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Paleoecology of Late-Glacial Peats from the Bering Land Bridge, Chukchi Sea Shelf Region, Northwestern Alaska

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Scott A. Elias ,
Susan K. Short  and
R. Lawrence Phillips
Scott A. Elias
Affiliation:
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Box 450, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309
Susan K. Short
Affiliation:
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Box 450, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309 Department of Anthropology, Box 233, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309
R. Lawrence Phillips
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, MS 999, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, California 94025
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Abstract

Insect fossils and pollen from late Pleistocene nonmarine peat layers were recovered from cores from the shelf region of the Chukchi Sea at depths of about 50 m below sea level. The peats date to 11,300−11,000 yr B.P. and provide a limiting age for the regional Pleistocene-Holocene marine transgression. The insect fossils are indicative of arctic coastal habitats like those of the Mackenzie Delta region (mean July temperatures = 10.6–14°C) suggesting that 11,000 yr ago the exposed Chukchi Sea shelf had a climate substantially warmer than modern coastal regions of the Alaskan north slope. The pollen spectra are consistent with the age assignment to the Birch Interval (14,000–9000 yr B.P.). The data suggest a meadow-like graminoid tundra with birch shrubs and some willow shrubs growing in sheltered areas.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , November 1992 , pp. 371 - 378
Copyright
University of Washington

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