Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T04:33:29.501Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Paleobiology of the Sand Beneath the Valders Diamicton at Valders, Wisconsin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Louis J. Maher Jr. ,
Norton G. Miller ,
Richard G. Baker ,
B.Brandon Curry  and
David M. Mickelson
Louis J. Maher Jr.
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706
Norton G. Miller
Affiliation:
Biological Survey, New York State Museum, Albany, New York, 12230
Richard G. Baker
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, 52240
B.Brandon Curry
Affiliation:
Illinois State Geological Survey, 615 East Peabody Drive, Champaign, Illinois, 61820
David M. Mickelson
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Previously undescribed pollen, plant macrofossils, molluscs, and ostracodes were recovered from a 2.5-m-thick glaciolacustrine unit of silty sand and clay at Valders, Wisconsin. The interstadial sediment was deposited about 12,200 14C yr B.P. after retreat of the Green Bay lobe that deposited diamicton of the Horicon Formation, and before advance of the Lake Michigan lobe that deposited the red-brown diamicton of the Valders Member of the Kewaunee Formation. Fluctuations of abundance of Candona subtriangulata, Cytherissa lacustris, and three other species define four ostracode biozones in the lower 1.7 m, suggesting an open lake environment that oscillated in depth and proximity to glacial ice. Pollen is dominated by Picea and Artemisia, but the low percentages of many other types of long-distance origin suggest that the terrestrial vegetation was open and far from the forest border. The upper part of the sediment, a massive sand deposited in either a shallow pond or a sluggish stream, contains a local concentration of plant macrofossils. The interpretation of a cold open environment is supported by the plant macrofossils of more than 20 species, dominated by those of open mineral soils ( Arenaria rubella, Cerastium alpinum type, Silene acaulis, Sibbaldia procumbens, Dryas integrifolia, Vaccinium uliginosum var. alpinum, Armeria maritima, etc.) that in North America occur largely in the tundra and open tundra–forest ecotone of northern Canada. Ice-wedge casts occur in the sand.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , March 1998 , pp. 208 - 221
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

Ashworth, A.C., Schwert, D.P., Watts, W.A., Wright, H.E. Jr., 1981. Plant and insect fossils at Norwood in south-central Minnesota: A record of late-glacial succession. Quaternary Research. 16 66–79.Google Scholar
Baker, R.G., 1965. Late-glacial pollen and plant macrofossils from Spider Creek, southern St. Louis County, Minnesota. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 76 601–610.Google Scholar
Baker, R.G., Rhodes, R.S., Schwert, D.P., Ashworth, A.C., Frest, T.J., Hallberg, G.R., Janssens, J.A., 1986. A full-glacial biota from southeastern Iowa, USA. Journal of Quaternary Science. 1 91–107.Google Scholar
Bard, E., Arnold, M., Fairbanks, R.G., Hamelin, B., 1993. 230 234 14 . Radiocarbon. 35 191–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birks, H.J.B., 1976. Late-Wisconsinan vegetational history at Wolf Creek, central Minnesota. Ecological Monographs. 46 395–429.Google Scholar
Birks, H.J.B., 1981. Late Wisconsin vegetational and climatic history at Kylen Lake, northeastern Minnesota. Quaternary Research. 16 322–355.Google Scholar
Broecker, W.S., Farrand, W.R., 1963. Radiocarbon age of the Two Creeks Forest Bed, Wisconsin. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 74 795–802.Google Scholar
Brooks, R.E., Kuhn, C., 1986. Seed morphology under SEM and light microscopy in Kansas Juncus . Brittonia. 38 201–209.Google Scholar
Buckley, S.B., 1975. Study of Post-Pleistocene Ostracode Distribution in the Soft Sediments of Southern Lake Michigan. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign. Google Scholar
Colman, S.M., Jones, G.A., Forester, R.M., Foster, D.S., 1990. Holocene paleoclimatic evidence and sedimentation rates from a core in southwestern Lake Michigan. Journal of Paleolimnology. 4 269–284.Google Scholar
Davis, M.B., 1961. Pollen diagrams as evidence of late-glacial climatic change in southern New England. Annals of the New York Academy of Science. 91 623–631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delorme, L.D., 1970. Freshwater ostracodes of Canada. III. Subfamily Candonidae. Canadian Journal of Zoology. 48 1099–1127.Google Scholar
Delorme, L.D., 1970. Freshwater ostracodes of Canada. IV. Subfamily Ilyocyprididae, Notodromadidae, Darwinulidae, Cytherideidae, and Entocytheridae. Canadian Journal of Zoology. 48 1251–1259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delorme, L.D., 1971. Freshwater ostracodes of Canada. V. Families Limnocytherdae, Loxoconchidae. Canadian Journal of Zoology. 49 43–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delorme, L.D., 1978. Distribution of freshwater ostracodes in Lake Erie. Journal of Great Lake Research. 4 216–220.Google Scholar
Delorme, L.D., 1989. Methods in Quaternary ecology. 7. Freshwater ostracodes. Geoscience Canada. 16 85–90.Google Scholar
Delorme, L.D., Zoltai, S.C., 1984. Distribution of arctic ostracod fauna in space and time. Quaternary Research. 21 65–73.Google Scholar
Dettman, D.L., Smith, A.J., Rea, D.K., Moore, T.C. Jr., 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. 43 297–310.Google Scholar
Evenson, E.B., Farrand, W.R., Eschman, D.F., Mickelson, D.M., Maher, L.J., 1976. Greatlakean Substage in the Lake Michigan basin. Quaternary Research. 6 411–424.Google Scholar
Farrand, W.R., Zahner, R., Benninghoff, W.S., 1969. Cary–Port Huron interstade: Evidence from a buried bryophyte bed, Cheboygan County, Michigan. Geological Society of America Special Paper. 123 249–262.Google Scholar
Forester, R.M., 1988. Nonmarine calcareous microfossil sample preparation and data acquisition procedures. U.S. Geological Survey Technical Procedure HP-78. R1 1–9.Google Scholar
Forester, R.M., Colman, S.M., Reynolds, R.L., Keigwin, L.D., 1994. Lake Michigan's Late Quaternary limnological and climate history from ostracode, oxygen isotope and magnetic susceptibility. Journal of Great Lakes Research. 20 93–107.Google Scholar
Forester, R.M., Delorme, L.D., Bradbury, J.P., 1987. Mid-Holocene climate in northern Minnesota. Quaternary Research. 28 263–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forester, R.M., Delorme, L.D., Ager, T.A., 1987. A lacustrine record of late Holocene climate changes from south-central Alaska. Geophysical Monographs. 55 33–40.Google Scholar
Garry, C.E., Schwert, D.P., Baker, R.G., Kemmis, T.J., Horton, D.G., Sullivan, A.E., 1990. Plant and insect remains from the Wisconsinan Interstadial/stadial transition at Wedron, north-central, Illinois. Quaternary Research. 33 387–399.Google Scholar
Glaser, P.H., 1981. Transport and deposition of leaves and seeds on tundra: a late-glacial analog. Arctic and Alpine Research. 13 173–182.Google Scholar
Godwin, H., 1975. The History of the British Flora. A Factual Basis for Phytogeography. Cambridge Univ. Press, London. Google Scholar
Hellquist, C.B., Crow, G.E., 1980. Aquatic vascular plants of New England. 1. Zosteraceae, Potamogetonaceae, Zannichelliaceae, Najadaceae. New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station Bull. 515.Google Scholar
Hultén, E., 1968. Flora of Alaska and Neighboring Territories. Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford. Google Scholar
Hultén, E., Fries, M., 1986. Atlas of North European Vascular Plants North of the Tropic of Cancer. Koeltz Scientific Books, Koenigstein. Google Scholar
Kaiser, K.F., 1994. Two Creeks Interstade dated through dendrochronology and AMS. Quaternary Research. 42 288–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kantrud, H.A., Millar, J.B., van der Valk, A.G., 1989. Vegetation of wetlands of the prairie pothole region. Northern Prairie Wetlands. Iowa State Univ. Press, Ames, p. 132–187.Google Scholar
Larson, G.J., Lowell, T.J., Ostrom, N.E., 1994. Evidence for the Two Creeks interstade in the Lake Huron basin. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 31 793–797.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawrence, G.H.M., 1947. The genus Armeria . American Midland Naturalist. 37 757–779.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levesque, A.J., Cwynar, L.C., Walker, I.R., 1994. A multiproxy investigation of late-glacial climate and vegetation change at Pine Ridge Pond, southwest New Brunswick, Canada. Quaternary Research. 42 316–327.Google Scholar
Maher, L.J. Jr., Mickelson, D.M., 1996. Palynological and radiocarbon evidence for deglaciation events in the Green Bay lobe. Quaternary Research. 46 251–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mickelson, D.M., Evenson, E.B., 1975. Pre-Two Creekan age of the type Valders till, Wisconsin. Geology. 3 587–590.Google Scholar
Mickelson, D.M., Clayton, L., Baker, R.W., Mode, W.N., Schneider, A.F., 1984. Pleistocene stratigraphic units of Wisconsin. Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey Miscellaneous Paper. 81–84.Google Scholar
Miller, N.G., 1976. Studies of North American Quaternary bryophyte subfossils. I. A new moss assemblage from the Two Creeks Forest Bed of Wisconsin. Occasional Papers from the Farlow Herbarium of Harvard University. 9 21–42.Google Scholar
Miller, N.G., 1995. Snapshot paleobotanical analyses of late-glacial sediments of the Connecticut River Valley, northern Vermont to central Connecticut. Geological Society of America Northeastern Section Abstracts with Programs. 27 69.Google Scholar
Miller, N.G., 1996. Age and paleoecology of an interstadial plant bed, Tompkins County, south-central New York. Geological Society of America Northeastern Section Abstracts with Programs. 28 82.Google Scholar
Miller, N.G., Benninghoff, W.S., 1969. Plant fossils from a Cary-Port Huron Interstade deposit and their paleoecological interpretation. Geological Society of America Special Paper. 123 225–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, N.G., Calkin, P.E., 1992. Paleoecological interpretation and age of an interstadial lake bed in western New York. Quaternary Research. 37 75–88.Google Scholar
Morlan, R.E., Matthews, J.V. Jr., 1983. Taphonomy and paleoecology of fossil insect assemblages from Old Crow River (CRH-15) northern Yukon Territory, Canada. Géographie physique et Quaternaire. 37 147–157.Google Scholar
Mott, R.J., Anderson, T.W., Matthews, J.V. Jr., 1981. Late-glacial paleoenvironments of sites bordering the Champlain Sea based on pollen and macrofossil evidence. Mahoney, W.C., Quaternary Paleoclimate. Geoabstracts, Norwich, 129–171.Google Scholar
Ogden, J.G. III, 1959. A late-glacial pollen sequence from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. American Journal of Science. 257 366–381.Google Scholar
Richard, P., 1977. Histoire post-wisconsinienne de la vegetation du Quebec meridional par l'analyse pollinique. Quebec Ministere Terres Forets Service Recherche. 1.Google Scholar
Schwert, D.P., 1992. Faunal transitions in response to an ice age: The Late Wisconsinan record of Coleoptera in the north-central United States. The Coleopterists Bulletin. 46 68–94.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., 1993. Extended14 . Radiocarbon. 35 215–230.Google Scholar
Vander Kloet, S.P., 1988. The Genus Vaccinium . Agriculture Canada. Google Scholar
Westgate, J.A., Chen, F.J., Delorme, L.D., 1987. Lacustrine ostracodes in the Late Pleistocene Sunnybrook diamicton of southern Ontario, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 24 2330–2335.Google Scholar
Wiggins, G.B., 1977. Larvae of the North American Caddis Fly Genera (Trichoptera). Univ. of Toronto Press, Toronto and Buffalo. Google Scholar
Woodell, S.R.J., Dale, A., 1993. Armeria maritima Statice armeria S. maritima . Journal of Ecology. 81 573–588.Google Scholar
Zech, J.C., Wujek, D.E., 1990. Scanning electron microscopy of seeds in the taxonomy of Michigan Juncus. . Michigan Botanist. 29 3–18.Google Scholar