Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-cphqk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-08T08:56:02.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Spatial Variability of Late-Quaternary Paleoclimates in the Western United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Cary J. Mock  and
Patrick J. Bartlein
Cary J. Mock
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403
Patrick J. Bartlein
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Paleoclimatic interpretation of proxy data is complicated sometimes by the appearance of heterogeneous patterns of climatic responses across networks of sites. Modern climate analogues for the western United States, similar to those patterns of atmospheric circulation of 18,000 and 9000 yr B.P., were examined in order to explain such patterns of spatial heterogeneity. Modern analogues were defined by comparing modern atmospheric circulation patterns with those simulated by general circulation models. Maps of temperature and precipitation anomalies of the modern analogues reveal patterns of spatial heterogeneity, which resemble the patterns of effective moisture compiled from paleoclimatic data. January 1957 was found to be a reasonable 18,000 yr B.P. analogue, and it features isolated areas of increased wetness in the northern Great Basin and increased dryness in the Northwest interior. Analogues for 9000 yr B.P. from a composite of 11 Augusts display patterns of spatial heterogeneity of effective moisture over most of the mountainous areas. The analogues suggest that spatial heterogeneity of climate is the rule rather than the exception over much of the western United States, with the climatic anomalies at any particular time representing the outcome of the mediation of large-scale atmospheric circulation controls by smaller scale topographic features.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , November 1995 , pp. 425 - 433
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

Barry, R. G. (1981). Atmospheric circulation and climatic change, I. Approaches to paleoclimatic reconstruction. In “Climatic Variations and Variability: Facts and Theories” (Berger, A., Ed.), pp. 333–345. Reidel, Dordrecht.Google Scholar
Barry, R. G. (1983). Late Pleistocene Climatology. In “Late Quaternary Environments of the United States” (Porter, S. C., Ed.), Vol. I, pp. 390–403. Univ. Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Barry, R. G. Bradley, R. S., and Tarleton, L. F. (1977). “The Secular Climatic History of the Rocky Mountain Area,” Final Report NSF GA-40256. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado.Google Scholar
Broccoli, A. J., and Manabe, S, (1987). The effects of the Laurentide Ice Sheet on North American climate during the last glacial maximum. Geographie Physique et Quaternaire 41 , 291–299.Google Scholar
Carleton, A. M. (1987). Summer circulation climate of the American Southwest, 1945–1984. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 77 , 619–634.Google Scholar
COHMAP Members. (1988). Climatic changes of the last 18,000 years: Observations and model simulations. Science 241 , 1043–1052.Google Scholar
Crowley, T. J. (1990). Are there any satisfactory geologic analogues for a future Greenhouse Warming? Journal of Climate 3 , 1282–1292.Google Scholar
Davis, O. K., and Sellers, W. D. (1987). Contrasting climatic histories for western North America during the early Holocene. Current Research in the Pleistocene 4 , 87–89.Google Scholar
Diaz, H. F., and Andrews, J. T. (1982). Analysis of the spatial pattern of July temperature departures (1943-1972) over Canada and estimates of the 700 mb mid-summer circulation during the middle and late Holocene. Journal of Climatology 2, 251–265.Google Scholar
Elias, S. A., and Van Devender, T. R. (1992). Insect fossil evidence of late Quaternary environments in the northern Chihuahuan Desert of Texas and New Mexico. The Southwestern Naturalist 37, 101–116.Google Scholar
Hill, C. D. (1993). Forecast problems in the Western Region of the National Weather Service: An overview. Weather and Forecasting 8 , 158–165.Google Scholar
Hostetler, S. W., and Benson, L. V. (1990). Paleoclimatic implications of the high stand of Lake Lahontan derived from models of evaporation and lake level. Climate Dynamics 4 , 207–217.Google Scholar
Hostetler, S. W. Giorgi, F. Bates, G. T., and Bartlein, P. J. (1994). Lake-atmosphere feedbacks associated with paleolakes Bonneville and Lahanton. Science 263 , 665–668.Google Scholar
Kutzbach, J. E. (1987). Model simulations of the climatic patterns during the deglaciation of North America. In “North America and the Adjacent Oceans during the Last Déglaciation” (Ruddiman, W. F. and Wright, H. E., Eds.), pp. 425–446. Geological Society of America, Denver.Google Scholar
Kutzbach, J. E. Guetter, P. J. Behling, P. J., and Selin, R. (1993). Simulated climatic changes: Results of the COHMAP climate-model experiments. In “Global Climates of the last Glacial Maximum” (Wright, H. E. Kutzbach, J. E. Webb, T III Ruddiman, W. F. Street-Perrott, F. A, and Bartlein, P. J., Eds.), pp. 24–93. Univ. Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Leathers, D. J. Yamal, B., and Palecki, M. A. (1991). The Pacific/North American Teleconnection pattern and U.S. Climate. Part I: Regional temperature and precipitation associations. Journal of Climate 4 , 517–528.Google Scholar
Mass, C. F. (1993). The application of compact discs (CD-ROM) in the atmospheric sciences and relate fields: An update. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 74 , 1901–1908.Google Scholar
Mead, J. I. Bell, C. J. Murray, L. K. (1992). Mictomys borealis (northern bog lemming) and the Wisconsin paleoecology of the east-central Great Basin. Quaternary Research 37 , 229–238.Google Scholar
Mead, J. I., and Mead, J. I. (1989). Quaternary zoogeography of the Nearctic Dicrostonyx lemmings. Boreas 18 , 323–332.Google Scholar
Mears, B. Jr. (1981). Periglacial wedges and the late Pleistocene environment of Wyoming’s intermontane basins. Quaternary Research 18, 171–198.Google Scholar
Mitchell, J. F. B., Grahame, N. S., and Needham, K. J. (1988). Climate simulations for 9000 years before present: Seasonal variations and effect of the Laurentide ice sheet. Journal of Geophysical Research 93 , 8283–8308.Google Scholar
Mock, C. J. (1994). “Modern climate analogues of late Quaternary paleoclimates for the western United States.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oregon.Google Scholar
Nicholson, S. E. (1978). Climatic variations in the Sahel and other African regions during the past five centuries. Journal of Arid Environments 1 , 3–24.Google Scholar
Pitcher, E. J. Malone, R. C Ramanathan, V. Blackmon, M. L. Puri, K., and Bourke, W. (1983). January and July simulations with a spectral general circulation model. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences 40 , 580–604.Google Scholar
Stark, L. P. (1957). The weather and circulation of January 1957. Monthly Weather Review 85 , 19–27.Google Scholar
Tang, M., and Reiter, E. R. (1984). Plateau monsoons of the Northern Hemisphere: A comparison between North America and Tibet. Monthly Weather Review 112 , 617–637.Google Scholar
Thompson, R. S. Whitlock, C. Bartlein, P. J. Harrison, S. P., and Spaulding, W. G. (1993). Climatic changes in the western United States since 18,000 yr B. P. In “Global Climates of the last Glacial Maximum” (Wright, H. E. Kutzbach, J. E. Webb, T. III Ruddiman, W. F. Street-Perrott, F. A., and Bartlein, P. J., Eds.), pp. 468–513. Univ. Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Toomey, R. S. III Blum, M. D., and Valastro, S. Jr. (1993). Late Quaternary climates and environments of the Edwards Plateau, Texas. Global and Planetary Change 7 , 299–320.Google Scholar
Wells, P. V., and Stewart, J. D. (1987). Cordilleran-boreal taiga and fauna on the central Great Plains of North America: 14,000-18,000 years ago. The American Midland Naturalist 118 , 94–116.Google Scholar
Wallis, J. R. Lettenmaier, D. P., and Wood, E. F. (1991). A daily hydroclirnatological data set for the Continental United States. Water Resources Research 27 , 1657–1663.Google Scholar
Whitlock, C., and Bartlein, P. J. (1993). Spatial variations of Holocene climatic change in the northern Rocky Mountain region, Quaternary Research 39 , 231–238.Google Scholar
Whitlock, C. Bartlein, P. J., and Van Norman, K. J. (1995). Stability of Holocene climate regimes in the Yellowstone region. Quaternary Research 43 , 433–436.Google Scholar
Yarnal, B. (1993). “Synoptic Climatology in Environmental Analysis.” Bellhaven Press, London.Google Scholar