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Late Holocene forest dynamics, volcanism, and climate change at Whitewing Mountain and San Joaquin Ridge, Mono County, Sierra Nevada, CA, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Constance I. Millar ,
John C. King ,
Robert D. Westfall ,
Harry A. Alden  and
Diane L. Delany
Constance I. Millar*
Affiliation:
USDA Forest Service, Sierra Nevada Research Center, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Berkeley, CA 94701, USA
John C. King
Affiliation:
Lone Pine Research, Bozeman, MT 59715, USA
Robert D. Westfall
Affiliation:
USDA Forest Service, Sierra Nevada Research Center, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Berkeley, CA 94701, USA
Harry A. Alden
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Institution, Center for Materials Research and Education, Suitland, MD 20746, USA
Diane L. Delany
Affiliation:
USDA Forest Service, Sierra Nevada Research Center, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Berkeley, CA 94701, USA
*
⁎Corresponding author. USDA Forest Service, Sierra Nevada Research Center, Pacific Southwest Research Station, P.O. Box 245 Berkeley, CA 94701, USA (street address: West Annex Bldg., 800 Buchanan St., Albany, CA 94710). Fax: +1 510 559 6499. E-mail address:[email protected] (C.I. Millar).
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Abstract

Deadwood tree stems scattered above treeline on tephra-covered slopes of Whitewing Mtn (3051 m) and San Joaquin Ridge (3122 m) show evidence of being killed in an eruption from adjacent Glass Creek Vent, Inyo Craters. Using tree-ring methods, we dated deadwood to AD 815–1350 and infer from death dates that the eruption occurred in late summer AD 1350. Based on wood anatomy, we identified deadwood species as Pinus albicaulis, P. monticola, P. lambertiana, P. contorta, P. jeffreyi, and Tsuga mertensiana. Only P. albicaulis grows at these elevations currently; P. lambertiana is not locally native. Using contemporary distributions of the species, we modeled paleoclimate during the time of sympatry to be significantly warmer (+3.2°C annual minimum temperature) and slightly drier (−24 mm annual precipitation) than present, resembling values projected for California in the next 70–100 yr.

Keywords

PaleoecologyMedieval climateLate HoloceneClimate changeLong Valley volcanismInyo CratersForest historyPaleoclimatic modelingTree-ring dating
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 66 , Issue 2 , September 2006 , pp. 273 - 287
Copyright
University of Washington

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