Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-03T16:50:28.976Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Late Holocene Lake Sedimentology and Climate Change in Southern Alberta, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Celina Campbell
Celina Campbell*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G-2H4, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Climatic changes in southern Alberta, Canada, for the past 4000 yr are reflected in a high-resolution record of lake sediment grain size. The proposed mechanism for this response is that outflow discharge removes fine-grained sediments, but increasingly fine sediments are retained and deposited as streamflow declines. At the same time, coarse sediments are brought in by high discharge entering the lake. The net effect of these two processes is to leave coarse, clay-deficient sediments during times of high streamflow and clay-rich sediments during times of low flow. The grain-size record from Pine Lake reflects historic climate fluctuations, as well as prehistoric fluctuations including the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period. Grain size at this site provides a simple, economical, and nonbiologically mediated paleoclimate proxy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , January 1998 , pp. 96 - 101
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

Ahmed, S. M, 1995, Pine Lake Water Quality Modelling Project. Conservation and Development Branch Alberta Agriculture. Edmonton, Alta. Google Scholar
Ames, J, 1992, Pine Lake Meteorological and Runoff Data. Water Resources Management Services. Technical Services Division, Hydrology Branch Project Report 7A/91-331, Edmonton, Alta. Google Scholar
Baerreis, D.A., Bryson, R.A., 1965. Climatic episodes and the dating of Mississippian cultures. Wisconsin Archaeologist, New Series. 46 203–220.Google Scholar
Broecker, W. S., Peteet, D. M., Rind, D, 1985, Does the ocean-atmosphere system have more than one stable mode of operation?, Nature . 315, 21, 26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryson, R.A., Murray, T.J., 1977. Climates of Hunger. Univ. of Wisconsin Press, Madison. Google Scholar
Campbell, C., Campbell, I.D., Hogg, T., 1994. Lake area variability across a climatic and vegetational transect in southeastern Alberta. Géographie physique et Quaternaire. 48 207–212.Google Scholar
Campbell, I.D., 1996. Power function for interpolating dates in recent sediment. Journal of Paleolimnology. 15 107–110.Google Scholar
Clague, J.J., Mathewes, R.W., 1996. Neoglaciation, glacier-dammed lakes, and vegetation change in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. Arctic and Alpine Research. 28 10–24.Google Scholar
Cook, E., Bird, T., Peterson, M., Barbetti, M., Buckley, B., D'Arrigo, R., Francey, R., Tans, P., 1991. Climatic change in Tasmania inferred from a 1089-year tree-ring chronology of Huon pine. Science. 253 1266–1268.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crosby, J.M., 1990. Pine Lake. Atlas of Alberta Lakes. Univ. of Alberta Press, Edmonton, p. 538–542.Google Scholar
Digerfeldt, G., 1986. Studies on past lake-level fluctuations. Berglund, B.E., Handbook of Holocene Palaeoecology and Palaeohydrology. Wiley, New York, 127–143.Google Scholar
Grove, J.M., 1988. The Little Ice Age. Methuen, London. Google Scholar
Hughes, M. K., Diaz, H. F, Climatic Change, 26, 109, 342.Google Scholar
Laird, K.R., Fritz, S.C., Maasch, K.A., Cumming, B.F., 1996. Greater drought intensity and frequency before AD 1200 in the Northern Great Plains, USA. Nature. 384 552–554.Google Scholar
Lamb, H.H., 1977. Climate: Past, Present, and Future, Volume 2: Climatic History and the Future. Methuen, London. Google Scholar
Leavitt, P.R., Schindler, D.E., Paul, A.J., Hardy, A.K., Schindler, D.W., 1994. Fossil pigment records of phytoplankton in trout-stocked alpine lakes. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Science. 51 2411–2423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mikami, T, Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Little Ice Age Climate, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo. Google Scholar
Osborn, G., Luckman, B.H., 1988. Holocene glacier fluctuations in the Canadian Cordillera (Alberta and British Columbia). Quaternary Science Reviews. 7 115–128.Google Scholar
Reasoner, M.A., 1986. An inexpensive, lightweight percussion core sampling system. Géographie physique et Quaternaire. 40 217–219.Google Scholar
Sarna-Wojcicki, A. M., Meyer, C. E., Woodward, M. J., Lamothe, P. L, 1981, Composition of air-fall ash erupted on May 18, May 25, June 12, July 22, and August 17, In, The 1980 Eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Lipman, P. W., Mullineaux, D. R., 667, 681, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1250, Washington, DC. Google Scholar
Sosiak, A., Trew, D, 1996, Pine Lake Restoration project: Diagnostic study. 1995, Surface Water Assessment Branch, Alberta Environmental Protection. Edmonton, Alta. Google Scholar
Stine, S., 1994. Extreme and persistent drought in California and Patagonia during medieval time. Nature. 369 546–549.Google Scholar
Strong, W.L., Leggat, K.R., 1992. Ecoregions of Alberta. Alberta Forestry, Lands and Wildlife, Edmonton. Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., 1993. Extended14 14 . Radiocarbon. 35 215–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swain, A.M., 1973. A history of fire and vegetation in northeastern Minnesota as recorded in lake sediments. Quaternary Research. 3 383–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vance, R.E., Mathewes, R.W., Clague, J.J., 1992. 7000 year record of lake-level change on the northern Great Plains: A high resolution proxy of past climate. Geology. 20 879–882.Google Scholar
Wentworth, C.K., 1992. A scale of grade and class terms for clastic sediments. Journal of Geology. 30 377–392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar