Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4rdrl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-02T10:38:10.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Holocene Climate in the Northern Great Plains Inferred from Sediment Stratigraphy, Stable Isotopes, Carbonate Geochemistry, Diatoms, and Pollen at Moon Lake, North Dakota

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Blas L. Valero-Garcés ,
Kathleen R. Laird ,
Sherilyn C. Fritz ,
Kerry Kelts ,
Emi Ito  and
Eric C. Grimm
Blas L. Valero-Garcés
Affiliation:
Limnological Research Center, 220 Pillsbury Hall, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55455
Kathleen R. Laird
Affiliation:
Limnological Research Center, 220 Pillsbury Hall, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55455
Sherilyn C. Fritz
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lehigh University, 31 Williams Drive, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 18015
Kerry Kelts
Affiliation:
Limnological Research Center, 220 Pillsbury Hall, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55455
Emi Ito
Affiliation:
Limnological Research Center, 220 Pillsbury Hall, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55455
Eric C. Grimm
Affiliation:
Illinois State Museum, Research Collection Center, 1011 East Ash Street, Springfield, Illinois, 62703
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Seismic stratigraphy, sedimentary facies, pollen stratigraphy, diatom-inferred salinity, stable isotope (δ18O and δ13C), and chemical composition (Sr/Ca and Mg/Ca) of authigenic carbonates from Moon Lake cores provide a congruent Holocene record of effective moisture for the eastern Northern Great Plains. Between 11,700 and 950014C yr B.P., the climate was cool and moist. A gradual decrease in effective moisture occurred between 9500 and 710014C yr B.P. A change at about 710014C yr B.P. inaugurated the most arid period during the Holocene. Between 7100 and 400014C yr B.P., three arid phases occurred at 6600–620014C yr B.P., 5400–520014C yr B.P., and 4800–460014C yr B.P. Effective moisture generally increased after 400014C yr B.P., but periods of low effective moisture occurred between 2900–280014C yr B.P. and 1200–80014C yr B.P. The data also suggest high climatic variability during the last few centuries. Despite the overall congruence, the biological (diatom), sedimentological, isotopic, and chemical proxies were occassionally out of phase. At these times the evaporative process was not the only control of lake-water chemical and isotopic composition.

Keywords

sedimentologypaleolimnologydiatomsisotopesgeochemistrynorthern Great PlainsHolocenedroughthydrologysaline lakespaleoclimate
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , November 1997 , pp. 359 - 369
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

Anderson, R.Y., Dean, W.E., Bradbury, J.P., (1993). Elk Lake in perspective. Elk Lake, Minnesota: Evidence for Rapid Change in the North–Central United States. Geological Society of America Special Paper 276 p. 1–6.Google Scholar
Artz, J.A., (1995). Geological contexts of the early and middle Holocene archaeological record in North Dakota and adjoining areas of the Northern Plains. Bettis, E.A. III, Archaeological Geology of the Archaic Period in North America. Geological Society of America Special Paper 297 67–86.Google Scholar
Bartlein, P.J., Webb, T. III, Fleri, E., (1984). Holocene climate change in the Northern Midwest: pollen derived estimates. Quaternary Research. 22, 361–374.Google Scholar
Bradbury, J.P., Dean, W.E., Anderson, R.Y., (1993). Holocene climatic and limnologic history of the north-central United States as recorded in the varved sediments of Elk Lake, Minnesota: a synthesis. Bradbury, J.P., Dean, W.E., Elk Lake, Minnesota: Evidence for rapid change in the north-central United States. Geological Society of America Special Paper 276 309–328.Google Scholar
Chivas, A.R., De Deckker, P., Cali, J., Chapman, A., Kiss, E., Shelley, J., (1993). Coupled stable isotope and trace element measurements of lacustrine carbonates as paleoclimatic indicators. Swart, P., Lohamnn, K., Mckenzie, J., Savin, S., Climate change in continental isotopic records. Geophysical Monograph 78 113–122.Google Scholar
Clayton, L., Moran, S.R., Bickley, W.B. Jr., (1976). Stratigraphy, origin, and climatic implications of Late Quaternary upland silt in North Dakota. North Dakota Geological Survey Miscellaneous Series. 54, 15 pp. .Google Scholar
Dean, W.E., Stuiver, M., (1993). Stable carbon and oxygen isotope studies of the sediments of Elk Lake, Minnesota. Bradbury, J.P., Dean, W.E., Elk Lake, Minnesota: Evidence for rapid change in the north-central United States. Geological Society of America Special Paper 276 163–180.Google Scholar
Fritz, S.C., Engstrom, D.R., Haskell, B.J., (1994). ‘Little Ice Age’ aridity in the North American Great Plains: a high-resolution reconstruction of salinity fluctuations from Devils Lake, North Dakota, USA. The Holocene. 4, 69–73.Google Scholar
Fritz, S.C., Juggins, S., Battarbee, R.W., Engstrom, D.R., (1991). Reconstruction of past changes in salinity and climate using a diatom-based transfer function. Nature. 352, 706–708.Google Scholar
Hakansson, S., (1985). A review of various factors influencing the stable carbon isotope ratio of organic lake sediments by the change from glacial to post-glacial environmental conditions. Quaternary Science Reviews. 4, 135–146.Google Scholar
Harrison, S.P., (1989). Lake levels and climate change in eastern North America. Climate Dynamics. 3, 157–167.Google Scholar
Haskell, B., Engstrom, D.R., Fritz, S.C., (1996). Late Quaternary paleohydrology in the North American. Great Plains inferred from the geochemistry of endogenic carbonates and fossil ostracodes from Devils Lake, ND. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 124, 179–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, T.E., Block, D.A., (1967). Geology and ground water resources, Barnes County, North Dakota, Part I Geology. North Dakota Geological Survey Bull.. 43. Google Scholar
Kelts, K., Talbot, M.R., (1990). Lacustrine carbonates as geochemical archives of environmental change and biotic-abiotic interactions. Tilzer, M.M., Serruya, C., Ecological Structure and Function in Large Lakes. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 290–317.Google Scholar
Kennedy, K.A., (1994). Early-Holocene geochemical evolution of a saline Medicine Lake, South Dakota. Journal of Paleolimnology. 10, 69–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laird, K.R., Fritz, S.C., Grimm, E.C., Mueller, P.C., (1996). Century-scale paleoclimatic reconstruction from Moon Lake, a closed basin lake in the Northern Great Plains. Limnology and Oceanography. 41, 890–902.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Last, W., Slezak, L.A., (1986). Paleohydrology, sedimentology and geochemistry of two meromictic saline lakes in southern Saskatchewan. Géographie Physique et Quaternaire. 11, 5–15.Google Scholar
Last, W., Slezak, L.A., (1988). The salt lakes of western Canada: a paleolimnological overview. Hydrobiologia. 158, 301–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Last, W., Schweyen, T.H., (1984). Late Holocene history of Waldsea Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada. Quaternary Research. 24, 219–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, G.M., (1989). Postglacial paleoecology of the forest-grassland ecotone of southern Alberta: new insights on vegetation and climate change in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and adjacente foothills. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 73, 155–173.Google Scholar
Radle, N.J., Keister, C.M., Battarbee, R.W., (1989). Diatom, pollen and geochemical evidence for the paleosalinity of Medicine Lake, S. Dakota, during the Late Wisconsin and early Holocene. Journal of Paleolimnology. 2, 159–172.Google Scholar
Siegenthaler, U., Eicher, U., (1986). Stable oxygen and carbon isotope analyses. Berglund, B.E., Handbook of Holocene Palaeoecology and Palaeohydrology. Chichester, Wiley, 407–422.Google Scholar
Stempvoort, D.R., Edwards, T.W.D., Evans, M.S., Last, W.M., (1993). Paleohydrology and paleoclimate records in a saline prairie lake core: mineral, isotope and organic indicators. Journal of Paleolimnology. 8, 135–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Talbot, M.R., (1990). A review of the palaeohydrological interpretation of carbon and oxygen isotopic ratios in primary lacustrine carbonates. Chemical Geology (Isotope Geoscience Section). 80, 261–279.Google Scholar
Thompson, R.S., Whitlock, C., Bartlein, P.J., Harrison, S.P., Spaulding, G., (1993). Climatic changes in the Western United States since 18,000 yr B.P. Wright, H.E., Kutzbach, J.E., Webb, T., Ruddiman, W.F., Street-Perrot, F.A., Bartlein, P.J., Global Climates Since the Last Glacial Maximum. Univ. of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 468–513.Google Scholar
Valero-Garcés, B.L., Kelts, K., (1995). A sedimentary facies model for perennial and meromictic saline lakes: Holocene Medicine Lake Basin, South Dakota, USA. Journal of Paleolimnology. 14, 123–149.Google Scholar
Valero-Garcés, B.L., Kelts, K., Ito, E., (1995). Oxygen and carbon isotope trends and sedimentological evolution of a meromictic and saline lacustrine system: the Holocene Medicine Lake basin, North American Great Plains, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 117, 253–278.Google Scholar
Vance, R.E., Clague, J.J., Mathews, R.W., (1993). Holocene paleohydrology of a hypersaline lake in southeastern Alberta. Journal of Paleolimnology. 8, 103–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vance, R.E., Mathews, R.W., Clague, J.J., (1992). 7000 year record of lake-level change on the Northern Great Plains: a high-resolution proxy of past climate. Geology. 20, 879–882.Google Scholar
Watts, W.A., Bright, R.C., (1968). Pollen, seed, and mollusk analysis of a sediment core from Pickerel Lake, northeastern South Dakota. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 79, 855–876.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webb, T., Bartlein, P.J., Harrison, S.P., Anderson, K.H., (1993). Vegetation, lake levels, and climate in eastern North America for the past 18,000 years. Wright, H.E., Kutzbach, J.E., Webb, T., Ruddiman, W.F., Street-Perrot, F.A., Bartlein, P.J., Global Climates Since the Last Glacial Maximum. Univ. of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 415–467.Google Scholar
Webb, T., Cushing, E.J., Wright, H.E., (1983). Holocene changes in vegetation in the Midwest. Wright, H., Late Quaternary Environments of the United States. Univ. of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 142–165.Google Scholar
Wright, H.E. Jr., (1992). Patterns of Holocene Climatic Change in the Midwestern United States. Quaternary Research. 38, 129–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xia, J., Haskell, B.J., Engstrom, D.R., Ito, E., (1997). Holocene climate reconstructions from tandem trace-element and stable isotope composition from Coldwater Lake, North Dakota, USA. Journal of Paleolimnology. 17, 85–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar