Pollen record from Ka'au Crater, Oahu, Hawaii: Evidence for a dry glacial maximum

Conference · Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1993 · Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America; (United States)

OSTI ID:6146618

Hotchkiss, S C; Juvik, J O ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Minnesota, St.Paul (United States) Univ. of Hawaii, Hilo (United States)

Fossil pollen from a 3.5 m-long core from Ka'au Crater, Hawaii (elev. 460 m), yields a ca. 23,000-year record of regional vegetation history. Results indicate a full-glacial period drier and possibly cooler than present, a warmer and wetter early Holocene, and a somewhat drier late Holocene; this sequence agrees with earlier work by Selling (1948) on other islands. The oldest zone is donated by pollen of Chenopodium oahuense, Acacia koa, and Dodonaea viscosa; post-glacial pollen assemblages feature high percentages of Myrsine and Coprosma, followed by increases in Lycopodium cernuum Ilex anomala. Freycinetia arborea and Pritchardia. After about 8000 years ago, Chenopodium, Acacia, and Dodonaea increase, suggesting a return to drier conditions. Abundant pollen of Chenopodium oahuense, a plant of dry regions, during the last glacial maximum implies that neither the trade winds nor cyclonic storms were delivering as much moisture to the regional vegetation as they presently do. This suggests that the ocean surface temperature during the last glacial maximum may have been cooler than present, a finding contradictory to the reconstructions of the CLIMAP (1981) group, which show temperatures near Hawaii equal to or even warmer than present.

• OSTI ID: 6146618
• Report Number(s): CONF-930798-; CODEN: BECLAG
• Journal Information: Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America; (United States), Vol. 74:2; Conference: 78. annual Ecological Society of America (ESA) meeting, Madison, WI (United States), 31 Jul - 4 Aug 1993; ISSN 0012-9623
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CLIMATIC CHANGE
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
PLANTS
POPULATION DYNAMICS
QUATERNARY PERIOD
HAWAII
PALEOCLIMATOLOGY
POLLEN
SEAS
TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT
TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS
CENOZOIC ERA
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
ECOSYSTEMS
GAMETES
GEOLOGIC AGES
GERM CELLS
NORTH AMERICA
PALEONTOLOGY
SURFACE WATERS
USA
540110*