Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T14:10:35.617Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Rates of Sediment Accumulation in Pollen Cores from Small Lakes and Mires of Eastern North America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Robert Stabler Webb
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912 USA
Thompson Webb III
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912 USA

Abstract

Data from 291 small lakes and mires in eastern North America provide information on the natural variability of rates of sediment accumulation in these environments over the last 18,000 yr. Accumulation rates were calculated by linear interpolation between radiocarbon and biostratigraphic dates from sediment cores taken for pollen analysis. Within the data set, the rates were lognormally distributed with a mean accumulation rate of 91 cm/103 yr, and a range from less than 1 to over 3500 cm/103 yr. The accumulation rate data were divided into five subsets that were temporally or spatially distinct and therefore represent different geomorphic and climatic conditions at the time of deposition. Sediments deposited in basins north of 50°N, south of 40°N, and before 10,000 yr B.P. accumulated at much slower rates than sediments accumulating in midlatitude basins (between 40° and 50°N) between 10,000 and 330 yr B.P. Sediment accumulation over the last 330 yr has, on average, been at rates four to five times faster than any time previously. Inorganic sediments that could be radiocarbon-dated have accumulated at significantly lower rates than organic sediments, reflecting differences in depositional processes. For midlatitude basins during the Holocene, the most likely rate of continuous sediment accumulation within our data set is 65 cm/103 yr. Rates below 10 cm/103 yr are likely to be associated with nonconstant processes of sediment accumulation.

Type
Research Article
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

Bartlein, P., Webb, T. III, (1985). Mean July temperatures at 6000 yr B.P. in eastern North America: Regression equations for estimates from fossil pollen data. Syllogeus. 55, 301-342.Google Scholar
Bernabo, J.C., (1977). Sensing Climatically and Culturally Induced Environmental Change Using Palynologic Data. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. Brown University, Providence, RI.Google Scholar
Bryson, R.A., (1966). Air masses, streamlines, and the boreal forest. Geographical Bulletin. 8, 228-269.Google Scholar
Clark, J.S., Overpeck, J.T., Webb, T. III, Patterson, W.A. III, (1986). Pollen stratigraphic correlation and dating of barrier-beach peat sections. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 47, 145-168.Google Scholar
Crowley, K.D., (1984). Filtering of depositional events and the completeness of sedimentary sequences. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology. 54, 127-136.Google Scholar
Damon, P.E., Lerman, J.C., Long, A., (1978). Temporal fluctuations of atmosphereic 14C: Causal factors and implications. Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Science. 6, 457-594.Google Scholar
Davis, J.C., 2nd ed. (1986). Statistics and Data Analysis in Geology. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Davis, M.B., (1976). Erosion rates and land-use history in southern Michigan. Environmental Conservation. 3, 139-148.Google Scholar
Davis, M.B., Moeller, R.E., Ford, M.S., Sediment focusing and pollen influx. Haworth, E.Y., Lund, J.W.G., (1984). Lake Sediments and Environmental History. Univ. of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 261-293.Google Scholar
Fletcher, M.R., Clapham, W.B., (1974). Sediment density and the limits to repeatability of absolute pollen frequency diagrams. Geoscience and Man. IX 27-35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fries, M., (1962). Pollen profiles of late Pleistocene and recent sediments from Weber Lake, northeastern Minnesota. Ecology. 43, 295-308.Google Scholar
Hughes, T.J., Borns, H.W. Jr., Fastook, J.L., Hyland, M.R., Kite, J.S., Lowell, T.V., Models of glacial reconstruction and deglaciation applied to maritime Canada and New England. Late Pleistocene History of Northeastern New England and Adjacent Quebec. Borns, H.W. Jr., LaSalle, P., Thompson, W.B., (1985). Geological Society of America Special Paper. 197, 139-150.Google Scholar
Jacobson, G.L., Webb, T. III, Grimm, E.C., Patterns and rates of vegetation change during the deglaciation of eastern North America. Ruddiman, W.F., Wright, H.E. Jr., (1987). North America and Adjacent Oceans during the Last Deglaciation. Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO, 277-288.Google Scholar
King, G.A., (1985). A standard method for evaluating radiocarbon dates of local deglaciation: Application to the deglaciation history of southern Labrador and adjacent Quebec. Geographie Physique et Quaternaire. 39, 163-182.Google Scholar
Lehman, J.T., (1975). Reconstructing the rate of accumulation of lake sediment: The effect of sediment focusing. Quaternary Research. 15, 541-550.Google Scholar
Long, A., Rippeteau, B., (1974). Testing contemporaneity and averaging of radiocarbon dates. American Antiquity. 39, 205-215.Google Scholar
Ludlam, S.D., (1981). Sedimentation rates in Fayetteville Green Lake, New York, U.S.A.. Sedimentology. 28, 85-96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogden, J.G., Radiocarbon determinations of sedimentation rates from hard and soft-water lakes in the northeastern North America. Cushing, E.J., Wright, H.E., (1967). Quaternary Paleoecology. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, 176-183.Google Scholar
Olsson, I.U., (1974). Some problems in connection with the evaluation of 14C dates. Geologiska Foreningens Stockholm Forhandinger. 96, 311-320.Google Scholar
Overpeck, J.T., Fleri, E., (1982). The development of age models for Holocene sediment cores: Northeastern examples. American Quaternary Association, Abstracts. 152.Google Scholar
Sadler, P.M., (1981). Sediment accumulation rates and the completeness of stratigraphic sections. Journal of Geology. 89, 569-594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, S., (1956). Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Evidence of the variation of atmospheric 14C content in the late Quaternary. Turekian, K.K., (1971). Late Cenozoic Glacial Ages. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, 57-70.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., (1978). Radiocarbon timescale tested against magnetics and other dating methods. Nature (London). 273, 271-274.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Kromer, B., Becker, B., Ferguson, C.W., (1986). Radiocarbon age calibration back to 13,300 years B.P. and the 14C age matching of the German Oak and US Bristlecone Pine chronologies. Radiocarbon. 28, 969-979.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., (1986). A computer program for radiocarbon calibration. Radiocarbon. 28, 1022-1030.Google Scholar
Watts, W.A., (1969). A pollen diagram from Mud Lake, Marion County, north-central Florida. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 80, 631-642.Google Scholar
Watts, W.A., Vegetational history of the eastern United States. Porter, S.C., (1983). Late Quaternary Environments of the United States. Vol. 1 Univ. of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 294-310, “The Late Pleistocene”.Google Scholar
Webb, T. III, (1984). Discussion of “Late-Quaternary vegetation dynamics and community stability reconsidered”. Quaternary Research. 22, 262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webb, T. III, (1985). A Global Paleoclimatic Data Base for 6000 B.P.. U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, DC, USDOE Report TR-018.Google Scholar