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Climate and vegetation history from a 14,000-year peatland record, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Miriam C. Jones ,
Dorothy M. Peteet ,
Dorothy Kurdyla  and
Thomas Guilderson
Miriam C. Jones*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964, USA Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lehigh University, 31 Williams Dr., Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA
Dorothy M. Peteet
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964, USA NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2880 Broadway, New York, NY 10025, USA
Dorothy Kurdyla
Affiliation:
Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, Livermore, CA 94551, USA
Thomas Guilderson
Affiliation:
Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, Livermore, CA 94551, USA
*
⁎Corresponding author.

E-mail address:mcj208@lehigh.edu (M.C. Jones).

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Abstract

Analysis of pollen, spores, macrofossils, and lithology of an AMS 14C-dated core from a subarctic fen on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska reveals changes in vegetation and climate beginning 14,200 cal yr BP. Betula expansion and contraction of herb tundra vegetation characterize the Younger Dryas on the Kenai, suggesting increased winter snowfall concurrent with cool, sunny summers. Remarkable Polypodiaceae (fern) abundance between 11,500 and 8500 cal yr BP implies a significant change in climate. Enhanced peat preservation and the occurrence of wet meadow species suggest high moisture from 11,500 to 10,700 cal yr BP, in contrast to drier conditions in southeastern Alaska; this pattern may indicate an intensification and repositioning of the Aleutian Low (AL). Drier conditions on the Kenai Peninsula from 10,700 to 8500 cal yr BP may signify a weaker AL, but elevated fern abundance may have been sustained by high seasonality with substantial snowfall and enhanced glacial melt. Decreased insolation-induced seasonality resulted in climatic cooling after 8500 cal yr BP, with increased humidity from 8000 to 5000 cal yr BP. A dry interval punctuated by volcanic activity occurred between 5000 and 3500 cal yr BP, followed by cool, moist climate, coincident with Neoglaciation. Tsuga mertensiana expanded after ~ 1500 cal yr BP in response to the shift to cooler conditions.

Keywords

Climate historyAlaskapollenmacrofossilsKenai PeninsulaYounger Dryas
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 72 , Issue 2 , September 2009 , pp. 207 - 217
Copyright
University of Washington

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