Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T06:53:16.524Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Middle Holocene Vegetation Record from the Mojave Desert of North America and its Paleoclimatic Significance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

W. Geoffrey Spaulding
W. Geoffrey Spaulding*
Affiliation:
Quaternary Research Center and Department of Botany, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Packrat middens from the McCullough Range, in the southeastern Mojave Desert of Nevada, record vegetation conditions during the periods 6800 to 5060 yr B.P. and 1250 yr B.P. to present. Their age and location are ideal to test for middle Holocene aridity; the period between 6800 and 5060 yr B.P. does appear to have been more arid than during the late Holocene period of record. This agrees with other evidence for middle Holocene aridity from the Southwest. Arguments for strengthened middle Holocene monsoons in the region are based chiefly on packrat midden samples older than 7500 yr B.P., or on samples that are younger than 5500 yr B.P. Simulations of 6000 yr B.P. climate that fail to show strong subtropical flow into the Southwest are therefore supported by evidence for enhanced aridity in that region.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 35 , Issue 3-Part1 , May 1991 , pp. 427 - 437
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antevs, E. Late Quaternary climates in Arizona American Antiquity 28 1962 193 198 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beatley, J.C. Vascular Plants of the Nevada Test Site, and Central-Southern Nevada National Technical Information Service Report TID-26881 1976 Google Scholar
Birks, H.J.B. Birks, H.H. Quaternary Paleoecology 1980 University Park Press Baltimore, MD Google Scholar
Bryson, R.A. Lowry, W.D. The synoptic climatology of the Arizona summer precipitation singularity Bulletin American Meteorological Society 36 1955 329 339 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryson, R.A. Hare, F.K. The climates of North America Bryson, R.A. Hare, F.K. Climates of North America, World Survey of Climatology Vol. 11 1974 Elsevier New York 1 48 Google Scholar
Byrne, R. Busby, C. Heizer, R.F. The Altithermal revisited: Pollen evidence from Leonard Rockshelter Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 1 1979 280 294 Google Scholar
Chumbley, C.A. Baker, R.G. Bettis, E.A. III Midwestern Holocene paleoenvironments revealed by floodplain deposits in northeastern Iowa Science 249 1990 272 274 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
COHMAP Project Members Climatic changes of the last 18,000 years: Observations and model simulations Science 241 1988 1043 1052 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, O.K. Sellers, W.D. Contrasting climatic histories for western North America during the early Holocene Current Research in the Pleistocene 4 1987 87 89 Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K. Quantitative Zooarchaeology 1984 Academic Press New York Google Scholar
Hall, S.A. Quaternary pollen analysis and vegetational history of the Southwest Bryant, V.M. Jr. Holloway, R.G. Pollen Records of Late Quaternary North American Sediments 1985 American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists Foundation Dallas, TX 95 124 Google Scholar
Haynes, C.V. Jr. Geochronology of Late Quaternary alluvium Morrison, R.B. Wright, H.E. Jr. Means of correlation of Quaternary successions 1968 University of Utah Press Salt Lake City, UT 591 631 Google Scholar
Holliday, V.T. Middle Holocene drought on the southern High Plains Quaternary Research 31 1989 74 82 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E. Street-Perrott, F.A. Milankovitch forcing of fluctuations in the level of tropical lakes from 18 to 0 kyr BP Nature (London) 317 1985 130 134 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madsen, D.B. Currey, D.R. Late Quaternary glacial and vegetation changes, Little Cottonwood Canyon area, Wasatch Mountains, Utah Quaternary Research 12 1979 254 270 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, P.S. The Last 10,000 Years: A Fossil Pollen Record of the American Southwest 1963 University of Arizona Press Tucson Google Scholar
Mehringer, P.J. Jr. Late Quaternary pollen records from the interior Pacific Northwest and northern Great Basin of the United States Bryant, V.M. Jr. Holloway, R.G. Pollen records of late Quaternary North American sediments 1985 American Assoc. Stratigraphic Palynologists Dallas, TX 167 190 Google Scholar
Mehringer, P.J. Jr. Martin, P.S. Haynes, C.V. Jr. Murray Springers—A mid-postglacial pollen record from southern Arizona American Journal of Science 265 1967 786 797 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, V.L. The regionalization of climate in the western United States Journal of Applied Meteorology 15 1976 920 927 2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munz, P.A. A Flora of Southern California 1974 University of California Press Berkeley CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shmida, A. Evenari, M. Noy-Meir, I. Hot desert ecosystems: An integrated view Evenari, M. et al. Hot Deserts and Arid Shrublands Vol. B 1986 Elsevier Amsterdam 379 387 Google Scholar
Shreve, F. The desert vegetation of North America The Botanical Review 8 1942 195 246 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shreve, F. Wiggins, I.L. Vegetation and Flora of the Sonoran Desert 1964 Stanford University Press CA 9 187 Google Scholar
Spaulding, W.G. The Presettlement Vegetation of the California Desert Report of file 1980 California Bureau of Land Management Riverside, CA Google Scholar
Spaulding, W.G. The Late Quaternary Vegetation of a Southern Nevada Mountain Range Ph.D. thesis Tucson 1981 Univ. Arizona Google Scholar
Spaulding, W.G. Vegetation and Climates of the Last 45,000 Years in the Vicinity of the Nevada Test Site, South-Central Nevada U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1329 1985 Google Scholar
Spaulding, W.G. Vegetational and climatic development of the Mojave Desert: The last glacial maximum to present Betancourt, J.L. Martin, P.S. Van Devender, T.R. Fossil Packrat Middens 1990 University of Arizona Press Tucson 166 199 Google Scholar
Spaulding, W.G. Graumlich, L.J. The last pluvial climatic episodes in the deserts of southwestern North America Nature (London) 320 1986 441 444 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, R.S. Kautz, R.R. Pollen analysis Thomas, D.H. The Archaeology of Gatecliff Shelter American Museum of Natural History Anthropological Papers Vol. 59 1983 136 151 Google Scholar
Van Devender, T.R. Holocene woodlands in the Southwestern deserts Science 198 1977 189 192 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Devender, T.R. Holocene vegetation and climate in the Puerto Blanco Mountains, southwestern Arizona Quaternary Research 27 1987 51 72 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Devender, T.R. Spaulding, W.G. Development of vegetation and climate in the western United States Science 204 1979 701 710 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Devender, T.R. Thompson, R.S. Betancourt, J.L. Vegetation history of the deserts of southwestern North America Ruddiman, W.F. Wright, H.E. Jr. North America and Adjacent Oceans During the Last Deglaciation 1987 Geological Society of America Boulder, CO 323 352 Google Scholar