Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T11:36:43.463Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A record of mid- and late Holocene paleohydroclimate from Lower Pahranagat Lake, southern Great Basin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2019

Kevin M. Theissen Open the ORCID record for Kevin M. Theissen [Opens in a new window] ,
Thomas A. Hickson ,
Ashley L. Brundrett ,
Sarah E. Horns  and
Matthew S. Lachniet
Kevin M. Theissen*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Saint Thomas, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55105, USA
Thomas A. Hickson
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Saint Thomas, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55105, USA
Ashley L. Brundrett
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Saint Thomas, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55105, USA
Sarah E. Horns
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Saint Thomas, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55105, USA
Matthew S. Lachniet
Affiliation:
Department of Geoscience, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154, USA
*
*Corresponding author e-mail address: kmtheissen@stthomas.edu (K.M. Theissen).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We present a continuous, sediment core-based record of paleohydroclimate spanning ~5800 cal yr BP to recent from Lower Pahranagat Lake (LPAH), a shallow, alkaline lake in southern Nevada. We apply stable isotopes (δ18O and δ13C) from fine-fraction authigenic carbonate, which are sensitive recorders of hydroclimatic variability in this highly evaporative region. Additional geochemical proxies (total organic carbon, C/N, and total inorganic carbon) provide supporting information on paleoecological change in and around the lake. Our data suggest progressively wetter conditions starting at the later part of the middle Holocene and extending into the late Holocene (~5500–3350 cal yr BP) followed by a millennial-scale dry period from ~3150 to 1700 cal yr BP. This latter interval encompasses the ‘Late Holocene dry period’ (LHDP) reported by other investigators, and our data help refine the area affected in this episode. Our data also show evidence for a series of century-scale fluctuations in regional hydroclimate, including wet and dry intervals between 2350 and 1600 cal yr BP, and drier conditions over the past few centuries. Paleohydroclimate trends in the LPAH record show correspondence with those from the central Great Basin to the north, suggesting that both areas were subject to similar climatic forcings.

Keywords

Middle HoloceneLate HolocenePaleohydroclimateGreat BasinLate Holocene dry periodAlkaline lakeStable isotopic valuesδ18O and δ13CAuthigenic carbonate
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 92 , Issue 2 , September 2019 , pp. 352 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2019 

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

REFERENCES

Barron, J.A., Anderson, L., 2011. Enhanced Late Holocene ENSO/PDO expression along the margins of the eastern North Pacific. Quaternary International 235, 3–12.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Blaauw, M., Christeny, J.A., 2011. Flexible paleoclimate age-depth models using an autoregressive gamma process. Bayesian Analysis 6, 457–474.Google Scholar
Cook, B.I., Smerdon, J.E., Seager, R., Cook, E.R., 2014. Pan-continental droughts in North America over the last millennium. Journal of Climate 27, 383–397.Google Scholar
Deines, P., 1980. The isotopic composition of reduced organic carbon. In: Fritz, P., Fontes, J.C. (Eds.), Handbook of Environmental Isotope Geochemistry, Vol 1. Elsevier, New York, pp. 329–406.Google Scholar
Eakin, T.E., 1963. Ground-Water Appraisal of Pahranagat and Pahroc Valleys, Lincoln and Nye Counties, Nevada. Ground-Water Resources – Reconnaissance Series Report 21. Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Carson City, NV.Google Scholar
Eakin, T.E., 1966. A regional interbasin groundwater system in the White River area, southeastern Nevada. Water Resources Research 2, 251–271.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K., 2011. The Great Basin: A Natural Prehistory. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Heiri, O., Lotter, A.F., Lemcke, G., 2001. Loss on ignition as a method for estimating organic and carbonate content in sediments: reproducibility and comparability of results. Journal of Paleolimnology 25, 101–110.Google Scholar
Hevesi, J.A., Flint, A.L., Flint, L.E., 2003. Simulation of Net Infiltration and Potential Recharge Using a Distributed-Parameter Watershed Model of the Death Valley Region, Nevada and California. Water Resources Investigations Report 03-4090. U.S. Geological Survey, Sacramento, CA.Google Scholar
Hickson, T.A., Theissen, K.M., Lamb, M.A., Frahm, J., 2018. Lower Pahranagat Lake: modern analogue for extensive carbonate deposition in paleolakes of the Late Oligocene to Miocene Rainbow Gardens and Horse Spring Formations. Journal of Paleolimnology 59, 39–57.Google Scholar
Horton, T.W., Defliese, W.F., Tripati, A.K., Oze, C., 2016. Evaporation induced 18O and 13C enrichment in lake systems: a global perspective on hydrologic balance effects. Quaternary Science Reviews 131B, 365–379.Google Scholar
Hutchinson, G.E., 1975. A Treatise of Limnology. Vol. 3, Limnological Botany. John Wiley and Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Kreemer, C., Blewitt, G., Hammond, W.C., 2010. Evidence for an active shear zone in southern Nevada linking the Wasatch fault to the Eastern California shear zone. Geology 38, 475–478.Google Scholar
Lachniet, M.S., Denniston, R.F., Asmerom, Y., Polyak, V.J., 2014. Orbital control of western North America atmospheric circulation and climate over two glacial cycles. Nature Communications 5, 3805.Google Scholar
Mensing, S., Livingston Reno, S., Barker, N.P., 2006. Long-term fire history in Great Basin sagebrush reconstructed from macroscopic charcoal in spring sediments, Newark Valley, Nevada. Western North American Naturalist 66, 64–77.Google Scholar
Mensing, S., Smith, J., Norman, K.B., Allan, M., 2008. Extended drought in the Great Basin of western North America in the last two millennia reconstructed from pollen records. Quaternary International 188, 79–89.Google Scholar
Mensing, S.A., Benson, L. V., Kashgarian, M., Lund, S., 2004. A Holocene pollen record of persistent droughts from Pyramid Lake, Nevada, USA. Quaternary Research 62, 29–38.Google Scholar
Mensing, S.A., Sharpe, S.E., Tunno, I., Sada, D.W., Thomas, J.M., Starratt, S., Smith, J., 2013. The Late Holocene Dry Period: Multiproxy evidence for an extended drought between 2800 and 1850calyr BP across the central Great Basin, USA. Quaternary Science Reviews 78, 266–282.Google Scholar
Muhammad, M.M., 2016. Structural Evolution of the Maynard Lake Fault within the Left-Lateral Pahranagat Shear Zone, Nevada USA. Master's thesis, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.Google Scholar
Paces, J.B., Wurster, F.C., 2014. Natural uranium and strontium isotope tracers of water sources and surface water–groundwater interactions in arid wetlands – Pahranagat Valley, Nevada, USA. Journal of Hydrology 517, 213–225.Google Scholar
Phillips, S.C., Johnson, J.E., Miranda, E., Disenhof, C., 2011. Improving CHN measurements in carbonate-rich marine sediments. Limnology and Oceanography Methods 9, 194–203.Google Scholar
Quade, J., Forester, R.M., Pratt, W.L., Carter, C., 1998. Black mats, spring-fed streams, and late-glacial-age recharge in the southern Great Basin. Quaternary Research 49, 129–148.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Ramsey, C.B., Buck, C.E., et al. , 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55, 1869–1887.Google Scholar
Reinemann, S.A., Porinchu, D.F., Bloom, A.M., Mark, B.G., Box, J.E., 2009. A multi-proxy paleolimnological reconstruction of Holocene climate conditions in the Great Basin, United States. Quaternary Research 72, 347–358.Google Scholar
Salzer, M.W., Bunn, A.G., Graham, N.E., Hughes, M.K., 2014. Five millennia of paleotemperature from tree-rings in the Great Basin, USA. Climate Dynamics 42, 1517–1526.Google Scholar
Springer, K.B., Manker, C.R., Pigati, J.S., 2015. Dynamic response of desert wetlands to abrupt climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112, 14522–14526.Google Scholar
Stine, S., 1990. Late Holocene fluctuations of Mono Lake, eastern California. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 78, 333–381.Google Scholar
Stine, S., 1994. Extreme and persistent drought in California and Patagonia during mediaeval time. Nature 369, 546–549.Google Scholar
Talbot, M.R., 1990. A review of the palaeohydrological interpretation of carbon and oxygen isotopic ratios in primary lacustrine carbonates. Chemical Geology: Isotope Geoscience section 80, 261–279.Google Scholar
Tausch, R., Nowak, C., Mensing, S., 2004. Climate change and associated vegetation dynamics during the Holocene: the paleoecological record. In: Chambers, J.C., Miller, J.R. (Eds.), Great Basin Riparian Ecosystems: Ecology, Management and Restoration. Island Press, Covelo, CA, pp. 24–28.Google Scholar
Tyler, S.W., Chapman, J.B., Conrad, S.H., Hammermeister, D.P., Blout, D.O., Miller, J.J., Sully, M.J., Ginanni, J.M., 1996. Soil-water flux in the southern Great Basin, United States: temporal and spatial variations over the last 120,000 years. Water Resources Research 32, 1481–1499.Google Scholar
Verardo, D.J., Froelich, P.N., McIntyre, A., 1990. Determination of organic carbon and nitrogen in marine sediments using the Carlo Erba NA-1500 analyzer. Deep Sea Research Part A: Oceanographic Research Papers 37, 157–165.Google Scholar
Wigand, P.E., 1996. A Late-Holocene pollen record from Lower Pahranagat Lake, southern Nevada, USA: high resolution paleoclimatic records and analysis of environmental responses to climate change. In: Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Pacific Climate (PACLIM) Workshop. Interagency Ecological Program for the Sacramento–San Joaquin Estuary, Sacramento, CA, pp. 63–77.Google Scholar
Wigand, P.E., Rhode, D., 2002. Great Basin vegetation history and aquatic systems: the last 150,000 years. In: Hershler, R., Madsen, D.B., Currey, D.R. (Eds.), Great Basin Aquatic Systems History. Smithsonian Contributions to the Earth Sciences 33. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, pp. 309–367.Google Scholar
Wurster, F.C., 2010. Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge Hydrologic Analysis Report. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Sacramento, CA.Google Scholar