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Hydrologic Fluctuations at Pyramid Lake, Walker Lake, and the Carson Sink, Nevada During the Medieval Climate Anomaly

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Hydrologic Fluctuations at Pyramid Lake, Walker Lake, and the Carson Sink, Nevada During the Medieval Climate Anomaly HYDROLOGIC FLUCTUATIONS AT PYRAMID LAKE, WALKER LAKE, AND THE CARSON SINK, NEVADA DURING THE MEDIEVAL CLIMATE ANOMALY KENNETH D. ADAMS Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, NV 89512 [email protected] Lake levels in the western Great Basin have fluctuated throughout the Holocene in response to changes in the hydrologic balance of their watersheds. The magnitudes of lake-level fluctuations are not only based on changes in climate but are also controlled by the hypsometries of individual basins, the presence and elevations of surrounding sills, and in the case of Walker Lake, through river diversions. This presentation focuses on the lake-level histories of Walker Lake, the Carson Sink, and Pyramid Lake through the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA; A.D. 900-1350), a time period characterized by severe and sustained droughts as well as periods wetter than modern. Although not as temporally precise as tree-ring studies, lake-level histories help discern the severity of droughts as well as the magnitude of wet periods. Despite differences in hydrology, hypsometry, and the effects of sills, there are commonalities in the three records. Walker Lake was low at A.D. 950 (<1,205 m), A.D. 1150 (<1,224 m), and at A.D. 1650 (<1,215 m). The first and last of these low periods, however, are associated with evidence for diversion of the Walker River into the Carson Sink. Walker Lake also reached relative highstands at about A.D. 1030 (~1,245m) and A.D. 1290 (~1,255 m), the latter level being several meters above the historic highstand (A.D. 1868; ~1,252 m). A large lake in the normally dry Carson Sink formed around A.D. 1100, reaching an elevation of ~1,204 m and surface area of ~3,000 km2. The timing of this lake was coincident with the possible addition of the Walker River, but this diversion by itself is not enough to account for the large Medieval lake. At Pyramid Lake, levels were below 1,174 m around A.D. 950 and again at A.D. 1300, but reached near the historic highstand level (~1,181 m; A.D. 1868) in the intervening time around A.D. 1100. The relatively low amplitude of lake-level fluctuations at Pyramid Lake through the MCA may be explained by a low sill (~1,177 m) that exports water to Winnemucca Lake. Lake-level fluctuations in the western Great Basin are correlative with hydrologic records interpreted from tree rings and pollen and show regional and dramatic responses to short-lived climate changes during the MCA, both drier and wetter than present. 1 EXAMINING GULF OF ALASKA MARINE PALEOCLIMATE AT SEASONAL TO DECADAL TIMESCALES JASON A. ADDISON (1), BRUCE P. FINNEY (2), AND JOSEPH S. STONER (3) (1) U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025 [email protected] (2) Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID 83209-8007 [email protected] (3) College of Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-8563 [email protected] The Gulf of Alaska, located in the subarctic northeast Pacific Ocean, experiences dramatic climate variability over seasonal, annual, and decadal timescales. Environmental forcing mechanisms that affect physical parameters (e.g., precipitation and SST) can be expressed through indicators of marine ecosystem productivity due to a coupled positive feedback mechanism between the oceanic Alaska Gyre upwelling center and the atmospheric Aleutian Low pressure cell. This system is sensitive to low-latitude phenomena (ENSO), and due to the Pacific-North American teleconnection pathway, conditions in the Gulf of Alaska can influence distant regions throughout the Northern Hemisphere. However, it differs from most eastern boundary current settings (e.g., California) in that it is dominated by downwelling of surface waters throughout most of the year. Using these modern observations as a template for describing past fluctuations in paleoceanographic proxies, we present data from two marine sediment cores collected in temperate ice-free fjords along the Gulf of Alaska margin. These cores preserve evidence of past environmental variability at decadal to annual temporal resolutions for the past 4,000 (EW408- 44JC) to 8,000 (EW408-33JC) years. Computerized tomography scans show complex internal structures in these cores, including millimeter-scale laminations as well as high-density turbidite layers likely formed by past seismic or flood activity. Isotopic and geochemical analysis of the laminations indicate they are composed of cyclical couplets, consisting of a black, high-density terrigenous organic matter (OM)-rich band and a green, low-density marine OM-rich band. Based on a linear age-depth model interpolated between two well-preserved AMS 14C macrofossil samples, we find that preliminary lamination thickness measurements of the marine OM-rich bands between 3,900 to 3,300 cal yr B.P. indicate variability in the range of ENSO periodicities. These results suggest a linkage between tropical forcing and extratropical sedimentation that predates anthropogenic climate change. 2 MULTI-PROXY EVIDENCE FOR MIDDLE AND LATE HOLOCENE FLUCTUATIONS IN CLIMATE REGIME IN THE NORTH-CENTRAL GREAT BASIN LYSANNA ANDERSON, DAVE WAHL, SCOTT STARRATT, AND ELMIRA WAN U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025 [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] The north-central Great Basin lies within the transition zone between the winter-dominated precipitation regime of the Pacific coastal states and the monsoon-driven summer precipitation regime of the Southwest. Paleoclimatic reconstruction of fluctuations in the dominance of these regimes across the region has proven difficult due to a paucity of paleoclimate records. Here we present a high-resolution middle and late Holocene charcoal record to augment existing pollen and diatom data from Favre Lake in the Ruby Mountains, Nevada (40° 26‘ 39.80‖ N, 115° 20‘ 49.5‖ W, 2,899 m a.s.l.). High concentrations of charcoal corresponding to diatom and pollen data indicate rising lake level are interpreted as reflective of sustained summer precipitation and a strengthened southwestern monsoon at around 5,400 cal yr B.P. These conditions may have supported an increase in fire intensity and frequency as a result of increased fuel buildup and frequent lightning. Lower and more variable charcoal concentrations after approximately 4,000 cal yr B.P., concurrent with relatively quiescent pollen and diatom assemblages, suggests the influence of a strengthening and increasingly variable ENSO, resulting in a shift to a more variable, lower intensity fire regime. THE IMPACT OF LITTLE ICE AGE COOLING ON MOUNTAIN HEMLOCK (Tsuga mertensiana) DISTRIBUTION IN SOUTHCENTRAL, ALASKA R. SCOTT ANDERSON (1), DARRELL S. KAUFMAN (1), CALEB SCHIFF (1), TOM DAIGLE (2), AND EDWARD BERG (3) (1) School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011 [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] (2) GEI Consultants, 4601 DTC Boulevard, Suite 900, Denver, CO 80237 [email protected] (3) U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, P.O. Box 2139, Soldotna, AK 99669 (retired) [email protected] The natural distribution of mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) in the northeast Pacific is in regions of cool to cold maritime climate, with cool winters and short summers. Presently, the species reaches its northern distribution in southcentral Alaska. We investigated the Holocene history of vegetation and climate change for two sites in and near the Kenai Mountains, south of Anchorage. Mica Lake is located at 100 m elevation on an island in Prince William Sound, near the northern limits of the tree, whereas Goat Lake is located at 550 m elevation, in the Kenai 3 Mountains, at the upper local limit of mountain hemlock. From pollen analysis of these lake sediments, mountain hemlock became established at Mica Lake by at least 6,000 cal yr B.P. The tree became established at the higher elevation Goat Lake sometime after 3,000 years ago. Expansion at both sites was abruptly curtailed during the colder climate of the Little Ice Age, commencing at Goat Lake in the mid-17th century. The decline was more extensive at the Goat Lake site, where climatic conditions may have been severe enough to reduce or eliminate the mountain hemlock forest there. This is consistent with tree-ring evidence of major glacial advance (Wiles and Calkin 1993; 1994; Daigle and Kaufman, 2008; Wiles et al. 2009) at this time in the Kenai Mountains. Warmer conditions during the 20th century have reversed that trend. Wiles, G.C. and Calkin, P.E., 1993, Neoglacial fluctuations and sedimentation of an iceberg-calving glacier resolved with tree rings (Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska): Quaternary International, v. 18, p. 35–42. Wiles, G.C., and Calkin, P.E., 1994, Late Holocene, high-resolution glacial chronologies and climate, Kenai Mountains, Alaska: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 106, p. 281-303. Wiles, G.C., Barclay, D.J., Calkin, P.E., and Lowell, T.V., 2008, Century to Millennial-Scale Temperature Variations for the Last Two Thousand Years Inferred from Glacial Geologic Records of Southern Alaska: Global and Planetary Change, v. 57, doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2006.07.036 Daigle, T. A. and Kaufman, D. S., 2009, Holocene Climate inferred from glacier extent, lake sediment and tree rings at Goat Lake, Kenai Mountains, Alaska, USA: Journal of Quaternary Science, v. 24, p. 33–45. RESPONSE OF DIATOM AND SILICOFLAGELLATE ASSEMBLAGES
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