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A lake sediment–based paleoecological reconstruction of late Holocene fire history and vegetation change in Great Basin National Park, Nevada, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2021

Christopher S. Cooper
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA
David F. Porinchu*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA
Scott A. Reinemann
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Geography and Social Work, Sinclair Community College, Dayton, Ohio 45402, USA
Bryan G. Mark
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
James Q. DeGrand
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
*
*Corresponding author at: Department of Geography, Environmental Change Laboratory, University of Georgia, 210 Field Street, Athens, GA 30602. E-mail address: porinchu@uga.edu (D.F. Porinchu).

Abstract

Analyses of macroscopic charcoal, sediment geochemistry (%C, %N, C/N, δ13C, δ15N), and fossil pollen were conducted on a sediment core recovered from Stella Lake, Nevada, establishing a 2000 year record of fire history and vegetation change for the Great Basin. Charcoal accumulation rates (CHAR) indicate that fire activity, which was minimal from the beginning of the first millennium to AD 750, increased slightly at the onset of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA). Observed changes in catchment vegetation were driven by hydroclimate variability during the early MCA. Two notable increases in CHAR, which occurred during the Little Ice Age (LIA), were identified as major fire events within the catchment. Increased C/N, enriched δ15N, and depleted δ13C values correspond with these events, providing additional evidence for the occurrence of catchment-scale fire events during the late fifteenth and late sixteenth centuries. Shifts in the vegetation community composition and structure accompanied these fires, with Pinus and Picea decreasing in relative abundance and Poaceae increasing in relative abundance following the fire events. During the LIA, the vegetation change and lacustrine geochemical response was most directly influenced by the occurrence of catchment-scale fires, not regional hydroclimate.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2021

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