Cliff-top eolian deposits and associated molluscan assemblages as indicators of Late Pleistocene and Holocene environments in Beringia

Lauriol, Bernard; Cabana, Yannick.; Cinq-Mars, Jacques; Geurts, Marie-Anne; Grimm, F.Wayne

doi:10.1016/s1040-6182(01)00062-3

Cited by 28 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…10b). Strong eolian activity during late-glacial times is also recorded from the Tuktoyaktuk Coastlands (Murton et al, 1997;Bateman and Murton, 2006;, the interior Yukon (Lauriol et al, 2002), and Northern Alaska (Carter, 1981(Carter, , 1983Dinter et al, 1990). The source area for this deflation may have been the exposed shelf, which would have been characterized by fine-grained calcareous deposits similar to those upthrust on Herschel Island.…”

Section: Depositional Environmentmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Mackay, 1971;Pollard and Dallimore, 1988;Pollard, 1990;Mackay and Dallimore, 1992;Lacelle et al, 2004Lacelle et al, , 2007Lacelle et al, , 2009Murton et al, 2004Murton et al, , 2005, sediment transport processes (e.g. Carter, 1981;Lauriol et al, 2002;Bateman and Murton, 2006;Murton and Bateman, 2007), peatland development (e.g. Eisner, 1991;Vardy et al, 1997Vardy et al, , 1998Vardy et al, , 2000Eisner et al, 2003), and vertebrate and invertebrate palaeoecology (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Eastern Beringia and beyond: Late Wisconsinan and Holocene landscape dynamics along the Yukon Coastal Plain, Canada

Fritz

Wetterich

Schirrmeister

et al. 2012

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

118

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Terrestrial permafrost archives along the Yukon Coastal Plain (northwest Canada) have recorded landscape development and environmental change since the Late Wisconsinan at the interface of unglaciated Beringia (i.e. Komakuk Beach) and the northwestern limit of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (i.e. Herschel Island). The objective of this paper is to compare the late glacial and Holocene landscape development on both sides of the former ice margin based on permafrost sequences and ground ice. Analyses at these sites involved a multi-proxy approach including: sedimentology, cryostratigraphy, palaeoecology of ostracods, stable water isotopes in ground ice, hydrochemistry, and AMS radiocarbon and infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) dating. AMS and IRSL age determinations yielded full glacial ages at Komakuk Beach that is the northeastern limit of ice-free Beringia. Herschel Island to the east marks the Late Wisconsinan limit of the northwest Laurentide Ice Sheet and is composed of ice-thrust sediments containing plant detritus as young as 16.2 cal ka BP that might provide a maximum age on ice arrival. Late Wisconsinan ice wedges with sediment-rich fillings on Herschel Island are depleted in heavy oxygen isotopes (mean δ 18O of − 29.1‰); this, together with low dexcess values, indicates colder-than-modern winter temperatures and probably reduced snow depths. Grain-size distribution and fossil ostracod assemblages indicate that deglaciation of the Herschel Island icethrust moraine was accompanied by alluvial, proluvial, and eolian sedimentation on the adjacent unglaciated Yukon Coastal Plain until~11 cal ka BP during a period of low glacio-eustatic sea level. The late glacial-Holocene transition was marked by higher-than-modern summer temperatures leading to permafrost degradation that began no later than 11.2 cal ka BP and caused a regional thaw unconformity. Cryostructures and ice wedges were truncated while organic matter was incorporated and soluble ions were leached in the thaw zone. Thermokarst activity led to the formation of ice-wedge casts and deposition of thermokarst lake sediments. These were subsequently covered by rapidly accumulating peat during the early Holocene Thermal Maximum. A rising permafrost table, reduced peat accumulation, and extensive ice-wedge growth resulted from climate cooling starting in the middle Holocene until the late 20th century. The reconstruction of palaeolandscape dynamics on the Yukon Coastal Plain and the eastern Beringian edge contributes to unraveling the linkages between ice sheet, ocean, and permafrost that have existed since the Late Wisconsinan.

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Section: Depositional Environmentmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eastern Beringia and beyond: Late Wisconsinan and Holocene landscape dynamics along the Yukon Coastal Plain, Canada

Fritz

Wetterich

Schirrmeister

et al. 2012

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

118

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“…2) and agree with previous radiocarbon ages for the (Licciardi et al, 1998), late-glacial localities with spruce macrofossils or pollen records dominated by spruce (Baker et al, 1992;Ruhe, 1969;Watts, 1983;Webb et al, 1983;Wells and Stewart, 1987), late-glacial loess localities with extralimital northern and western (i.e., cool climate) fossil land snails (Baker et al, 1986;Frye et al, 1974;Leonard, 1951;Leonard and Frye, 1960;Rousseau and Kukla, 1994;Ruhe, 1969;Wells and Stewart, 1987), and localities with extralimital northern mammals (FAUNMAP, 1994). Northern and western extralimital land snails include the species Vertigo modesta, Columella alticola, and Pupilla blandi, all of which do not occur in the central Great Plains region today, but have Cordilleran-boreal affinities (Lauriol et al, 2002). Extralimital northern mammals include the species Sorex arcticus, Rangifer tarandus, Tamias minimus, Microtus xanthognathus, Phenacomys intermedius, and Synaptomys borealis, all of whose present distributions are limited to tundra, boreal forest, or Cordilleran regions (FAUNMAP, 1994).…”

Section: Chronology and Dust Deposition Ratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unprecedented last-glacial mass accumulation rates determined by luminescence dating of loess from western Nebraska

et al. 2003

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A high-resolution chronology for Peoria (last glacial period) Loess from three sites in Nebraska, midcontinental North America, is determined by applying optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to 35-50 m quartz. At Bignell Hill, Nebraska, an OSL age of 25,000 yr near the contact of Peoria Loess with the underlying Gilman Canyon Formation shows that dust accumulation occurred early during the last glacial maximum (LGM), whereas at Devil's Den and Eustis, Nebraska, basal OSL ages are significantly younger (18,000 and 21,000 yr, respectively). At all three localities, dust accumulation ended at some time after 14,000 yr ago. Mass accumulation rates (MARs) for western Nebraska, calculated using the OSL ages, are extremely high from 18,000 to 14,000 yr-much higher than those calculated for any other pre-Holocene location worldwide. These unprecedented MARs coincide with the timing of a mismatch between paleoenvironmental evidence from central North America, and the paleoclimate simulations from atmospheric global circulation models (AGCMs). We infer that the high atmospheric dust loading implied by these MARs may have played an important role, through radiative forcing, in maintaining a colder-than-present climate over central North America for several thousand years after summer insolation exceeded present-day values.

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“…Fossil terrestrial mollusc communities are extremely useful when reconstructing environmental changes in Quaternary loess sequences from different continents (Limondin-Lozouet & Antoine 2001;Rousseau 2001;Lauriol et al 2002;Sümegi et al 2002;Wu et al 2002;Rossignol et al 2004). Terrestrial molluscs are mainly sensitive to temperature and moisture (Ložek 1964;Puisségur 1976;Solem 1984).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Terrestrial molluscan records of Weichselian Lower to Middle Pleniglacial climatic changes from the Nussloch loess series (Rhine Valley, Germany): the impact of local factors

Moine¹,

Rousseau²,

Antoine³

2005

Boreas

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P. 2005 (August): Terrestrial molluscan records of Weichselian Lower to Middle Pleniglacial climatic changes from the Nussloch loess series (Rhine Valley, Germany): the impact of local factors. Boreas, Vol. 34, pp. 363-380. Oslo. ISSN 0300-9483.Two malacological sequences sampled in loess sections P1 and P3 of Nussloch (Rhine Valley, Germany) provide the most complete and precise molluscan record of western Europe for the Weichselian Lower and Middle Pleniglacial from about 70 to 34 cal. kyr BP. Qualitative and statistical analyses were performed on 134 mollusc samples. In the most complete Lower Pleniglacial record (P1), malacofauna changes reflect three short phases of vegetation development and climatic improvement related to soils and probably interstadials. A steppe to herb/shrub tundra shift characterizes the Lower-Middle Pleniglacial transition and is followed in both malacological records by the same general environmental trend (decline in vegetation and humidity increase) ending with a new increase in temperature and vegetation cover at the top of P3. In the Middle Pleniglacial, the impact of each shorter climatic change on the malacofauna is less recognizable due to a higher sediment compaction and also to being differently recorded in both sequences as the local topography affects soil water resources, soil and vegetation development and malacofauna adaptation. A comparison shows that the western European biostratigraphical framework can thus be improved by coupling molluscan records from loess sections to pollen sequences.

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Cliff-top eolian deposits and associated molluscan assemblages as indicators of Late Pleistocene and Holocene environments in Beringia

Cited by 28 publications

References 36 publications

Eastern Beringia and beyond: Late Wisconsinan and Holocene landscape dynamics along the Yukon Coastal Plain, Canada

Eastern Beringia and beyond: Late Wisconsinan and Holocene landscape dynamics along the Yukon Coastal Plain, Canada

Unprecedented last-glacial mass accumulation rates determined by luminescence dating of loess from western Nebraska

Terrestrial molluscan records of Weichselian Lower to Middle Pleniglacial climatic changes from the Nussloch loess series (Rhine Valley, Germany): the impact of local factors

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