Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-g8tfn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T01:09:08.976Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Holocene pollen record of persistent droughts from Pyramid Lake, Nevada, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Scott A Mensing ,
Larry V Benson ,
Michaele Kashgarian  and
Steve Lund
Scott A Mensing*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA
Larry V Benson
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, 3215 Marine Street, Boulder, CO, 80303, USA
Michaele Kashgarian
Affiliation:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, PO Box 808, Livermore, CA, 94550, USA
Steve Lund
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: (775) 784-1058. E-mail address:smensing@unr.edu(S.A. Mensing).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Pollen and algae microfossils preserved in sediments from Pyramid Lake, Nevada, provide evidence for periods of persistent drought during the Holocene age. We analyzed one hundred nineteen 1-cm-thick samples for pollen and algae from a set of cores that span the past 7630 years. The early middle Holocene, 7600 to 6300 cal yr B.P., was found to be the driest period, although it included one short but intense wet phase. We suggest that Lake Tahoe was below its rim for most of this period, greatly reducing the volume and depth of Pyramid Lake. Middle Holocene aridity eased between 5000 and 3500 cal yr B.P. and climate became variable with distinct wet and dry phases. Lake Tahoe probably spilled intermittently during this time. No core was recovered that represented the period between 3500 and 2600 cal yr B.P. The past 2500 years appear to have had recurrent persistent droughts. The timing and magnitude of droughts identified in the pollen record compares favorably with previously published δ18O data from Pyramid Lake. The timing of these droughts also agrees with the ages of submerged rooted stumps in the Eastern Sierra Nevada and woodrat midden data from central Nevada. Prolonged drought episodes appear to correspond with the timing of ice drift minima (solar maxima) identified from North Atlantic marine sediments, suggesting that changes in solar irradiance may be a possible mechanism influencing century-scale drought in the western Great Basin.

Keywords

Pyramid LakeNevadaGreat BasinPollenDroughtHoloceneClimate change

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 62 , Issue 1 , July 2004 , pp. 29 - 38
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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Benson, L., Kashgarian, M., Rye, R., Lund, S., Paillet, F., Smoot, J., Kester, C., Mensing, S., Meko, D., Lindström, S., (2002). Holocene multidecadal and multicentennial droughts affecting Northern California and Nevada. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 659–682.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Billings, W., (1949). The shadscale vegetation zone of Nevada and Eastern California in relation to climate and soils. The American Midland Naturalist 42, 87–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birks, H.J.B., Gordon, A.D., (1985). Numerical Methods in Quaternary Pollen Analysis. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Bond, G., Kromer, B., Beer, J., Muscheler, R., Evans, M., Showers, W., Hoffmann, S., Lotti-Bond, R., Hajdas, I., Bonani, G., (2001). Persistent solar influence on North Atlantic climate during the Holocene. Science 294, 2130–2136.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Byrne, R., Busby, C., Heizer, R.F., (1979). The Altithermal revisited: Pollen evidence from the Leonard Rockshelter. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 1, 280–294.Google Scholar
Davis, O.K., (1999). Pollen analysis of a late-glacial and Holocene sediment core from Mono Lake, Mono County, California. Quaternary Research 52, 243–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, O.K., Moratto, M.J., (1988). Evidence for a warm dry early Holocene in the western Sierra Nevada of California: Pollen and plant macrofossil analysis of Dinkey and Exchequer Meadows. Madroño 35, 2 132–149.Google Scholar
Davis, O.K., Anderson, R.S., Fall, P.L., O'Rourke, M.K., Thompson, R.S., (1985). Palynological evidence for early Holocene aridity in the southern Sierra Nevada, California. Quaternary Research 24, 322–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edlund, E.G., (1996). Late Quaternary Environmental History of Montane Forests of the Sierra Nevada, California.. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Faegri, K., Iversen, J., (1985). Textbook of Pollen Analysis. fourth ed. Hafner Press, New York.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K., (1993). The Desert's Past: A Natural Prehistory of the Great Basin. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Harding, S.T., (1935). Changes in lake levels in Great Basin area. Civil Engineering 5, 87–90.Google Scholar
Harding, S.T., (1965). Recent Variations in the Water Supply of the Great Basin.. Archives Series Report 16, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Hattori, E., (1982). The Archaeology of Falcon Hill, Winnemucca Lake, Washoe County, Nevada.. Nevada State Museum Anthropological Papers 18.Google Scholar
Hoddel, D.A., Brenner, M., Curtis, J.H., Guilderson, T., (2001). Solar forcing of drought frequency in the Maya lowlands. Science 292, 1367–1370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houghton, J.G., Sakamoto, C.M., Gifford, R.O., (1975). Nevada's Weather and Climate. University of Nevada, Reno.Google Scholar
Jankovská, V., Komárek, J., (1982). Das vorkommen einiger chlorokokkalalgen in bohmischen spatglazial und postglazial. Folia Geobotanica et Phytotaxonomica, Praha 17, 165–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kapp, R.O., Davis, O.K., King, J.E., (2000). Ronald O. Kapp's Pollen and Spores. second ed. American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists, College Station, TX.Google Scholar
Lanner, R., (1984). Trees of the Great Basin. University of Nevada Press, Reno, NV.Google Scholar
LaMarche, V. Jr., (1973). Holocene climatic variations inferred from treeline fluctuations in the White Mountains, California. Quaternary Research 3, 632–660.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindström, S., (1990). Submerged tree stumps as indicators of middle Holocene aridity in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 12, 146–157.Google Scholar
Madsen, D., Rhode, D., Grayson, D., Broughton, J., Livingston, S., Hunt, J., Quade, J., Schmitt, D., Shaver, M. III, (2001). Late Quaternary environmental change in the Bonneville Basin Western USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 167, 243–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meko, D., Therrel, M., Baisan, C., Hughes, M., (2001). Sacramento River flow reconstructed to A.D. 869 from tree rings. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 37, 1029–1039.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mensing, S., (2001). Late-Glacial and early Holocene vegetation and climate change near Owens Lake, eastern California. Quaternary Research 55, 57–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mensing, S.A., Southon, J.R., (1999). A simple method to separate pollen for AMS radiocarbon dating and its application to lacustrine and marine sediments. Radiocarbon 41, 1–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, J., Germanoski, D., Waltman, K., Tausch, R., Chambers, J., (2001). Influence of late Holocene hillslope processes and landforms on modern channel dynamics in upland watersheds of central Nevada. Geomorphology 38, 373–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, P.D., Webb, J.A., (1978). An Illustrated Guide to Pollen Analysis. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
National Climatic Data Center (2003). Northern California Climate Summaries, Station 042467 (Donner Memorial State Park, CA) and Station 048758 (Tahoe, California). available at: http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/summary/climsmnca.html.Google Scholar
Overpeck, J.T., Webb, T. III, Prentice, I.C., (1985). Quantitative interpretation of fossil pollen spectra: dissimilarity coefficients and the method of modern analogs. Quaternary Research 23, 87–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shindell, D.T., Scmidt, G.A., Mann, M.E., Rind, D., Waple, A., (2001). Solar forcing of regional climate change during the Maunder Minimum. Science 294, 2149–2152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, S., Anderson, R.S., (1992). Late Wisconsin paleoecologic record from Swamp Lake, Yosemite National Park. Quaternary Research 38, 91–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solomon, A.M., Silkworth, A.B., (1986). Spatial patterns of atmospheric pollen transport in a montane region. Quaternary Research 25, 150–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stine, S., (1990). Late Holocene fluctuations of Mono Lake, eastern California. Paleogeography, Palaeoclimatology and Palaeoecology 78, 333–381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stine, S., (1994). Extreme and persistent drought in California and Patagonia during mediaeval time. Nature 369, 546–549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stockmarr, J., (1971). Tablets with spores used in absolute pollen analysis. Pollen et Spores 13, 615–621.Google Scholar
Tausch, R., Nowak, C., Mensing, S., (2004). Climate change and associated vegetation dynamics during the Holocene: the paleoecological record. Chambers, Jeanne C., Miller, Jerry R., Great Basin Riparian Ecosystems: Ecology, Management and Restoration Island Press, Covelo, CA.24–48.Google Scholar
Thompson, R.S., (1992). Late Quaternary Environments in Ruby Valley, Nevada. Quaternary Research 37, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wigand, P.E., (1987). Diamond Pond, Harney County, Oregon: vegetation history and water table in the Eastern Oregon desert. Great Basin Naturalist 47, 427–458.Google Scholar
Wigand, P.E., Mehringer, P.J. Jr., (1985). Pollen and seed analyses. Thomas, D.H., The Archaeology of Hidden Cave Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History vol. 61, 108–124.Chap. 9.Google Scholar
Wigand, P.E., Rhode, D., (2002). Great basin vegetation history and aquatic systems: the last 150,000 years. Hershler, R., Madsen, D.B., Currey, D.R., Great Basin Aquatic Systems History. Smithsonian Contributions to the Earth Sciences vol. 33, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.309–368.Google Scholar
Wilson, D., (1992). Sawdust Trails in the Truckee Basin: A History of Lumbering Operations. Nevada County Historical Society, Nevada City, CA.Google Scholar
Yu, Z., Ito, E., (1999). Possible solar forcing of century-scale drought frequency in the northern Great Plains. Geology 27, 263–266.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yuan, F., Linsley, B.K., Lund, S., McGeehin, J.P., (2004). A 1200 year record of hydrologic variability in the Sierra Nevada from sediments in Walker Lake. Nevada, Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 5, 1–13.Google Scholar