Mid-Wisconsinan Climate Reconstruction Based on Fossil
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MID-WISCONSINAN CLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION BASED ON FOSSIL BEETLES FROM SIX MILE CREEK, ITHACA, NEW YORK A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Science By Sangita Shrestha In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Major Program: Environmental and Conservation Science March 2017 Fargo, North Dakota North Dakota State University Graduate School Title MID-WISCONSINAN CLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION BASED ON FOSSIL BEETLES FROM SIX MILE CREEK, ITHACA, NEW YORK By Sangita Shrestha The Supervisory Committee certifies that this disquisition complies with North Dakota State University’s regulations and meets the accepted standards for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: Dr. Allan Ashworth Chair Dr. Donald Schwert Dr. Stephanie Day Dr. Gary Clambey Dr. Craig Stockwell (ECS Director) Approved: 12 February 2018 Dr. Peter Oduor Date Department Chair ABSTRACT The history of the Mid-Wisconsinan sub-stage in northeastern North America is one of large climatic oscillations. Fossil beetles were extracted from two horizons at the Six Mile Creek site, New York. A total of 738 individuals was identified, representing 16 species. The beetle fossils, as well as those of plants, indicate a range of habitats from well-drained uplands to moist boggy lowlands, indicative of a tundra environment. A modified Mutual Climatic Range (MCR) method was used for the paleoclimatic reconstruction. SAS and ArcGIS programs were used to construct 95% confidence ellipses from which mean July temperature was inferred to be in the range of 8.7 ºC to 11.4 ºC and mean January temperature in the range of -24.6 ºC to -15.3 ºC. The estimated mean July temperature is 9.0 °C to 11.7 °C cooler than in central New York State at present. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I express my gratitude to my advisor Dr. Allan Ashworth for giving me the opportunity to pursue my dream of graduate studies, for providing samples, and for his technical help. I also thank Dr. Daniel E. Karig, Professor Emeritus, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University for providing me samples that he collected from the Six Mile Creek valley. I am also grateful to Dr. Dorothy M. Peteet, Adjunct Senior Research Scientist, Lamont- Doherty Earth Observatory, Biology and Paleoenvironment, Columbia University for identification of the fossil plant specimens. I would like to sincerely thank Mr. Curt Doetkott, Consulting Statistician, Statistical Consulting Service (SCS) at North Dakota State University, for his immense help during my data analysis using SAS. I sincerely thank Dr. Peter Oduor, Chair, Department of Geosciences for his support and encouragement in GIS analysis of my research data. I am also grateful to members of my advisory committee, Dr. Donald P. Schwert, Dr. Gary Clambey, and Dr. Stephanie S. Day for their comments and suggestions on my thesis. This research was supported in part by NSF Grant No. EAR 0948652. Two years of my stipend support were provided from this grant. I am grateful to my parents, Mr. Madhav Lal Shrestha and Mrs. Chandreswari Shrestha, my siblings and extended families for their love and support. My brother, Dr. Shailesh Shrestha, and sister, Moneesha Shrestha, were always there to encourage me during my hard times. Lastly, I thank my husband, Dr. Suman Lal Shrestha for his relentless support, encouragement, and unwavering love. iv DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to my mother-in-law, late Mrs. Jamuna Devi Shrestha, who inspired and encouraged me in every step of my life. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iv DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................ v LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF APPENDIX TABLES .................................................................................................... xi INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 1. BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE RESEARCH ............................................................... 2 1.1. Paleoclimatic Proxies ........................................................................................................... 2 1.2. Fossil Beetles as Paleoclimatic Indicators ........................................................................... 2 1.3. Mid-Wisconsinan Sub-stage in the Quaternary Period ........................................................ 4 1.3.1. Wisconsinan Glaciation ................................................................................................. 4 1.3.2. Mid-Wisconsinan Sub-stage .......................................................................................... 4 1.4. Six Mile Creek ..................................................................................................................... 5 1.5. Mid-Wisconsinan Chronostratigraphy of Northeastern North America .............................. 9 1.6. Mid-Wisconsinan Climate Interpretation using Biological Proxies .................................. 11 1.6.1. Northeastern North America ....................................................................................... 11 1.6.2. Previous Lithologic and Paleontological Studies at Six Mile Creek ........................... 13 1.7. Climate Reconstruction using Biological Proxies .............................................................. 16 1.7.1. Most Commonly Used Approaches in Paleoecology .................................................. 16 1.7.2. Use of GIS in Paleoecological Reconstructions .......................................................... 18 2. MATERIAL AND METHODS ................................................................................................ 20 2.1. Sample Collection .............................................................................................................. 20 2.2. Fossil Extraction and Preparation ...................................................................................... 22 vi 2.3. Fossil Identification ............................................................................................................ 22 2.4. Similarity Analysis of Site 1 and Site 2 Samples ............................................................... 23 2.5. Paleoclimatic Analysis ....................................................................................................... 24 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................................................... 27 3.1. Fossil Beetle Assemblages ................................................................................................. 27 3.2. Macrofossil Analyses ......................................................................................................... 41 3.3. Synthesis of Paleoenvironment .......................................................................................... 42 3.4. Paleoclimatic Reconstruction ............................................................................................. 43 3.5. Discussion .......................................................................................................................... 49 4. CONCLUSIONS....................................................................................................................... 52 5. REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................... 53 APPENDIX. COLLECTION LOCALITIES AND CLIMATE DATA FOR SIX MILE CREEK ......................................................................................................................................... 62 vii LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Age of different stratigraphic units at Six Mile Creek………………………………. ..... 14 2. Radiocarbon ages and associated calendar years from plant macrofossils and beetles at Six Mile Creek site………………………………………………………........ 15 3. Radiocarbon ages and associated calendar years of samples at the Six Mile Creek site .. 21 4. Coleoptera identified from Site 1 at Six Mile Creek (1997 sample) ................................ 28 5. Coleoptera identified from Site 2 at Six Mile Creek (2013 sample) ................................ 29 6. Analysis for similarity/dissimilarity between Site 1 and Site 2 using the Dice coefficient ......................................................................................................................... 29 7. Summary of habitat preferences of beetles identified in the Six Mile Creek fossil assemblage ........................................................................................................................ 30 8. Modern occurrences of the beetles from Six Mile Creek fossil assemblages in North American ecological regions .................................................................................. 42 9. Comparison of the paleoclimate for the Six Mile Creek site obtained from analyses of probability