An 800,000-year pollen record from Owens Lake, California; preliminary analyses

Litwin, Ronald J.; Adam, David; Frederiksen, Norman; Woolfenden, Wallace B.

doi:10.1130/0-8137-2317-5.127

Cited by 15 publications

(22 citation statements)

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“…This event corresponds to warming associated with Termination II. The estimated age of this warming event is in agreement with the Termination II event visible in the pollen record from nearby Owens Lake (Litwin et al, 1997). Zone 4, the Asteraceae zone (108.8 m to 103.5 m, 119-115 ka), contains higher percentages of Asteraceae and Cheno-Am pollen, indicating further warming during this time.…”

supporting

confidence: 70%

Pollen analysis of death valley sediments deposited between 166 and 114 ka

Bader¹

2000

Palynology

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To cite this article: Nicholas E. Bader (2000) Pollen analysis of death valley sediments deposited between 166 and 114 ka, Palynology, 24:1, 49-61 To link to this article: http://dx. AbstractSalt Core DV93-1, from Badwater Basin in California's Death Valley, is a nearly complete sedimentary record of mud and evaporite deposits spanning the past 192 ka. Fossil palynomorph assemblages from core depths of 151.8 m (ca. 166 ka) to 103.5 m (ca. 114 ka) have been analyzed as part of a larger study which will eventually include all of core DV93-1. The palynological analysis discussed here reveals four pollen zones between 151.8 m and 103.5 m. Zone 1, the "Cheno-Am" zone (151.8 m to 143.5 m depth, 166-154 ka), has high percentages of Chenopodiaceae/ Amaranthus (Cheno-Am) pollen, and is correlative with the end of marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (OIS) 7. Zone 2, the juniper zone (143.5 m to 117.3 m, 154-124 ka), correlates with OIS 6, as evidenced by high percentages of juniper (Cupressaceae) pollen and low percentages of Ambrosia pollen. Equivalent pollen assemblages are found at higher elevations in Death Valley today, where temperatures are 11° C cooler and rainfall is eight times greater. At the top of Zone 2 (124 ka), a simultaneous drop in juniper and increase in oak (Quercus) pollen occurs, followed by a replacement of Artemisia with Ambrosia in Zone 3, the oak zone. This event corresponds to warming associated with Termination II. The estimated age of this warming event is in agreement with the Termination II event visible in the pollen record from nearby Owens Lake (Litwin et al., 1997). Zone 4, the Asteraceae zone (108.8 m to 103.5 m, 119-115 ka), contains higher percentages of Asteraceae and Cheno-Am pollen, indicating further warming during this time.

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confidence: 70%

Pollen analysis of death valley sediments deposited between 166 and 114 ka

Bader¹

2000

Palynology

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“…The TCT pollen abundance (i.e., percentage with respect to all terrestrial taxa) in these cores is a proxy for the relative abundance of juniper-pinon woodland along the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada. This woodland comprises the lowest elevation forest along the Sierran front; below it are steppe and desertscrub biomes (Barbour and Major, 1977;Woolfenden, 1993;Litwin et al, 1997). Because of this position of the juniperpinon woodland zone in the elevation-banded sequence of vegetation along the Sierran front and the sensitivity of its lower ecotone TCT is a responsive taxon to climate change and thus is a good proxy climate indicator (Litwin et al, 1999).…”

Section: Rationale and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This diminished the montane forests spatially, with respect to the areal extent of the juniper-pinon woodland downslope. Mean annual temperatures also were suppressed along elevation gradient of the Sierran front, and the juniperpinon woodland consequently expanded further downslope to occupy an increased area of suitable habitat on the lowest mountain slopes and bajadas (Litwin et al, 1997). Accordingly, juniper-pinon woodland probably increased in total area and in overall proximity to the lakes, resulting in an increased relative TCT signal in lacustrine sediments during cold climate intervals.…”

Section: Rationale and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Owens Lake sedimentary record contains important information on Late Pleistocene to Holocene proxy climate trends (Benson and Bischoff, 1993;Bischoff, 1993;Bradbury, 1993;Litwin et al, 1993;Woolfenden, 1993;Benson et al, 1996, Benson et al, 1997Bischoff et al, 1997a;Bischoff et al, 1997b;Bradbury, 1997a;Bradbury, 1997b;Litwin et al, 1997;Menking et al, 1997;Sarna-Wojcicki et al, 1997;Bischoff et al, 1998;Bradbury and Paquette, 1998;Forester and Carter, 1998;Litwin, 1998). Many of these studies used the age model developed for the longest core through Owens Lake (OL-92), which was based on a calculation of mass accumulation rate (MAR) of sediments (Bischoff, 1993;Bischoff et al, 1997b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This common pollen source is situated windward of both Owens and Searles Lake. It was reasoned that the airborne pollen assemblages: 1) largely were a function of the vegetation occupying the flank of the Sierra Nevada (Litwin et al, 1997, Litwin et al, 1999, 2) changed in character as climate changed, because climatic change forced environmental and thus vegetational changes at the pollen source area, and 3) were deposited as aerosol particles in the same sequence, character, and timing into both lakes (Litwin et al, 1999). From this, it was deduced that a sufficiently finely-resolved pollen sequence from each lake's sediments could become an accurate bridge for transferring radiometric ages from Searles Lake to Owens Lake.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Increasing the accuracy of dating and time distribution through late Pleistocene lake sediments by pollen aerosol sequencing

Litwin¹

2000

Open-File Report

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Age control in Owens Lake sediments is effectively limited at present to the analytical limit of 14C analyses (<35 ka) and the occurrence of the Bishop Ash (759 ka). A number of recently published attempts to interpolate between these two control points are based on unrealistic geologic models. Radiometric dates are available for the interval between these two age controls, but in the lacustrine sequence preserved in Searles Lake, located downflow in this same hydrologic drainage. However, airborne pollen (pollen aerosol) fallout from the Sierra Nevada provided a characteristic and continuous common detrital signal to both Owens Lake and Searles Lake throughout the late Pleistocene, thereby enabling the fossil pollen record to be used as a means for exporting absolute ages from Searles Lake to Owens Lake. Provisional ages for intermittent depths then were assigned by interpolating linearly between the newly imported control points in Owens Lake. These results, based on a total of more than 350 pollen assemblage analyses and 5 published U-Th dates from Searles Lake, appear to provide a geologically reasonable and accurate age model for Owens Lake sediments through the interval spanning 65-135 ka (which includes all of the Last Interglacial interval).

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Climatic Oscillations 10,000–155,000 yr B.P. at Owens Lake, California Reflected in Glacial Rock Flour Abundance and Lake Salinity in Core OL-92

et al. 1997

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Chemical analyses of the acid-soluble and clay-size fractions of sediment samples (1500-yr resolution) reveal oscillations of lake salinity and of glacial advances in core OL-92 back to 155,000 yr B.P. Relatively saline conditions are indicated by the abundance of carbonate and smectite (both pedogenic and authigenic), reflected by Ca, Sr, and Mg in the acid-soluble suite, and by Cs2O, excess MgO, and LOI (loss on ignition) in the clay-size fraction. Rock flour produced during glacial advances is represented by the abundance of detrital plagioclase and biotite in the clay-size fraction, the ratio of which remains essentially constant over the entire time span. These phases are quantitatively represented by Na2O, TiO2, Ba, and Mn in the clay fraction. The rock-flour record indicates two major ice-advances during the penultimate glacial cycle corresponding to marine isotope stage (MIS) 6, no major advances during the last interglaciation (entire MIS 5), and three major advances during the last glacial cycle (MIS 2, 3, and 4). The ages of the latter three correspond rather well to36Cl dates reported for Sierra Nevada moraines. The onset of the last interglaciation is shown by abrupt increases in authigenic CaCO3and an abrupt decrease in rock flour, at about 118,000 yr B.P. according to our time scale. In contrast, the boundary appears to be gradual in the δ18O record in which the change from light to heavy values begins at about 140,000 yrs B.P. The exact position of the termination, therefore, may be proxy-dependent. Conditions of high carbonate and low rock flour prevailed during the entire period from 118,000 yr B.P. until the glacial advance at 53,000 yr B.P. signaled the end of this long interglaciation.

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An 800,000-year pollen record from Owens Lake, California; preliminary analyses

Cited by 15 publications

References 0 publications

Pollen analysis of death valley sediments deposited between 166 and 114 ka

Pollen analysis of death valley sediments deposited between 166 and 114 ka

Increasing the accuracy of dating and time distribution through late Pleistocene lake sediments by pollen aerosol sequencing

Climatic Oscillations 10,000–155,000 yr B.P. at Owens Lake, California Reflected in Glacial Rock Flour Abundance and Lake Salinity in Core OL-92

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