Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T19:12:03.546Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Late- and Postglacial Climatic Change in the Northern Midwest, USA: Quantitative Estimates Derived from Fossil Pollen Spectra by Multivariate Statistical Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Thompson Webb III  and
Reid A. Bryson
Thompson Webb III
Affiliation:
Great Lakes Research Division, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
Reid A. Bryson
Affiliation:
Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Canonical correlation analysis provides a means of reconstructing quantitative time series of past climatic variables during the last 15,000 years from fossil pollen spectra collected at three sites in the northern Midwest. This multivariate statistical technique was applied to a spatial array of modern pollen and climatic data in order to derive a set of mathematical transfer functions. These transform the fossil pollen spectra directly into quantitative estimates of past climatic values. The basic sequence of climatic events that is reconstructed is in general agreement with previous studies of postglacial climates in the Midwest, but quantitative estimates for certain of the variables, e.g., temperature and precipitation, are given for the first time.

Fossil pollen from three cores collected from lakes in Wisconsin and Minnesota allow a preliminary reconstruction of past east-west and north-south gradients of the climatic variables. Because changes in the circulation patterns in midlatitudes are the principal mechanism causing fluctuations in temperature and precipitation, past records of the atmospheric circulation are reconstructed along with records of temperature and rainfall. The time series derived show that the most pronounced climatic change indicated in Wisconsin and Minnesota occurred at the end of the Pleistocene (the beginning of the Holocene). This change is particularly evident in the climatic variables related to temperature, which rose ca. 3.3°C. A decrease in snowfall also occurred.

During the Holocene, the most marked change appears in the results from Kirchner Marsh, where the amount of dry western air began to increase and the precipitation to decrease about 9500 B.P. A reversal of these changes occurred about 5000 B.P. In contrast, relatively little change occurred among the reconstructed values from Wisconsin; a marked east-west precipitation gradient, therefore, developed in this region of the Midwest from 9500 to 5000 B.P.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , July 1972 , pp. 70 - 115
Copyright
Academic Press, Inc.

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

Andersen, S. T. (1970). The relative pollen productivity and pollen representation of North European trees, and correction factors for tree pollen spectra. Geological Survey of Denmark, II Series, 96.Google Scholar
Anderson, T.W. (1958). “An Introduction to Multivariate Statistical Analysis.” John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York.Google Scholar
Baerreis, D.A., Bryson, R.A. (1967). Climatic change and the Mill Creek culture of Iowa. Archives of Archeology 29.Google Scholar
Bender, M.B., Bryson, R.A., and Baerreis, D.A. (1971). University of Wisconsin radiocarbon dates IX. Radiocarbon 13, 475–486.Google Scholar
Benninghoff, W.S. (1960). Pollen spectra from bryophytic polsters, Inverness Mud Lake Bog, Cheboygan County, Michigan. Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters 43, 41–60.Google Scholar
Borchert, J.R. (1950). The climate of the central North America grassland. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 40, 1–29.Google Scholar
Bryson, R.A. (1966). Air masses, streamlines, and the boreal forest. Geographical Bulletin 8, 228–269.Google Scholar
Bryson, R.A., Baerreis, D.A., and Wendland, W.M. (1970). The character of Late- and Postglacial climatic changes. In “Pleistocene and Recent Environments of the Central Great Plains.” Google Scholar
(Dort, W. and Jones, J.K. Eds.), pp. 53–74. University of Kansas Press, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Bryson, R.A., Irving, W.N., and Larsen, J.A. (1965). Radiocarbon and soils evidence of former forest in the southern Canadian tundra. Science 147, 46–48.Google Scholar
Bryson, R.A., and Wendland, W.M. (1967). Tentative climatic patterns for some Late-Glacial and Postglacial episodes in central North America. In “Life, Land, and Water.” (Mayer-Oakes, W.J. Ed.), pp. 271–289. University of Manitoba Press, Winnipeg.Google Scholar
Bryson, R.A., Wendland, W.M., Ives, J.D., and Andrews, J.T. (1969). Radiocarbon isochrones on the disintegration of the Laurentide ice sheet. Arctic and Alpine Research 1, 1–14.Google Scholar
Chapman, L.J., and Brown, D.M. (1966). “The Canada Land Inventory, the Climates of Canada for Agriculture.” Department of Forestry and Rural Development, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Cole, H. (1969). “Objective Reconstruction of the Paleoclimatic Record Through Application of Eigenvectors of Present-Day Pollen Spectra and Climate to the Late-Quaternary Pollen Stratigraphy.” Doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin. University Microfilm, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Curtis, J.T. (1959). “The Vegetation of Wisconsin.” University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.Google Scholar
Cushing, E.J. (1965). Problems in the Quaternary phytogeography of the Great Lakes region. In “The Quaternary of the United States.” (Wright, H. E. Jr. and Frey, D.G. Eds.), pp. 403–416. Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Davis, M.B. (1967). Late-glacial climate in northern United States: A comparison of New England and the Great Lakes region. In “Quaternary Paleoecology.” (Cushing, E.J. and Wright, H.E. Jr., Eds.), pp. 11–43. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Davis, M.B., Brubaker, L.B., and Beiswenger, J. (1971). Pollen grains in lake sediments: pollen percentages in surface sediments from southern Michigan. Quaternary Research 1, 450–467.Google Scholar
Davis, M.B., and Goodlett, J.C. (1960). Comparison of the present vegetation with pollen-spectra in surface samples from Brownington Pond, Vermont. Ecology 41, 346–357.Google Scholar
Department of Transport, Meterology Branch (1964–1968). Monthly records. Department of Transport, Toronto.Google Scholar
Faegri, K., and Iversen, J. (1964). “Textbook of Pollen Analysis.” Hafner Publishing Co., New York.Google Scholar
Farrand, W. R., Zahner, R., and Benninghoff, W.S. (1969). Cary-Port Huron interstade: Evidence from a buried bryophyte bed, Cheboygan County, Michigan. In “United States Contributions to Quaternary Research.” (Schumm, S.A. and Bradley, W.C., Eds.), pp. 249–262. Geological Society of America, Special Report 123.Google Scholar
Fries, M. (1962). Pollen profiles of Late Pleistocene and recent sediments at Weber Lake, northeastern Minnesota. Ecology 43, 295–308.Google Scholar
Fritts, H.C., Blasing, T.J., Hayden, B.P., and Kutzbach, J.E. (1971). Multivariate techniques for specifying free-growth and climate relationships and for reconstructing anomalies in paleoclimate. Journal of Applied Meterology 10, 845–864.Google Scholar
Glahn, H. (1968). Canonical correlation and its relationship to discriminant analysis and multiple regression. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences 25, 23–31.Google Scholar
Hotelling, H. (1936). Relations between two sets of variates. Biometrika 28, 321–377.Google Scholar
Imbrie, J., and Kipp, N.G. (1971). A new micropaleontological method for quantitative paleoclimatology: Application to a Late Pleistocene Caribbean core. In “The Late Cenozoic Glacial Ages.” (Turekian, K. Eds.), pp. 71–181. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Imbrie, J., and Van Andel, Tj. H. (1964). Vector analysis of heavy-mineral data. Geological Society of America Bulletin 74, 1371–1396.Google Scholar
Iversen, J. (1944). Viscum, Hedera, and Ilex as climatic indicators: A contribution to the study of the Postglacial temperature climate. Geologiska Föreningens Förhandlingar 66, 463–483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janssen, C.R. (1966). Recent pollen spectra from the deciduous and coniferous-deciduous forests of northeastern Minnesota: A study in pollen dispersal. Ecology 47, 804–825.Google Scholar
Janssen, C.R. (1967). Stevens Pond: A Postglacial pollen diagram from a small typha swamp in northeastern Minnesota interpreted from pollen indicators and surface samples. Ecological Monographs 37, 145–172.Google Scholar
Kapp, R.O. (1965). Illinoian and Sangamon vegetation in southwestern Kansas and adjacent Oklahoma. Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology. The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Kim, S.M. (1969). Precision of natural radiocarbon measurement. Radiochemical and Radioanalytical Letters 2, 187–193.Google Scholar
Krumbein, W.C., and Graybill, F.A. (1965). “An Introduction to Statistical Models in Geology.” McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York.Google Scholar
Lamb, H.H., Lewis, R.P.W., and Woodroffe, A. (1966). Atmospheric circulation and the main climatic variables between 8000 and 0 B.C.: Meterological evidence. In “World Climate from 8000 to 0 B.C.” (Sawyer, T.S. Ed.), pp. 174–217. Royal Meterological Society, London, England.Google Scholar
Lamb, H.H., and Woodroffe, A. (1970). Atmospheric circulation during the last ice age. Quaternary Research 1, 29–58.Google Scholar
Leonard, A.B., and Frye, J.C. (1954). Ecological conditions accompanying loess deposition in the Great Plains region of the United States. Journal of Geology 62, 399–404.Google Scholar
Lichti-Federovitch, S., and Ritchie, J.C. (1965). Contemporary pollen spectra in central Canada. II. The forest-grassland transition in Manitoba. Pollen et Spores 7, 63–87.Google Scholar
Lichti-Federovitch, S., and Ritchie, J.C. (1968). Recent pollen assemblages from the western interior of Canada. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 7, 297–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Livingstone, D.A. (1968). Some interstadial and Postglacial pollen diagrams from eastern Canada. Ecological Monographs 38, 87–125.Google Scholar
Livingstone, D.A. (1969). Communities of the past. In “Essays in Plant Geography and Ecology.” (Greenridge, K.N. Ed.), pp. 83–104. Nova Scotia Museum, Halifax, Nova Scotia.Google Scholar
McAndrews, J.H. (1966). Postglacial history of prairie, savanna, and forest in northeastern Minnesota. Torrey Botanical Club Memoirs 22, 1–72.Google Scholar
McAndrews, J.H. (1968). Pollen evidence for the prehistoric development of “Big Woods” in Minnesota (USA). Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 7, 201–211.Google Scholar
McAndrews, J.H., and Wright, H.E. Jr. (1969). Modern pollen rain across Wyoming basins and the northern Great Plains (USA). Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 9, 17–43.Google Scholar
Morrison, D.F. (1968). “Multivariate Statistical Techniques.” McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York.Google Scholar
Mosiman, J.E. (1962). On the compound multinomial distribution, the multivariate β-distribution, and correlations among proportions. Biometrika 49, 65–82.Google Scholar
Nichols, H. (1967). The Postglacial history of vegetation and climate at Ennadai Lake, Keewatin and Lynn Lake, Manitoba (Canada). Eiszeitalter und Gegenwart 18, 176–197.Google Scholar
Ogden, J.G. III (1969). Correlation of contemporary and Late Pleistocene pollen records in the reconstruction of Postglacial environments in northeastern North America. In “Symposium on Paleolimnology: Mitteilungen Internationale Vereinigung für Theoretische und angewandte Limnologie” (Frey, D.G. Ed.), 17, 64–71.Google Scholar
Oosting, H.J. (1956). “The Study of Plant Communities: An Introduction to Plant Ecology.” W. H. Freeman and Co., San Francisco.Google Scholar
Perala, D.L. (1971). “Growth and Yield of Black Spruce on Organic Soils in Minnesota.” USDA Forest Service Research Paper NC-56.Google Scholar
Rampton, V. (1971). Late Quaternary vegetational and climatic history of the Snag-Klutlan area, southwestern Yukon Territory, Canada. Geological Society of America Bulletin 82, 959–978.Google Scholar
Sellers, W.D. (1965). “Physical Climatology.” University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Smith, H.T.U. (1962). Periglacial frost features and related phenomena in the United States. Biuletyn Peryglacjalny 11, 326–342.Google Scholar
Thomas, M.K. (1953). “Climatological Atlas of Canada.” National Research Council, Ottawa, No. 3151.Google Scholar
US Department of Commerce, ESSA (1968). “Climatic Atlas of the United States.” US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Von Post, L. (1967). Forest tree pollen in south Swedish peat bog deposits. Pollen et Spores 9, 375–401.Google Scholar
Waddington, J.C.B. (1969). A stratigraphic record of the pollen influx to a lake in the Big Woods of Minnesota. In “United States Contributions to Quaternary Research.” (Schumm, S.A. and Bradley, W.C. Eds.), pp. 263–282. Geological Society of America, Special Paper 123.Google Scholar
Watts, W.A. (1969). A pollen diagram from Mud Lake, Marion County, northcentral Florida. Geological Society of America 80, 631–642.Google Scholar
Watts, W.A. (1970). The full-glacial vegetation of northwestern Georgia. Ecology 51, 17–33.Google Scholar
Watts, W.A., and Bright, R.C. (1968). Pollen, seed, and mollusk analysis of a sediment core from Pickeral Lake, northeastern South Dakota. Geological Society of America Bulletin 79, 855–876.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watts, W.A., and Winter, T.C. (1966). Plant macrofossils from Kirchner Marsh, Minnesota—a paleoecological study. Geological Society of America Bulletin 77, 1339–1360.Google Scholar
Webb, T. III (1971). “The Late- and Postglacial Sequence of Climatic Events in Wisconsin and East-Central Minnesota: Quantitative Estimates Derived from Fossil Pollen Spectra by Multivariate Statistical Analysis.” Doctoral dissertation, The University of Wisconsin. University Microfilm, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Wendland, W.M., and Donley, D.L. (1971). Radiocarbon-calendar age relationship: Earth and planet. Science Letters 11, 135–139.Google Scholar
West, R.G. (1961). Late- and Postglacial vegetational history in Wisconsin, particularly changes associated with the Valders readvance. American Journal of Science 259, 766–783.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, C. (1969). Climatology of cold regions: Northern Hemisphere. II. Cold Regions Science and Engineering Monograph I-A3b, Hanover, New Hampshire.Google Scholar
Wright, H.E. Jr. (1968). History of the prairie peninsula. In “The Quaternary of Illinois.” Google Scholar
(Bergstrom, R.E., Ed.), Special Report 14, pp. 78–88. College of Agriculture, University of Illinois, Urbana.Google Scholar
Wright, H.E. Jr. (1970). Late Quaternary vegetation history of North America. In “The Late Cenozoic Glacial Ages.” (Turekian, K. Ed.), pp. 425–464. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Wright, H.E. Jr., and Ruhe, R.V. (1965). Glaciation of Minnesota and Iowa. In “The Quaternary of the United States.” Google Scholar
(Wright, H.E. Jr., and Frey, D.G. Eds.), pp. 29–41. Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Wright, H.E. Jr., and Watts, W.A. (1969). Glacial and vegetational history of northeastern Minnesota. Minnesota Geological Survey SP-11, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Wright, H.E. Jr. Winter, T.C., and Patten, H.L. (1963). Two pollen diagrams from southeastern Minnesota: Problems in the Late- and Postglacial vegetational history. Geological Society of America Bulletin 74, 1371–1396.Google Scholar