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Evidence for multiple, episodic, mid-Holocene Hypsithermal recorded in two soil profiles along an alluvial floodplain catena, southeastern Tennessee, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Steven G. Driese ,
Zheng-Hua Li  and
Larry D. McKay
Steven G. Driese*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, One Bear Place #97354, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798-7354, USA
Zheng-Hua Li
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-1410, USA
Larry D. McKay
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-1410, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: +1 254 710 2673.E-mail address:Steven_Driese@baylor.edu (S.G. Driese).
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Abstract

Floodplain soil–paleosol successions are valuable archives for reconstructing Pleistocene–Holocene climate changes but have been relatively unstudied in the southern Appalachian region. Two soil profiles on a small floodplain in southeastern Tennessee, USA were described and sampled in detail using both pedological and geological approaches, including stable carbon isotope analysis of soil organic matter (SOM). Correlation between the 2 profiles was constrained by uncalibrated AMS14C ages of bulk humates, and using SOM δ13C values, both mobile and immobile elements. Four distinct 2.5–4‰ shifts towards less negative δ13C values for SOM suggest ∼ 300-yr cyclicity and transient warmer and drier climate events, with either water-stressed C3vegetation or as much as 35% C4plants present during the mid-Holocene. These postulated multi-episodic drier climate conditions have never before been documented in the southern Appalachian region and are tentatively correlated with mid-Holocene warming and drying in the eastern US, the nearly time-equivalent mid-Holocene events documented in Texas, the US High Plains and in the Gulf of Mexico. High rates of floodplain sediment accumulation (0.5–3 mm/yr), high clay content and maintenance of poorly drained soil conditions favor preservation of high-resolution climate archives in floodplain deposits by inhibiting oxidation and translocation of organic C.

Keywords

PaleoclimateMid-Holocene soilsStable carbon isotopesSoutheastern USFloodplains
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 69 , Issue 2 , March 2008 , pp. 276 - 291
Copyright
Elsevier Inc.

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