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Global Maps of Lake-Level Fluctuations since 30,000 yr B.P.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

F. Alayne Street  and
A. T. Grove
F. Alayne Street
Affiliation:
School of Geography, Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3TB, United Kingdom
A. T. Grove
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Downing Place, Cambridge, CB2 3EN, United Kingdom
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Abstract

This paper presents selected world maps of lake-level fluctuations since 30,000 yr B.P. These are based on a literature survey of 141 lake basins with radiocarbon-dated chronologies. The resulting patterns are subcontinental in scale and show orderly variations in space and time. They reflect substantial changes in continental precipitation, evaporation, and runoff, which are due to glacial/interglacial fluctuations in the atmospheric and oceanic circulations. In the tropics, high lake levels are essentially an interglacial or interstadial phenomenon, although there are important exceptions. Since extensive lakes during the Holocene corresponded with relatively high sea-surface temperatures, and therefore presumably with high evaporation rates on land, they are interpreted as the result of higher precipitation. Tropical aridity culminated in most areas at, or just after, the glacial maximum, although the present day is also characterized by a below-average abundance of surface water. In extratropical regions the mapped patterns are more complex. They vary markedly with latitude and proximity to major ice sheets. In these areas, evidence is at present insufficient to evaluate the relative contributions of precipitation and temperature to the observed lake-level record.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , July 1979 , pp. 83 - 118
Copyright
University of Washington

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