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C4 Plant Productivity and Climate-CO2 Variations in South-Central Texas during the Late Quaternary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Lee C. Nordt ,
Thomas W. Boutton ,
John S. Jacob  and
Rolfe D. Mandel
Lee C. Nordt*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, 76798
Thomas W. Boutton
Affiliation:
Department of Rangeland Ecology and Management, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, 77843
John S. Jacob
Affiliation:
Texas Sea Grant Program and Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, 77843
Rolfe D. Mandel
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Kansas, Lawrence, 66045
*
1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Fax: (254) 710-2673. E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

A continuous record of organic carbon δ13C from a buried soil sequence in south-central Texas demonstrates: 1) strong coupling between marine and adjacent continental ecosystems in the late Pleistocene as a result of glacial meltwater entering the Gulf of Mexico and 2) ecosystem decoupling in the Holocene associated with a reduction of meltwater and a shift in global circulation patterns. In the late Pleistocene, reduction in C4 plant productivity correlates with two well-documented glacial meltwater pulses (∼15,000 and 12,000 14C yr B.P.), indicating a cooler-than-present adjacent continental environment. Increased C4 production between 11,000 and 10,000 14C yr B.P. suggests that the Younger Dryas was a warm interval responding to the diversion of glacial meltwater away from the Mississippi River. With waning meltwater flow, C4 productivity generally increased throughout the Holocene, culminating in peak warm intervals at ∼5000 and 2000 14C yr B.P. Shifts in the abundances of C3–C4 plants through the late Quaternary show no correlation to ecophysiological responses to atmospheric CO2 concentration.

Keywords

stable isotopesC4 plantsburied soilglacial meltwateratmospheric CO2
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , September 2002 , pp. 182 - 188
Copyright
University of Washington

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