Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T03:36:42.863Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Holocene Vegetation and Climate in the Puerto Blanco Mountains, Southwestern Arizona

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Thomas R. Van Devender
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Plant macrofossils from 21 pack rat (Neotoma sp.) middens at 535–605 m from the Puerto Blanco Mountains, southwestern Arizona, provide and excellent history of vegetation and climate for the last 14, 120 yr B.P. in the Sonoran Desert. A late Wisconsin juniper-Joshua tree woodland gave way to a transitional early Holocene desertscrub with sparse Juniperus californica (California juniper) by 10,540 yr B.P. Important Sonoran Desert plants including Carnegiea gigantea (saguaro) and Encelia farinosa (brittle bush) were dominants. Riparian trees such as Acacia greggii (catclaw acacia), Prosopis velutina (velvet mesquite), and Cerdicium floridum (blue palo verde) grew on dry, south-facing slopes in a middle Holocene Sonoran desertscrub in a warm, wet summer climate with frequent winter freezes. Modern subtropical Sonoran desertscrub formed about 4000 yr B.P. as summer rainfall and winter freezes declined. Cercidium microphyllum (foothills palo verde), Sapium biloculare (Mexican jumping bean), Olneya tesota (ironwood) and Stenocereus thurberi (organ pipe cactus) became dominant as riparian trees retreated to wash habitats. The inferences of a latest Wisconsin/early Holocene summer monsoonal maximum by J. E. Kutzbach (1983), Modeling of Holocene climates. In “Late-Quaternary Environments of the United States,” Vol. 2, “The Holocene” (H. E. Wright, Ed.), pp. 271–277. Univ. of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis) are not supported for the Southwest. Apparently the persistence of late Wisconsin circulation patterns offset any increases in insolation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , January 1987 , pp. 51 - 72
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

Antevs, E., (1955). Geological-climatic dating in the West American Antiquity 20, 317–355 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, L., (1982). The Cacti of the United States and Canada Stanford Univ. Press Stanford Google Scholar
Bowers, J.E., (1980). Flora of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument Journal of the Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science 15, 1–11 Google Scholar
Bowers, J.E., (1980). Flora of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument Journal of the Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science 15, 33–47 Google Scholar
Bryson, R.A., (1985). On climatic analogs in paleoclimatic reconstruction Quaternary Research 23, 275–286 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryson, R.A. Lowry, W.D., (1955). The synoptic climatology of the Arizona summer precipitation singularity Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 36, 329–339 Google Scholar
Cole, K.L., (1986). The lower Colorado Valley: A Pleistocene desert Quarternary Research 25, 392–400 Google Scholar
Deevey, E.S. Flint, R.F., (1957). Postglacial Hypsithermal Interval Science 125, 182–184 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Felger, R.S. Lowe, C.H., (1970). New combinations for plant taxas in northwestern Mexico and southwestern United States Journal of the Arizona Academy of Science 6, 82–84 Google Scholar
Finley, R.B., (1958). The wood rats of Colorado: Distribution and ecology University of Kansas Publications of the Museum of Natural History 10, 213–552 Google Scholar
Hastings, J.R. Turner, R.M. Warren, D.K., (1972). An atlas of some plant distributions in the Sonoran Desert University of Arizona Institute of Atmospheric Physics Technical Reports on the Meteorology and Climatology of Arid Regions No. 21 Google Scholar
Kearney, T.H. Peebles, R.H., (1964). Arizona Flora Univ. California Press Berkeley Google Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E., (1983). Modeling of Holocene climates Wright, H.E. Late-Quaternary Environments of the United States Vol. 2, Univ. of Minnesota Press Minneapolis 271–277 “The Holocene” Google Scholar
Martin, P.S., (1963). The Last 10,000 Years Univ. of Arizona Press Tucson Google Scholar
Munz, P.A., (1974). A Flora of Southern California Univ. of California Press Stanford Google Scholar
Rowlands, P.G., (1978). The Vegetation Dynamics of the Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia Engelm.) in the Southwestern United States of America Ph.D. dissertation University of California Riverside Google Scholar
Sears, P.B., (1942). Xerothermic theory Botanical Review 8, 708–736 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sellers, W.D. Hill, R.H., (1974). Arizona Climate, 1931–1972 Univ. of Arizona Press Tucson Google Scholar
Shreve, F., (1911). The influence of low temperatures on the distribution of giant cactus Plant World 14, 136–146 Google Scholar
Shreve, F., (1964). Vegetation of the Sonora Desert Shreve, F. Wiggins, I.L. Vegetation and Flora of the Sonoran Desert Stanford Univ. Press Stanford 259–293 Google Scholar
Spaulding, W.G. Graumlich, L.J., (1985). The last pluvial climate episodes in the deserts of southwestern North America Nature (London) 320, 441–444 Google Scholar
Spaulding, W.G. Leopold, E.B. Van Devender, T.R., (1983). Late Wisconsin paleoecology of the American Southwest Porter, S.C. Late Quaternary Environments of the United States Vol. 1, Univ. Minnesota Press Minneapolis 259–293 “The Late Pleistocene” Google Scholar
Thorne, R.F. Prigge, B.A. Henrickson, J., (1981). A flora of the higher ranges and the Kelso Dunes of the eastern Mojave Desert in California Aliso 10, 71–186 Google Scholar
Tucker, J.M. Muller, C.H., (1956). The geographic history of Quercus ajoensis Evolution 10, 157–175 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turnage, W.V. Hinckley, A.L., (1938). Freezing weather in relation to plant distribution in the Sonoran Desert Ecological Monographs 8, 529–550 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, R.M. Brown, D.E., (1982). 154.1 Sonoran desertscrub Desert Plants 4, 181–221 Google Scholar
Van Devender, T.R., (1977). Holocene woodlands in the southwestern deserts Science 198, 189–192 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Devender, T.R. Betancourt, J.L. Wimberley, M., (1984). Biogeographical implications of a packrat midden sequence from the Sacramento Mountains, south-central New Mexico Quaternary Research 22, 344–360 Google Scholar
Van Devender, T.R. Martin, P.S. Thompson, R.S. Cole, K.L. Jull, A.J.T. Long, A. Toolin, L.J. Donahue, D.J., (1985). Fossil packrat middens and the tandem accelerator mass spectrometer Nature (London) 317, 610–613 Google Scholar
Van Devender, T.R. Spaulding, W.G., (1979). The development of vegetation and climate in the southwestern United States Science 204, 701–710 Google Scholar
Van Devender, T. R. Thompson, R. S., and Betancourt, J. L. (in press). Vegetation history in the Southwest: The nature and timing of the late Wisconsin-Holocene transition. In “North America and Adjacent Oceans during the Last Deglaciation” (Ruddiman, W. F. and Wright, H. E. Jr., Eds.). The Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO.Google Scholar
Van Devender, T.R. Toolin, L.J., (1983). Late Quaternary vegetation of the San Andres Mountains, Sierra County, New Mexico Eidenbach, P.L. The Prehistory of Rhodes Canyon: Survey and Mitigation Human Systems Research, Inc 33–54 Report to Holloman Air Force Base, Tularosa, NM Google Scholar
Wells, P.V. Hunziker, J.H., (1976). Origin of the creosote bush (Larrea) deserts of southwestern North America Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 63, 833–861 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiggins, I.L., (1980). Flora of Baja California Stanford Univ. Press Stanford Google Scholar