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Paleoecology of two marine oxygen isotope stage 7 sites correlated by the Sheep Creek tephra, northwestern North America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Charles E. Schweger
Charles E. Schweger*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2H4
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Abstract

Pollen analysis at two sites, correlated by the presence of the 190,000 yr-old Sheep Creek tephra, documents fluctuations in vegetation and climate consistent with this date and indicates that the records span marine oxygen isotope stage 7 and the stage 6/7 transition. Dawson Cut, near Fairbanks, Alaska, provides a 5.2-m-long pollen record of interglacial boreal forest succeeded by shrub tundra and then forest/tundra. Ash Bend, Stewart River, central Yukon, provides a 9.5-m-long record of interglacial boreal forest succeeded by forest/tundra, shrub tundra, and herbaceous tundra. The replacement of forest at both sites by more open or tundra vegetation indicates warm interglacial conditions giving way to cold and arid climate. It is not clear whether stage 7 was warmer than the present. The warm–cool–warm climate oscillation evident at both sites may correlate to Lake Baikal substages 7a, 7b, and 7c. Sheep Creek tephra fell on forest/tundra vegetation.

Keywords

Sheep Creek tephraInterglaciationPollen analysisYukonAlaskaMarine oxygen isotope stage 7Marine oxygen isotope stage 6/7Paleoecology
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , July 2003 , pp. 44 - 49
Copyright
University of Washington

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