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Late Wisconsin Paleoecologic Record from Swamp Lake, Yosemite National Park, California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Susan J. Smith  and
R. Scott Anderson
Susan J. Smith
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Paleoecology, Bilby Research Center, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011
R. Scott Anderson
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Paleoecology, Bilby Research Center, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011 Quaternary Studies and Environmental Sciences Programs, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011
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Abstract

A 7.86-m sediment core from Swamp Lake in Yosemite National Park, California, provides a continuous record of environmental change over the last ca. 16,000 yr, as inferred from pollen, macrofossil, and microscopic charcoal analyses. The core stratigraphy documents late Wisconsin (Tioga stage) deglaciation between >16,000 and 13,700 yr B.P., approximately 6000-3500 yr earlier than higher-elevation Sierra Nevada records. The core includes five volcanic ash layers, chemically identified as four Mono Craters ashes and the Tsoyawata ash (Mt. Mazama, Oregon). The fossil record shows that herbs and sagebrush dominated the glacial environment at Swamp Lake. By 12,000 yr B.P., a mixed conifer forest composed of high- and mid-elevation conifers grew around the lake, suggesting a cool, wet late-glacial environment. The modern Sierra montane forest did not become established until ca. 10,400 yr B.P., when maximum charcoal concentrations and minimum fir pollen percentages indicate an early Holocene xeric period. The record suggests that a cooling trend began ca. 6500 yr B.P. and persisted until ca. 3700 yr B.P. when the modern climatic regime was established.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , July 1992 , pp. 91 - 102
Copyright
University of Washington

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