Deglacial temperature controls on no-analog community establishment in the Great Lakes Region
Quaternary Science Reviews
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Abstract
Understanding the drivers of vegetation dynamics and no-analog communities in eastern North America is hampered by a scarcity of independent temperature indicators. We present a new branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether (brGDGT) temperature record from Bonnet Lake, Ohio (18 to 8 ka) and report uncertainty estimates based on Bayesian linear regression and bootstrapping. We also reanalyze a previously published brGDGT record from Silver Lake, Ohio, using improved chromatographic methods. All pollen- and brGDGT-based temperature reconstructions showed qualitatively similar deglacial trends but varying magnitudes. Separating 5- and 6- methyl brGDGTs resulted in substantially lower estimates of deglacial temperature variations (6.4 °C) than inferred from earlier brGDGT methods and pollen (11.8 °C, 12.0 °C respectively). Similar trends among proxies suggest good fidelity of brGDGTs to temperature, despite calibration uncertainties. At both sites, the rise and decline of no-analog communities closely track brGDGT-inferred temperatures, with a lag of 0 to 150 years. The timing of temperature and ecological events varies between Bonnet and Silver Lakes, likely due to age model uncertainties. Climate sensitivity analyses indicate a linear sensitivity of vegetation composition to temperature variations, albeit noisy and significant only with a 500-year bin. The formation of no-analog plant communities in the upper Midwest is closely linked to late-glacial warming, but other factors, such as temperature seasonality or end-Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions, remain viable.
Suggested Citation
Fastovich, D., Russell, J.M., Jackson, S., and Williams, J.W., 2020, Deglacial temperature controls on no-analog community establishment in the Great Lakes Region: Quaternary Science Reviews, v. 234, 106245, 16 p., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106245.
Study Area
| Publication type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Title | Deglacial temperature controls on no-analog community establishment in the Great Lakes Region |
| Series title | Quaternary Science Reviews |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106245 |
| Volume | 234 |
| Year Published | 2020 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| Contributing office(s) | Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center |
| Description | 106245, 16 p. |
| Country | United States |
| Other Geospatial | Great Lakes Region |