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Biogeographic Implications of a Packrat Midden Sequence from the Sacramento Mountains, South-Central New Mexico1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Thomas R. Van Devender ,
Julio L. Betancourt  and
Mark Wimberly
Thomas R. Van Devender
Affiliation:
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Route 9, Box 900, Tucson, Arizona 85743
Julio L. Betancourt
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721
Mark Wimberly
Affiliation:
Human Systems Research, Inc., P.O. Box 1225, Tularosa, New Mexico 88352
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Abstract

Thirteen packrat (Neotoma spp.) and two porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) middens from 1555 to 1690 m elevation from the Sacramento Mountains, New Mexico, provide an 18,000-yr vegetation record in the northern Chiuahuan Desert. The vegetation sequence is a mesic, Wisconsin fullglacial (18,000–16,000 yr B.P.) pinyon-juniper-oak woodland; a xeric, early Holocene (ca. 11,000–8000 yr B.P.) juniper-oak woodland; a middle Holocene (ca. 8000-4000 yr B.P.) desert-grassland; and a late Holocene (ca. 4000 yr B.P. to present) Chihuahuan desertscrub. The frequency of spring freezes and summer droughts in the late Wisconsin probably set the northern limits of Pinus edulis and Juniperus monosperma at about 34°N, or 6° south of today's limit. Rising summer tempratures in the early Holocene eliminated pinyon and other mesic woodland plants from the desert lowlands and allowed the woodland to move upslope. At this time pinyon-juniper woodland and pine forest dominated by Pinus ponderosa probably began their spectacular Holocene expansions to the north. Continued warming in the middle Holocene led to very warm summers with strong monsoons, relatively dry, cold winters, and widespread desert-grasslands. Desertscrub communities in the northern Chihuahuan Desert did not develop until the late Holocene when the biseasonal rainfall shifted slightly back toward the winter, catastrophic winter freezes decreased, and droughts in all seasons increased. The creosote bush desertscrub corridor across the Continental Divide between the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts was probably connected for the first time since the last interglaciation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , November 1984 , pp. 344 - 360
Copyright
University of Washington

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Footnotes

1

This paper is presented in memory of the late Mark Wimberly. Mark's tragic death in a helicopter accident deep in the Sacramentos prevented him from seeing the project, which he initiated, in 1978, come to fruit.

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