Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:03:54.742Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mid- to Late-Wisconsin Pollen Record of San Felipe Basin, Baja California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Marı́a Socorro Lozano-Garcı́a ,
Beatriz Ortega-Guerrero  and
Susana Sosa-Nájera
Marı́a Socorro Lozano-Garcı́a*
Affiliation:
Cd. Universitaria, Instituto de Geologı́a, UNAM, Coyoacán, D.F. 04510, Mexicomslozano@servidor.unam.mx
Beatriz Ortega-Guerrero
Affiliation:
Cd. Universitaria, Instituto de Geofı́sica, UNAM, Coyoacán, D.F. 04510, Mexico
Susana Sosa-Nájera
Affiliation:
Cd. Universitaria, Instituto de Geologı́a, UNAM, Coyoacán, D.F. 04510, Mexico
*
1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Fax: 52 (5) 550-84-32.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A lacustrine sequence from Laguna Seca San Felipe, Baja California, in the southwestern Sonoran Desert, provides the first record of mid- to late-Wisconsin vegetation in one of the driest regions of North America. Pollen analysis was performed in the intermediate part of the sequence from ca. 44,000 to ca. 13,000 14C yr B.P. according to six 14C radiocarbon dates. Sedimentation of eolian sands prior to 44,000 14C yr B.P. indicates dry conditions. High pollen concentration of montane and chaparral species in the pollen assemblages contrast with the modern desert vegetation. Sixty-four pollen types were identified. The source of mid- to late-Wisconsin sedimentation must have been the plant communities in the surrounding highlands of the basin. Mid-Wisconsin pollen assemblages dominated by pines, junipers, and Artemisia reflect humid conditions in the area. By late Wisconsin time, a significant increment in junipers indicates a lowering in the altitudinal ranges of woodlands/chaparral. Pollen from wind-pollinated species is abundant while desert plants, specifically animal or insect pollinated species, are poorly represented. The San Felipe record does not identify the Last Glacial Maximum as the time of greatest effective moisture, as suggested by pluvial lake levels and other paleoclimatic evidence in the soutwestern United States.

Keywords

pollenQuaternarySonoran DesertBaja Californiapaleoclimatology
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , July 2002 , pp. 84 - 92
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

Anderson, R.S., and Van Devender, T.R. Comparison of pollen and macrofossils in packrat (Neotoma) middens: A chronological sequence from the Waterman mountains of Southern Arizona, U.S.A. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 69, (1991). 1 28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, R.S., and Van Devender, T.R. Vegetation history and paleoclimates of the coastal lowlands of Sonora, Mexico-pollen records from packrat middens. Journal of Arid Environments 30, (1995). 295 306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batten, D.J. Small Palynomorphs. Jones, T.P., and Rowe, N.P. Fossil Plants and Spores: Modern techniques. (1999). The Geological Society, London. 15 19.Google Scholar
Behl, R.J., and Kennett, J.P. Brief interstadial events in Santa Barbara Basin, NE Pacific, during the past 60 kyr. Nature 379, (1996). 243 246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Betancourt, J.L., Van Devender, T.R., and Martin, P.S. Packrat Middens: the Last 40,000 years of Biotic Change. (1990). Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Burk, J.H. Sonora Desert vegetation. Barbor, M.G., and Major, J. Terrestrial Vegetation of California. (1988). California Native Plant Society, 869 889.Google Scholar
Byrne, R. Prelimminary pollen analysis of deep sea drilling project leg 64, hole 480, core1-11. Curray, J.R., and Moore, D.G. Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project. (1982). U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington. 1225 1237.Google Scholar
Byrne, R., Mudie, P., and Soutar, A. A pollen/dinoflagellate chronology for DSPS Site 480, Gulf of California. Betancourt, J.L., and MacKay, A. Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Pacific Climate (PACLIM) Workshop. (1990). 105 110.Google Scholar
Cannariato, K., and Kennett, J.P. Climatically related millennial-scale fluctuations in strength of California margin oxygen-minimum zone during the past 60 k.y. Geology 27, (1999). 975 978.Google Scholar
Science 241, (1988). 1043 1052.Google Scholar
Cole, K.L. The lower Colorado valley: A Pleistocene desert. Quaternary Research 25, (1986). 392 400.Google Scholar
Cross, A.T. Determining Time Artifact Emplacement by Palynology. (1980). Colección Cientı́fica, SEP-INAHMemorias III Coloquio sobre Paleobotánica y Palinologı́a, p. 159–178.Google Scholar
Dial, K.P., and Czaplewski, N.J. Do woodrat middens accurately represent the animals' environments and diets? The Woodhouse Mesa Study. Betancourt, J.L., Van Devender, T.R., and Martin, P.S. Packrat Middens: The Last 40,000 Years of Biotic Change. (1990). Univ. Arizona Press, Tucson. 43 58.Google Scholar
Flower, B.P., and Kennett, J.P. The Younger Dryas cool episode in the Gulf of California. Paleocenography 5, (1990). 949 961.Google Scholar
Grimm, E.C. CONISS: A FORTRAN program for stratigraphical constrained cluster analysis by the method of incremental sum of squares. Computer and Geosciences 13, (1987). 13 35.Google Scholar
Grimm, E.C. Tilia 2 software. (1992). Illinois State Museum, Springfield.Google Scholar
Grimm, E.C., Jacobson, G.L., Watts, W.A., Hansen, B.C.S., and Maasch, K.A. A 50,000-year record of climatic oscillation from Florida and its temporal correlation with Heinrich events. Science 261, (1993). 198 200.Google Scholar
Hastings, J.R., and Humprey, R.R. Climatological data and statistics for Baja California. (1969). Univ. of ArizonaInstitute of Atmospheric Physics, Tucson.Google Scholar
Instituto de Geografı́a. (1994). Mapa de vegetación y uso de suelo, Escala 1:250,000 Instituto de Geografı́a, UNAM, México.Google Scholar
Keigwin, L.D., and Jones, G.A. Deglacial climatic oscillations in the Gulf of California. Paleoceanography 5, (1990). 1009 1023.Google Scholar
Kennett, J.P., and Ingram, B.L. A 20,000-year record of ocean circulation and climate change from the Santa Barbara Basin. Nature 377, (1995). 510 514.Google Scholar
Kutzback, J.E., and Wright, H.E. Simulation of the climate of 18,000 years B. P.: Results for the North American/North Atlantic/European sector and comparison with the geological record of North America. Quaternary Science Reviews 4, (1985). 147 187.Google Scholar
Macı́as-Rodrı́guez, M.A. Análisis de las comunidades vegetales y composición florı́stica del' desierto de San Felipe, Baja California, México. (1998). Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Google Scholar
McAuliffe, J.R., and Van Devender, T.R. A 22,000-year record of vegetation change in the north-central Sonoran Desert. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 141, (1998). 253 275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minnich, R.A. The distribution of forest trees in northern Baja California, Mexico. Madroño 34, (1987). 98 127.Google Scholar
Metcalfe, S.E., Say, A., Black, S., McCulloch, R., and O'Hara, S.L. Wet conditions during the last glaciation in the Chihuahuan desert, Alta Babicora Basin, Mexico. Quaternary Research 57, (2002). 91 101.Google Scholar
Ortega-Guerrero, B., Caballero-Miranda, M., Lozano-Garcı́a, M.S., and De la O-Villanueva, M. Paleoenvironmental records of the last 70,000 yr in San Felipe Basin, Sonora desert, Mexico. Geofisica Internacional 38, (1999). 153 163.Google Scholar
Orvis, K.H. Modern surface pollen from three transects across the southern Sonoran Desert margin, northwestern Mexico. Palynology 22, (1998). 197 211.Google Scholar
Palacios-Fest, M.R., Carreño, A.L., Ortega-Ramı́rez, J.R., and Alvarado-Valdéz, G. A paleoenvironmental reconstruction of Laguna Babı́cora, Chihhuahua, Mexico based on ostracode paleoecology and trace element shell chemistry. Journal of Paleolimnology 27, (2002). 185 206.Google Scholar
Peinado, M., Bartolome, C., Delgadillo, J.Y., and Aguado, I. Pisos de vegetación de la sierra de San Pedro Mártir, Baja California. Acta Botánica Mexicana 29, (1994). 1 30.Google Scholar
Peñalba, M.C., and Van Devender, T.R. Pollen analysis of the late Wisconsin and Holocene packrat (Neotoma) middens from San Fernando and Cataviña, Baja California, Mexico. Second Annual Baja California Botanical Symposium. (1997). San Diego Natural History Mueseum, San Diego.Google Scholar
Pisias, N.G., Mix, A.C., and Heusser, L. Millennial scale variability of the northeast Pacific Ocean and northwest North America based on radiolaria and pollen. Quaternary Science Reviews 20, (2001). 1561 1576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhode, D. Early Holocene Juniper woodland and chaparral taxa in the central Baja California peninsula, Mexico. Quaternary Research 57, (2002). 102 108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rzedowski, J. Vegetación de México. (1978). Google Scholar
Shreve, F. Vegetation of the Sonora Desert. Shreve, F., and Wiggins, I.L. Vegetation and Flora of the Sonoran Desert. (1964). Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford. 259 293.Google Scholar
Slyker, R. G. 1970, Geological and geophysical reconnaisance of the Valle de San Felipe region, Baja California, Mexico. Unpublished masters thesis, San Diego State University.Google Scholar
Smith, G.I., and Street-Perrott, F.A. Pluvial lakes of the Western United States. Porter, S.C. Late Quaternary Environments of United States, Volume 1. The Late Pleistocene. (1983). Logman, London. 190 211.Google Scholar
Spaulding, W.G. Vegetational and climatic development of the Mojave desert: The last glacial maximum to the present. Betancourt, J.L., Van Devender, T.R., and Martin, P.S. Packrat Middens: The Last 40,000 Years of Biotic Change. (1990). Univ. Arizona Press, Tucson. 166 199.Google Scholar
Spaulding, W.G., Leopold, E.B., and Van Devender, T.R. Late Wisconsin paleoecology of the American southwest. Porter, S.C. Late Quaternary environments of United States, Volume 1. The Late Pleistocene. (1983). Logman, London. 259 293.Google Scholar
Thompson, R.S.C. Western North America. Vegetation dynamics in the western United States: Modes of response to climatic fluctuations. Huntley, B., Webb, T. III. Vegetation History. (1988). Kluwer Academic, Norwell. 415 458.Google Scholar
Thompson, R.S.C. Late Quaternary vegetation and climate in the Great Basin. Betancourt, J.L., Van Devender, T.R., and Martin, P.S. Packrat Middens: The Last 40,000 Years of Biotic Change. (1990). Univ. Arizona Press, Tucson. 200 239.Google Scholar
Thompson, R.S.C., Whitlock, C., Bartlein, P.J., Harrison, S.P., and Spaulding, W.G. Climatic changes in the western United States since 18,000 yr B. P. Wright, H.E. Jr., Kutzbach, E., Webb, T. III., Ruddiman, W.F., Street-Perrott, F.A., and Bartlein, P.J. Global Climates since the Last Glacial Maximum. (1993). Univ. of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. 468 515.Google Scholar
Turner, R.M., Bowers, J.E., and Burgess, T.L. Sonoran Desert Plants: An ecological Atlas. (1995). Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Van Devender, T.R. Late Quaternary vegetation and climate of the Sonora Desert, United States and Mexico. Betancourt, J.L., Van Devender, T.R., and Martin, P.S. Packrat Middens: The Last 40,000 Years of Biotic Change. (1990). Univ. Arizona Press, Tucson. 104 133.Google Scholar
Van Devender, T.R. 21,000 years of vegetation change in the northern Vizcaı́no, Baja California. Second Annual Baja California Botanical Symposium. (1997). San Diego Natural History Museum, San Diego.Google Scholar
Van Devender, T.R., Thompson, R.S., and Betancourt, J.L. Vegetation history of the deserts of southwestern North America: The nature and timing of the late Wisconsin–Holocene trasition. Ruddiman, W.F., Wright, H.J. Jr. North America and Adjacent Oceans during the Last Glaciation. (1987). Geol. Soc. Am, Boulder. 323 352.Google Scholar
Wells, P., and Hunziker, J.H. Origin of the creosote bush (Larrea) desert of soutwestern North America. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 63, (1976). 833 861.Google Scholar
Whitlock, C., and Grigg, L.D. Paleoecological evidence of Milankovitch and sub-Milankovitch climate variations in western US during the late Quaternary. Webb, R.S., Clark, P.U., and Keigwin, L.D. The Roles of High and Low Latitudes in Millennial-scale Global Climate Change. (1999). 227 243.Google Scholar
Wiggins, I.L. Flora of Baja California. (1980). Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford.Google Scholar