A CHRONOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE HOLOCENE VEGETATIONAL HISTORY OF CENTRAL MINNESOTA: THE STEEL LAKE POLLEN RECORD
Paleorecords from Minnesota and adjacent areas have often been used to evaluate large-scale climatic processes in the mid-continent of North America. However, most of these records are compromised by chronological flaws, making problematic any comparisons with climatic interpretations based on other records (e.g., GISP2 in Greenland). We report here a high-resolution pollen record with a secure chronology constrained by 26 {sup 14}C dates on terrestrial macrofossils from Steel Lake, central Minnesota. About 11,200 years ago (calibrated yr BP) the late-glacial Picea forest near Steel Lake was succeeded abruptly by Pinus banksiana and/or resinosa. The Pinus forest began to open 9.4 ka cal BP with the expansion of prairie taxa, and a pine parkland or savanna prevailed until about 8 ka cal BP, when Quercus replaced Pinus to become the dominant tree in the prairie areas for 4500 years. The close chronological control permits the correlation of key vegetational changes with those at other reliably dated sites in the eastern Dakotas and in Minnesota, suggesting that the abrupt decline of the spruce forest was time-transgressive from southwest to northeast during 2000 years, and that the development of prairie was time-transgressive in the same direction over 2600 years. Correlation of key pollen horizons at Steel Lake with those in the high-resolution pollen profiles of Elk Lake, ca. 50 km northwest of Steel Lake, suggests that the well-known Elk Lake varve chronology for the early Holocene is about 1000 years too young.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 15013695
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JRNL-200864; QSREDU; TRN: US200803%%1104
- Journal Information:
- Quaternary Science Reviews, Vol. 23, Issue 5-6; ISSN 0277-3791
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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