Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T06:56:20.930Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The influence of seasonal precipitation and temperature regimes on lake levels in the northeastern United States during the Holocene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Bryan Shuman  and
Jeffrey P. Donnelly
Bryan Shuman*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota Department of Geography and Limnological Research Center, 414 Social Science Building, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Jeffrey P. Donnelly
Affiliation:
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: +1 612 624 1044. Email Address:bshuman@umn.edu(B. Shuman), jdonnelly@whoi.edu(J.P. Donnelly).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

AMS–dated sediment cores combined with ground–penetrating radar profiles from two lakes in southeastern Massachusetts demonstrate that regional water levels rose and fell multiple times during the Holocene when the known climatic controls (i.e., ice extent and insolation) underwent unidirectional changes. The lakes were lowest between 10,000 and 9000 and between 5500 and 3000 cal yr B.P. Using a heuristic moisture-budget model, we explore the hypothesis that changes in seasonal precipitation regimes, driven by monotonic trends in ice extent and insolation, plausibly explain the multiple lake-level changes. Simulated lake levels resulting from low summer precipitation rates match observed low lake levels of 10,000–9000 cal yr B.P., whereas a model experiment that simply shifts the seasonality of the modern Massachusetts precipitation regime (i.e., moving the peak monthly precipitation from winter to summer) produces levels that are ∼2 m lower than today as observed for 5500–3000 cal yr B.P. The influence of the Laurentide ice sheet could explain dry summers before ca. 8000 cal yr B.P. A later shift from a summer-wet to a winter-wet moisture-balance regime could have resulted from insolation-driven changes in the influence of the Bermuda subtropical high. Temperature changes probably further modified lake levels by affecting snowmelt and transpiration.

Keywords

Lake levelsHoloceneClimateMoisture balanceNortheastern United StatesGround-penetrating radarMoisture-budget modeling
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 65 , Issue 1 , January 2006 , pp. 44 - 56
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Almendinger, J.E., (1990). Groundwater controls of closed-basin lake levels under steady-state conditions. Journal of Hydrology 112, 293–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Almquist, H., Dieffenbacher-Krall, A.C., Brown, R., Sanger, D., (2001). An 8000-yr holocene record of lake-levels at Mansell Pond, Central Maine, USA. The Holocene 11, 189–201.Google Scholar
Barber, D.C., Dyke, A., Hillaire-Marcel, C., Jennings, A.E., Andrews, J.T., Kerwin, M.W., Bilodeau, G., McNeely, R., Southon, J., Morehead, M.D., Gagnon, J.-M., (1999). Forcing of the cold event of 8,200 years ago by catastrophic drainage of Laurentide lakes. Nature 400, 344–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartlein, P.J., Anderson, P.M., Anderson, K.H., Edwards, M.E., Thompson, R.S., Webb, R.S., Webb III, T., Whitlock, C., (1998). Paleoclimate simulations for North America for the past 21,000 years: features of the simulated climate and comparisons with paleoenvironmental data. Quaternary Science Reviews 17, 549–585.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berger, A., Loutre, M.F., (1991). Insolation values for the climate of the last 10 million years. Quaternary Science Reviews 10, 297–317.Google Scholar
Carcaillet, C., Richard, P.J.H., (2000). Holocene changes in seasonal precipitation highlighted by fire incidence in eastern Canada. Climate Dynamics 16, 549–559.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
COHMAP Members (1988). Climatic changes of the last 18,000 years: observations and model simulations. Science 241, 1043–1052.Google Scholar
Davis, M.B., (1969). Climatic changes in southern Connecticut recorded by pollen deposition at Rogers Lake. Ecology 50, 409–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, M.B., Spear, R., Shane, L., (1980). Holocene climate of New England. Quaternary Research 14, 240–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dearing, J.A., (1997). Sedimentary indicators of lake-level changes in the humid temperate zone: a critical review. Journal of Paleolimnology 18, 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deevey, E.S. Jr.(1939). Studies on Connecticut lake sediments: I. A postglacial climatic chronology for southern New England. American Journal of Science 237, 691–724.Google Scholar
Digerfeldt, G., (1986). Studies on past lake-level fluctuations.Berglund, B.E., Handbook of Holocene Palaeoecology and Palaeohydrology John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, U.K..127–142.Google Scholar
Donovan, J.J., Smith, A.J., Panek, V.A., Engstrom, D.R., Ito, E., (2002). Climate-driven hydrologic transients in lake sediment records: calibration of groundwater conditions using 20th century drought. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 605–624.Google Scholar
Dyke, A.S., Prest, V.K., (1987). Late-Wisconsinan and Holocene history of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Geographie Physique et Quaternaire 41, 237–263.Google Scholar
Filby, S.K., Locke, S.M., Person, M.A., Winter, T.C., Rosenberry, D.O., Nieber, J.L., Gutowski, W.J., Ito, E., (2002). Mid-Holocene Hydrologic Model of the Shingobee Watershed, Minnesota. Quaternary Research 58, 246–254.Google Scholar
Hansen, B.P., Lapham, W.W., (1992). Geohydrology and Simulated Ground–water Flow, Plymouth–Carver aquifer, Southeastern Massachusetts.. United States Geological Survey Water Resources Investigation Report 90–4204, Marlborough, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Harrison, S.P., (1989). Lake-level records from Canada and the eastern United States of America.. Lundqua Report 29. Lund University. Dept. of Quaternary Geology (81 pp).Google Scholar
Harrison, S.P., Kutzbach, J.E., Liu, Z., Bartlein, P.J., Otto-Bliesner, B., Muhs, D., Prentice, I.C., Thompson, R.S., (2003). Mid-Holocene climates of the Americas: a dynamical response to changed seasonality. Climate Dynamics 20, 663–688.Google Scholar
Huang, Y., Shuman, B., Wang, Y., Webb, T. III(2002). Hydrogen isotope ratios of palmitic acid in lacustrine sediments record late-Quaternary climate variations. Geology 30, 1103–1106.Google Scholar
Kistler, R., Kalnay, E., Collins, W., Saha, S., White, G., Woollen, J., Chelliah, M., Ebisuzaki, W., Kanamitsu, M., Kousky, V., van den Dool, H., Jenne, R., Fiorino, M., (2001). The NCEP-NCAR 50-year reanalysis: monthly means CD-ROM and documentation. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 82, 247–267.Google Scholar
Knowles, N., Cayan, D., (2002). Potential effects of global warming on the Sacramento/San Joaquin watershed and the San Francisco estuary. Geophysical Research Letters 29, 38-1–38-4.Google Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E., (1980). Estimates of past climare at Paleolake Chad, North Africa, based on a hydrological and energy-balance model. Quaternary Research 14, 210 Google Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E., Gallimore, R., Harrison, S., Behling, P., Selin, R., Laarif, F., (1998). Climate and Biome simulations for the past 21,000 years. Quaternary Science Reviews 17, 473–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lavoie, M., Richard, P.J.H., (2000). Postglacial water-level changes of a small lake in southern Quebec, Canada. The Holocene 10, 621–634.Google Scholar
Mock, C.J., (1996). Climatic controls and spatial variations of precipitation in the Western United States. Journal of Climate 9, 1111–1125.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moorman, B.J., (2002). Ground-penetrating radar applications in paleolimnology.Last, W.M., Smol, J.P., Tracking Environmental Change Using Lake Sediments Basin Analysis, Coring, and Chronological Techniques vol. 1, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.23–47.Google Scholar
Muller, S.D., Richard, P.J.H., Guiot, J., de Beaulieu, J.-L., Fortin, D., (2003). Post-glacial climate in the Saint Laurence lowlands, southern Quebec: pollen and lake-level evidence. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 193, 51–72.Google Scholar
National Climate Data Center (NCDC), (1994). Time Bias Corrected Divisional Temperature-Precipitation-Drought Index.. Documentation for dataset TD–9640. Available from DBMB, NCDC, NOAA, Federal Building, 37 Battery Park Ave. Asheville, NC 28801–2733 (12 pp).Google Scholar
Newby, P.C., Killoran, P., Waldorf, M., Shuman, B.N., Webb, T. III, Webb, R.S., (2000). 14,000 years of sediment, vegetation and water level changes at the makepeace cedar swamp, Southeastern Massachusetts. Quaternary Research 53, 352–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sellers, W.D., (1965). Physical Climatology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.(272 pp.)Google Scholar
Shinker, J.J., (1999). Global Climate Animations. University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon.http://geography.uoregon.edu/envchange/clim_animations/index.html Google Scholar
Shuman, B., (2003). Controls on loss-on-ignition variation in cores from two small lakes in the northeastern United States. Journal of Paleolimnology 30, 26–41.Google Scholar
Shuman, B., Bravo, J., Kaye, J., Lynch, J.A., Newby, P., Webb, T. III(2001). Late-quaternary water-level variations and vegetation history at Crooked Pond, Southeastern Massachusetts. Quaternary Research 56, 401–410.Google Scholar
Shuman, B., Bartlein, P., Logar, N., Newby, P., Webb, T. III(2002). Parallel climate and vegetation responses to the Early Holocene collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 1793–1805.Google Scholar
Shuman, B., Newby, P., Huang, Y., Webb, T. III(2004). Evidence for the close climatic control of New England vegetation history. Ecology 85, 1297–1310.Google Scholar
Shuman, B., Newby, P., Donnelly, J., Tarbox, A., Webb, T. III(2005). A record of late-Quaternary moisture-balance change and vegetation response in the White Mountains, New Hampshire. Annals of the American Association of Geographers 95, 237–248.Google Scholar
Spear, R.W., Davis, M.B., Shane, L.C.K., (1994). Late Quaternary history of low- and mid-elevation vegetation in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Ecological Monographs 64, 85–109.Google Scholar
Stewart, I.T., Cayan, D.R., Dettinger, M.D., (2004). Changes in snowmelt runoff timing in western North America under a ‘Business as Usual’ climate change scenario. Climatic Change 62, 217–232.Google Scholar
Street, F.A., Grove, A.T., (1979). Global Maps of Lake-Level Fluctuations since 30,000 yr B.P. Quaternary Research 12, 83–118.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Grootes, P.M., Braziunas, T.F., (1995). The GISP2 δ 18O climate record of the past 16,500 years and the role of sun, ocean, and volcanoes. Quaternary Research 44, 341–354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Beck, J.W., Burr, G.S., Hughen, K.A., Komar, B., McCormac, F.G., Plicht, J.V.D., Spurk, M., (1998). INTCAL98 Radiocarbon age calibration 24,000–0 cal BP. Radiocarbon 40, 1041–1083.Google Scholar
Suter, S.M., (1985). Late-glacial and Holocene vegetation history in southeastern Massachusetts: a 14,000 year pollen record. Current Research in the Pleistocene 2, 87–89.Google Scholar
Vassiljev, J., (1998). The simulated response of lakes to changes in annual and seasonal precipitation: implications for Holocene lake-level changes in northern Europe. Climate Dynamics 14, 791–801.Google Scholar
Vassiljev, J., Harrison, S.P., Guiot, J., (1998). Simulating the Holocene lake level record of Lake Bysjön, Southern Sweden. Quaternary Research 49, 62–71.Google Scholar
Webb, T. III, Richard, P., Mott, R.J., (1983). A mapped history of Holocene vegetation in southern Quebec. Syllogeus 49, 273–336.Google Scholar
Webb, R.S., Anderson, K.H., Webb, T. III(1993a). Pollen response-surface estimates of late-Quaternary changes in the moisture balance of the northeastern United States. Quaternary Research 40, 213–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webb, T. III, Bartlein, P.J., Harrison, S.P., Anderson, K.H., (1993b). Vegetation, lake level, and climate change in eastern North America.Wright, H.E. Jr., Kutzbach, J.E., WebbIII, T., Ruddiman, W.F., Street-Perrott, F.A., Bartlein, P.J., Global Climates Since the Last Glacial Maximum University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.415–467.Google Scholar
Webb, T. III, Anderson, K.H., Webb, R.S., Bartlein, P.J., (1998). Late Quaternary climate changes in eastern North America: a comparison of pollen-derived estimates with climate model results. Quaternary Science Reviews 17, 587–606.Google Scholar