'Little Ice Age' aridity in the North American Great Plains: a high-resolution reconstruction of salinity fluctuations from Devils Lake,North Dakota,USA
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online March, 1994
'Little Ice Age' aridity in the North American Great Plains: a high-resolution reconstruction of salinity fluctuations from Devils Lake,North Dakota,USA
The 'Little Ice Age' was an interval between about AD 1500 and 1850, characterized by advancing glaciers in mountainous regions of Europe and western North America. However, it is unclear whether this cool moist period was truly global in extent, or how it was manifested in other regions with different climatic controls. A high-resolution reconstruction of salinity fluctuations in Devils Lake, North Dakota, based on fossil diatoms, ostracode-shell geochemistry, and bulk-carbonate geochemistry, indicates that saline conditions prevailed throughout much of the recent past. These results suggest an arid climate in the northern Great Plains throughout the 'Little Ice Age' and that during this interval climatic gradients between the Great Plains and regions to both the east and west may have been quite steep.
Baker, R.G., Maher, LJ, Chumbley, C.A. and VanZant, K.L.1992: Patterns of Holocene environmental change in the midwestern United States. Quaternary Research37, 379-89.
2.
Barnosky, C.W., Grimm, E.C. and Wright, H.E.1987: Towards a postglacial history of the northern Great Plains: a review of the palaeoecological problems. Annals of the Carnegie Museum56, 259-73.
3.
Blasing, T.J. and Fritts, H.C.1976: Reconstructing past climatic anomalies in the North Pacific and western North America from tree-ring data. Quaternary Research6, 563-79.
4.
Bradbury, J.P.1988: A climatic limnologic model of diatom succession for palaeolimnological interpretation of varved sediments at Elk Lake, Minnesota . Journal of Palaeolimnology1, 115-31.
5.
Bradley, R.S. and Jones, P.D., editors, 1992: Climate since AD 1500 . New York: Routledge.
6.
Bryson, R.A.1966: Air masses, streamlines, and the boreal forest . Geographical Bulletin8, 228-69.
7.
Chivas, A.R., De Deckker, P. and Shelley, J.M.G.1983: Magnesium, strontium, and barium partitioning in nonmarine ostracode shells and their use in palaeoenvironmental reconstructions - a preliminary study. In Maddocks, R.F., editor, Applications of ostracoda, Houston: University of Houston, Geosciences Department, 238-49.
8.
Clark, J.S.1990: Fire and climate change during the last 750 yr in northwestern Minnesota. Ecological Monographs60, 135-39.
9.
De Deckker, P.1988: Biological and sedimentary facies of Australian salt lakes . Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology62, 237-70.
10.
De Deckker, P. and Forester, R.M.1988: The use of ostracods to reconstruct continental palaeoenvironmental records. In De Deckker, P., Colin, J.-P. and Peypouquet, J.-P., editors, Ostracoda in the earth sciences, Amsterdam: Elsevier , 175-98.
11.
Engstrom, D.R. and Nelson, S.R.1991: Palaeosalinity from trace metals in fossil ostracodes compared with observational records at Devils Lake, North Dakota, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology83, 295-312.
12.
Fritts, H.C., Lofgren, G.R. and Gordon, G.A.1979: Variations in climate since 1602 as reconstructed from tree rings. Quaternary Research12, 18-46.
13.
Fritz, S.C.1990: Twentieth-century salinity and water-level fluctuations in Devils Lake, North Dakota: a test of a diatom-based transfer function. Limnology and Oceanography35, 1771-81.
14.
Fritz, S.C., Juggins, S., Battarbee, R.W. and Engstrom, D.R.1991: Reconstruction of past changes in salinity and climate using a diatom-based transfer function. Nature352, 706-708.
15.
Gasse, F., Fontes, J.C., Plaziat, J.C., Carbonel, P., Kaczmarska, I., De Deckker, P., Soulie-Marsche, I., Callot, Y. and Dupeuble, P.A.1987: Biological remains, geochemistry and stable isotopes for the reconstruction of environmental and hydrological changes in the Holocene lakes from North Sahara. Paleogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology60, 1-46.
16.
Grimm, E.C.1983: Chronology and dynamics of vegetation change in the prairie-woodland region of southern Minnesota, USA. New Phytologist93, 311-50.
17.
Grove, J.M.1988: The Little Ice Age. New York : Methuen, pp. 494. Jacobson, H.A. and Engstrom, D.R.1989: Resolving the chronology of recent lake sediments: an example from Devils Lake, North Dakota. Journal of Palaeolimnology2, 81-98.
18.
Knox, J.C.1993: Large increases in food magnitude in response to modest changes in climate. Nature361, 430-32.
19.
Landsberg, H.E.1985: Historic weather data and early meteorological observations . In Hecht, A.D., editor, Paleoclimate analysis and modeling, New York: John Wiley, 27-70.
20.
Lister, G.S.1988: Stable isotopes from lacustrine ostracodes as tracers for continental palaeoenvironments. In De Deckker, P., Colin, J.P. and Peypouquet, J.P., editors, Ostracoda in the earth sciences, Amsterdam: Elsevier , 201-18.
21.
Meko, D.M.1992: Dendroclimatic evidence from the Great Plains of the United States. In Bradley, R.S. and Jones, P.D., editors, Climate since AD 1500 , New York: Routledge , 312-30.
22.
Müller, G., Irion, G. and Forstner, U.1972: Formation and diagenesis of inorganic Ca-Mg carbonates in the lacustrine environment. Naturwissenschaften59, 158-64.
23.
Sellers, W.D.1968: Climatology of monthly precipitation patterns in the western United States, 1931-1966. Monthly Weather Review96, 585-95.
24.
Swenson, H.A. and Colby, B.R.1955: Chemical quality of surface waters in Devils Lake Basin , North Dakota. US Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 1-79.
25.
ter Braak, C.J.F.1986: Canonical correspondence analysis: a new eigenvector technique for multivariate direct gradient analysis. Ecology67, 1167-79.
26.
Veizer, J.1983: Trace elements and isotopes in sedimentary carbonates . Reviews in Mineralogy11, 265-300.
27.
Webb, T., Cushing, EJ and Wright, H.E.1983: Holocene changes in vegetation of the Midwest. In Wright, H.E., editor, Late Quaternary environments of the United States, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 142-65.
28.
Whitlock, C. and Bartlein, PJ1993: Spatial variations of Holocene climatic change in the Yellowstone region. Quaternary Research39, 231-38.
29.
Wiche, GJ, Hoetzer, S.M. and Rankl, J.G.1986: Hydrology of the Devils Lake Basin, northeastern North Dakota. Bismark, North Dakota: North Dakota State Water Commission, Water Resources Investigation 3, pp. 86.
30.
Will, G.F.1946: Tree ring studies in North Dakota. North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station. Bulletin338, 1-24.
