Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:49:00.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Environment and paleoecology of a 12 ka mid-North American Younger Dryas forest chronicled in tree rings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Irina P. Panyushkina*
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Steven W. Leavitt
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Todd A. Thompson
Affiliation:
Indiana Geological Survey, Bloomington, IN 47405-2208, USA
Allan F. Schneider
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Kenosha, WI 53141-2000, USA
Todd Lange
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail address:[email protected] (I.P. Panyushkina).

Abstract

Until now, availability of wood from the Younger Dryas abrupt cooling event (YDE) in N. America ca. 12.9 to 11.6 ka has been insufficient to develop high-resolution chronologies for refining our understanding of YDE conditions. Here we present a multi-proxy tree-ring chronology (ring widths, “events” evidenced by microanatomy and macro features, stable isotopes) from a buried black spruce forest in the Great Lakes area (Liverpool East site), spanning 116 yr at ca. 12,000 cal yr BP. During this largely cold and wet period, the proxies convey a coherent and precise forest history including frost events, tilting, drowning and burial in estuarine sands as the Laurentide Ice Sheet deteriorated. In the middle of the period, a short mild interval appears to have launched the final and largest episode of tree recruitment. Ultimately the tops of the trees were sheared off after death, perhaps by wind-driven ice floes, culminating an interval of rising water and sediment deposition around the base of the trees. Although relative influences of the continental ice sheet and local effects from ancestral Lake Michigan are indeterminate, the tree-ring proxies provide important insight into environment and ecology of a N. American YDE boreal forest stand.

Type
Original Articles
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

Arseneault, D., Payette, S., (1997). Reconstruction of millennial forest dynamics from tree remains in a subarctic tree line peatland. Ecology 78, (6) 199718731883.Google Scholar
Becker, B., Kromer, B., Trimborn, P., (1991). A stable-isotope tree-ring timescale of the late Glacial–Holocene boundary. Nature 353, 647649.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, L., Burdett, J., Lund, S., Kashgarian, M., Mensing, S., (1997). Nearly synchronous climate change in the Northern Hemisphere during the last glacial termination. Nature 388, 263265.Google Scholar
Broecker, W.S., (2006). Was the Younger Dryas triggered by a flood? Science 312, 1146.Google Scholar
Broecker, W.S., Kennet, J., Flower, B., Teller, J.T., Trumbore, S., Bonani, G., Wolfli, W., (1989). Routing of meltwater from the Laurentide Ice Sheet during the Younger Dryas cold episode. Nature 341, 318321.Google Scholar
Capps, D.K., Thompson, T.A., Booth, R.K., (2007). A post-Calumet shoreline along southern Lake Michigan. Journal of Paleolimnology 37, 395409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, A.E., Clark, P.U., Haley, B.A., Klinkhammer, G.P., Simmons, K., Brook, E.J., Meissner, K.J., (2007). Geochemical proxies of North American freshwater routing during the Younger Dryas cold event. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104, 65566561.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
COHMAP(1988). Climate changes of the last 18,000 years: observations and model simulations. Science 241, 10431052.Google Scholar
Colman, S.M., Keigwin, L.D., Forester, R.M., (1994). Two episodes of meltwater influx from glacial Lake Agassiz into the Lake Michigan basin and their climatic contrasts. Geology 22, 547550.Google Scholar
Contributors of the International Tree-Ring Data Bank (2007). IGBP PAGES/World Data Center for Paleoclimatology. NOAA/NCDC Paleoclimatology Program, Boulder, Colorado, USA. http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/treering.html.Google Scholar
Dang, Q.L., Lieffers, V.J., (1989). Climate and annual ring growth of black spruce in some Alberta peatlands. Canadian Journal of Botany 67, 18851889.Google Scholar
Dettman, D.L., Smith, A.J., Rea, D.K., Moore, T.C., Lohmann, K.C., (1995). Glacial meltwater in Lake Huron during early postglacial time as inferred from single-valve analysis of oxygen isotopes in ostracodes. Quaternary Research 43, 297310.Google Scholar
Epstein, S., (1995). The isotopic climate records in the Alleröd-Bølling-Younger Dryas and post Younger Dryas events. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 9, 557563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Firestone, R.B., West, A., Kennett, J.P., Becker, L., Bunch, T.E., Revay, Zs., Schultz, P.H., Belgya, T., Dickenson, O.J., Erlandson, J., Goodyear, A.C., Harris, R.S., Howard, G.A., Kennett, D.J., Kloosterman, J.B., Lechler, P., Montgomery, J., Poreda, R., Darrah, T., Que Hee, S.S., Smith, A.R., Stich, A., Topping, W., Wittke, J.H., Wolbach, W.S., (2007). Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact event 12,900 years ago that contributed to megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas cooling. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104, 1601616021.Google Scholar
Fisher, T.G., (2005). Strandline analysis in the southern basin of glacial Lake Agassiz, Minnesota and North and South Dakota, USA. Geological Society of America Bulletin 117, 14811496.Google Scholar
Francey, R.J., Farquhar, G.D., (1982). An explanation of 13C/12C variations in tree rings. Nature 297, 2831.Google Scholar
Friedrich, M., Kromer, B., Kaiser, K.F., Spurk, M., Hughen, K.A., Johnsen, S.J., (2001). High-resolution climate signals in the Bølling-Alleröd Interstadial (Greenland Interstadial 1) as reflected in European tree-ring chronologies compared to marine varves and ice-core records. Quaternary Science Reviews 20, 12231232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedrich, M., Kromer, B., Spurk, M., Hoffman, J., Kauser, K.F., (1999). Paleo-environment and radiocarbon calibration as derived from Late Glacial/Early Holocene tree-ring chronologies. Quaternary International 61, 2739.Google Scholar
Guyette, R.P., Stambaugh, M.C., Lupo, A., Muzika, R., Dey, D.C., (2006). Oak growth in Midwestern North American linked with post-glacial climate epochs in the North Atlantic. PAGES (Past Global Changes) News 14, (2) 20062122.Google Scholar
Hughen, K.A., Southon, J.R., Lehman, S.J., Overpeck, J.T., (2000). Synchronous radiocarbon and climate shifts during the last deglaciation. Science 290, 19511954.Google Scholar
Kovanen, D.J., Easterbrook, D.J., (2002). Timing and extent of Allerod and Younger Dryas age (ca. 12,500–10,000 C-14 yr BP) oscillations of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet in the Fraser Lowland, western North America. Quaternary Research 57, 208224.Google Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E., Guetter, P.J., Behling, P.J., Selin, R., (1993). Simulated climatic changes: results of the COHMAP climate-model experiments. Wright, H.E. Jr., Kutzbach, J.E., Webb, T. III, Ruddiman, W.F., Street-Perrott, F.A., Bartlein, P.J. Global Climates since the Last Glacial Maximum Univ. Minn. Press, Minneapolis.2493.Google Scholar
Leavitt, S.W., Danzer, S.R., (1993). Method for batch processing small wood samples to holocellulose for stable-carbon isotope analysis. Analytical Chemistry 65, 8789.Google Scholar
Leavitt, S.W., Panyushkina, I.P., Lange, T., Cheng, L., Schneider, A.F., Hughes, J., (2007). Radiocarbon “wiggles” in Great Lakes wood at about 10,000 to 12,000 BP. Radiocarbon 49, 855864.Google Scholar
Lowell, T., Waterson, N., Fisher, T., Loope, H., Glover, K., Comer, G., Hajdas, I., Denton, G., Schaefer, J., Rinterknecht, V., Broecker, W., Teller, J., (2005). Testing the Lake Agassiz meltwater trigger for the Younger Dryas.. EOS (Trans. American Geophysical Union) 86, (40), 365, 372.Google Scholar
Mayewski, P.A., Meeker, L.D., Whitlow, S., Twickler, M.S., Morrison, M.C., Alley, R.B., Bloomfield, P., Taylor, K., (1993). The atmosphere during the Younger Dryas. Science 261, 195197.Google Scholar
McCarroll, D., Loader, N.J., (2004). Stable isotopes in tree rings. Quaternary Science Reviews 23, 771801.Google Scholar
Moore, P.D., (1974). When the ice age seemed to end. Nature 251, 185186.Google Scholar
Morgan, A.V., Pilny, J.J., Schneider, A.F., (1991). Coleoptera fauna and paleoenvironment of the Liverpool East site, northwestern Indiana. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 22, (3) 50 Google Scholar
Panyushkina, I.P., Leavitt, S.W., Wiedenhoeft, A., Noggle, S., Curry, B., Grimm, E., (2004). Tree-ring records of near-Younger Dryas time in Central N. America—preliminary results from the Lincoln Quarry site, central Illinois, USA. Radiocarbon 46, 933941.Google Scholar
Peteet, D., (1995). A global Younger Dryas. Quaternary International 28, 93104.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Baillie, M.G.L., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Bertrand, C.J.H., Blackwell, P.G., Buck, C.E., Burr, G.S., Cutler, K.B., Damon, P.E., Edwards, R.L., Fairbanks, R.G., Friedrich, M., Guilderson, T.P., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kromer, B., McCormac, F.G., Manning, S.W., Ramsey, C.B., Reimer, R.W., Remmele, S., Southon, J.R., Stuiver, M., Talamo, S., Taylor, F.W., van der Plicht, J., Weyhenmeyer, C.E., (2004). IntCal04 terrestrial radiocarbon age calibration, 26–0 ka BP. Radiocarbon 46, 10291058.Google Scholar
Rinn, F., (2003). Time Series Analysis and Presentation Software (TSAP-Win) User Reference (Version 0.53). RinnTech, Heidelberg, Germany. (http://www.rinntech.com/Products/index.htm).Google Scholar
Rodbell, D.T., (2000). The Younger Dryas: cold, cold everywhere? Science 290, 285286.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schneider, A.F., Hansel, A.K., (1990). Evidence for post-Two Creeks age of the type Calumet shoreline of glacial Lake Chicago. Schneider, A.F., Fraser, G.S. Late Quaternary History of the Lake Michigan Basin, Geological Society of America Special Paper 251, 18.Google Scholar
Shuman, B., Webb, T. III, Bartlein, P., Williams, J.W.(2002). The anatomy of a climatic oscillation: vegetation change in eastern North America during the Younger Dryas chronozone. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 17771791.Google Scholar
Shane, L.C.K., Anderson, K.H., (1993). Intensity, gradients and reversals in late glacial environmental change in east-central North America. Quaternary Science Reviews 12, 307320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sternberg, L.S.L., (1989). Oxygen and hydrogen isotope measurements in plant cellulose analysis. Linskens, H.F., Jackson, J.F. Plant Fibres. Modern Methods of Plant Analysis V Springer-Verlag, New York.10891099.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., (1993). Extended 14C database and revised CALIB radiocarbon calibration program (Version 5.0). Radiocarbon 35, 215230.Google Scholar
Tarasov, L., Peltier, W.R., (2005). Arctic freshwater forcing of the Younger Dryas cold reversal. Nature 435, 662665.Google Scholar
Teller, J.T., Boyd, M., Yang, Z., Kor, P.S.G., Fard, A.M., (2005). Alternative routing of Lake Agassiz overflow during the Younger Dryas: new dates, paleotopography, and a re-evaluation. Quaternary Science Reviews 24, 18901905.Google Scholar
Treydte, K.S., Schleser, G.H., Helle, G., Frank, D.C., Winiger, M., Haug, G.H., Esper, J., (2006). The twentieth century was the wettest period in northern Pakistan over the past millennium. Nature 440, 11791182.Google Scholar
Wang, L., Payette, S., Bégin, Y., (2001). 1300-year tree-ring width and density series based on living, dead and subfossil black spruce at tree-line in Subarctic Quebec, Canada. The Holocene 11, (3) 2001. 333341.Google Scholar
Watts, W., (1980). Regional variation in response of vegetation to lateglacial climatic events in Europe. Lowe, J.J., Gray, J.M., Robinson, J.E. Studies in the Late-Glacial of North-West Europe Pergamon, Oxford.121.Google Scholar
Wigley, T.M.L., Jones, P.D., Briffa, K.R., (1984). On the average value of correlated time series, with applications in dendroclimatology and hydrometeorology. Journal of Applied Meteorology 23, 201213.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Panyushkina et al. Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material

Download Panyushkina et al. Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 833.2 KB