Late holocene climate derived from vegetation history and plant cellulose stable isotope records from the Great Basin of western North America
- Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV (United States)
Integration of pollen records, and fossil woodrat midden data recovered from multiple strata of fossil woodrat (Neotoma spp.) dens (middens) in both northern and southern Nevada reveal a detailed paleoclimatic proxy record for the Great Basin during the last 45,000 years in growing detail. Clear, late Holocene climate-linked elevational depressions of plant species` distributions have occurred throughout the Great Basin of up to 200 m below today`s and by as much as 1000 m below what they were during the middle Holocene. Horizontal plant range extentions during the Holocene reflecting the final northern most adjustments to Holocene climates range up to several hundred kilometers in the Great Basin. Well documented lags evidenced in the late Holocene response of vegetation communities to increased precipitation indicate reduced effectiveness in the ability of plant communities to assimilate excess precipitation. This resulted in significant runoff that was available for recharge. These responses, although indicating both rapid and dramatic fluctuations of climate for the Holocene, fall far short of the scale of such changes during the late Pleistocene. Extension of these results to Pleistocene woodrat den and pollen data evidence spans lasting several hundred to a thousand or more years during which significantly greater amounts of precipitation would have been available for runnoff or recharge.
- Research Organization:
- American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), New York, NY (United States); American Nuclear Society (ANS), La Grange Park, IL (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC08-93NV11417
- OSTI ID:
- 60988
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-940553-Vol.4; TRN: 94:010821-0098
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: International high-level radioactive waste management conference, Las Vegas, NV (United States), 22-26 May 1994; Other Information: PBD: 1994; Related Information: Is Part Of High Level Radioactive Waste Management: Proceedings of the fifth annual international conference. Volume 4; PB: 1048 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
APPLIED STUDIES
PLANTS
POPULATION DYNAMICS
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
CLIMATIC CHANGE
BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS
YUCCA MOUNTAIN
SITE CHARACTERIZATION
POLLEN
ISOTOPE DATING
PALYNOLOGY
GREAT BASIN
PALEOCLIMATOLOGY
QUATERNARY PERIOD
CARBON 14
Yucca Mountain Project