamical and hydrological changes during the LM at different spatial and temporal scales. Principal component (PC) analysis is used to obtain the modes of variability governing the global evolution of climate and to assess their correlation with the total external forcing at multidecadal to multicentennial timescales. For shorter timescales, a composite analysis is used to address the response to specific events of external forcing like volcanic eruptions. The results show coordinated long-term changes in global circulation patterns, which suggest expansions and contractions of the Hadley cells and latitudinal displacements of westerlies in response to external forcing. For hydroclimate, spatial patterns of drier and wetter conditions in areas influenced by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Northern Annular Mode (NAM), and Southern Annular Mode (SAM) and alterations in the intensity and distribution of monsoons and convergence zones are consistently found. Similarly, a clear short-term response is found in the years following volcanic eruptions. Although external forcing has a greater influence on temperatures, the results suggest that dynamical and hydrological variations over the LM exhibit a direct response to external forcing at both long and short timescales that is highly dependent on the particular simulation and model.more » « less
-
more » « less
A 2,000 year-long oceanographic history, in sub-centennial resolution, from a Canadian Beaufort Sea continental shelf site (60meters water depth) near the Mackenzie River outlet is reconstructed from ostracode and foraminifera faunal assemblages, shell stable isotopes (delta 18O, delta 13C) and sediment biogenic silica. The chronology of three sediment cores making up the composite section was established using 137Cs and 210Pb dating for the most recent 150 years and combined with linear interpolation of radiocarbon dates from bivalve shells and foraminifera tests.Continuous centimeter-sampling of the multicore and high-resolution sampling of a gravity and piston core yielded a time-averaged faunal record of every approximately 40 years from 0 to 1850 CE and every approximately 24 years from 1850 to 2013 CE. Proxy records were consistent with temperature oscillations and related changes in organic carbon cycling associated with the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) and the Little Ice Age (LIA). Abundance changes in dominant microfossil species, such as the ostracode Paracyprideis pseudopunctillata and agglutinated foraminifers Spiroplectammina biformis and S. earlandi, are used as indicators of less saline, and possibly corrosive/turbid bottom conditions associated with the MCA (approximately 800 to 1200 CE) and the most recent approximately 60 years (1950–2013). During these periods, pronounced fluctuations in these species suggest that prolonged seasonal sea-ice melting, changes in riverine inputs and sediment dynamics affected the benthic environment. Taxa analyzed for stable oxygen isotope composition of carbonates show the lowest delta 18O values during intervals within the MCA and the highest during the late LIA, which is consistent with a 1 degree to 2 degree C cooling of bottom waters. Faunal and isotopic changes during the cooler LIA (1300 to 1850 CE) are most apparent at approximately 1500 to 1850 CE and are particularly pronounced during 1850 to approximately 1900 CE, with an approximate 0.5 per mil increase in delta 18O values of carbonates from median values in the analyzed taxa. This very cold 50-year period suggests that enhanced summer sea ice suppressed productivity,which is indicated by low sediment biogenic silica values and lower delta 13C values in analyzed species. From 1900CE to present, declines in calcareous faunal assemblages and changes in dominant species (Cassidulina reniforme and P. pseudopunctillata) are associated with less hospitable bottom waters, indicated by a peak in agglutinated foraminifera from 1950 to 1990 CE.
-
Fly ash consists of mainly silt-size spherules that form during high-temperature coal combustion, such as in steam locomotives and coal-burning power plants. In the eastern USA, fly ash was distributed across the landscape atmospherically beginning in the late 19th century, peaking in the mid-20th century, and decreasing sharply with implementation of late 20th century particulate pollution controls. Although atmospheric deposition is limited today, fly ash particles continue to be resedimented into alluvial and lacustrine deposits from upland soil erosion and failure of fly ash storage ponds. Magnetic fly ash is easily extracted and identified microscopically, allowing for a simple and reproducible method for identifying post-1850 CE (Common Era) alluvium and lacustrine sediment. In the North Carolina Piedmont, magnetic fly ash was identified within the upper 50 cm at each of eight alluvial sites and one former milldam site. Extracted fly ash spherules have a magnetite or maghemite composition, with substitutions of Al, Si, Ca, and Ti, and range from 3–125 µm in diameter (mainly 10–45 µm). Based on the presence of fly ash, post-1850 alluvial deposits are 15–45 cm thick in central North Carolina river valleys (<0.5 km wide), ~60% thinner than in central Illinois valleys of similar width. Slower sedimentation rates in North Carolina watersheds are likely a result of a less agricultural land and less erodible (more clayey) soils. Artificial reservoirs (Lake Decatur, IL) and milldams (Betty’s Mill, NC), provide chronological tests for the fly ash method and high-resolution records of anthropogenic change. In cores of Lake Decatur sediments, changes in fly ash content appear related to decadal-scale variations in annual rainfall (and runoff), calcite precipitation, land-use changes, and/or lake history, superimposed on longer-term trends in particulate pollution.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107939
