Articles | Volume 11, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-1239-2015
© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-1239-2015
© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| 
30 Sep 2015
Research article |
| 30 Sep 2015
Climatic variability and human impact during the last 2000 years in western Mesoamerica: evidence of late Classic (AD 600–900) and Little Ice Age drought events
A. Rodríguez-Ramírez
Posgrado en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Instituto de Geofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
now at: Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
M. Caballero
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Instituto de Geofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
P. Roy
Instituto de Geología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
B. Ortega
Instituto de Geofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
G. Vázquez-Castro
Posgrado en Ciencias de la Tierra, Instituto de Geofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
now at: Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad Morelia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
S. Lozano-García
Instituto de Geología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico
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B. A. A. Hoogakker, R. S. Smith, J. S. Singarayer, R. Marchant, I. C. Prentice, J. R. M. Allen, R. S. Anderson, S. A. Bhagwat, H. Behling, O. Borisova, M. Bush, A. Correa-Metrio, A. de Vernal, J. M. Finch, B. Fréchette, S. Lozano-Garcia, W. D. Gosling, W. Granoszewski, E. C. Grimm, E. Grüger, J. Hanselman, S. P. Harrison, T. R. Hill, B. Huntley, G. Jiménez-Moreno, P. Kershaw, M.-P. Ledru, D. Magri, M. McKenzie, U. Müller, T. Nakagawa, E. Novenko, D. Penny, L. Sadori, L. Scott, J. Stevenson, P. J. Valdes, M. Vandergoes, A. Velichko, C. Whitlock, and C. Tzedakis
Clim. Past, 12, 51–73, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-51-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-51-2016, 2016
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In this paper we use two climate models to test how Earth’s vegetation responded to changes in climate over the last 120 000 years, looking at warm interglacial climates like today, cold ice-age glacial climates, and intermediate climates. The models agree well with observations from pollen, showing smaller forested areas and larger desert areas during cold periods. Forests store most terrestrial carbon; the terrestrial carbon lost during cold climates was most likely relocated to the oceans.
Related subject area
Subject: Continental Surface Processes | Archive: Terrestrial Archives | Timescale: Holocene
Holocene environmental and climate evolution of central west Patagonia as reconstructed from lacustrine sediments of Meseta Chile Chico (46.5° S, Chile)
Moss kill dates and modeled summer temperature track episodic snowline lowering and ice cap expansion in Arctic Canada through the Common Era
Missing sea level rise in southeastern Greenland during and since the Little Ice Age
Reconstructing burnt area during the Holocene: an Iberian case study
Expression of the “4.2 ka event” in the southern Rocky Mountains, USA
Arctic glaciers and ice caps through the Holocene:a circumpolar synthesis of lake-based reconstructions
Stalagmite carbon isotopes suggest deglacial increase in soil respiration in western Europe driven by temperature change
Climate-driven desertification and its implications for the ancient Silk Road trade
Diatom-oxygen isotope record from high-altitude Lake Petit (2200 m a.s.l.) in the Mediterranean Alps: shedding light on a climatic pulse at 4.2 ka
Episodic Neoglacial expansion and rapid 20th century retreat of a small ice cap on Baffin Island, Arctic Canada, and modeled temperature change
Climate trends in northern Ontario and Québec from borehole temperature profiles
Interactions between climate change and human activities during the early to mid-Holocene in the eastern Mediterranean basins
Laurentide Ice Sheet basal temperatures during the last glacial cycle as inferred from borehole data
Evidence of a prolonged drought ca. 4200 yr BP correlated with prehistoric settlement abandonment from the Gueldaman GLD1 Cave, Northern Algeria
Glacier response to North Atlantic climate variability during the Holocene
Twelve thousand years of dust: the Holocene global dust cycle constrained by natural archives
Numerical studies on the Impact of the Last Glacial Cycle on recent borehole temperature profiles: implications for terrestrial energy balance
Holocene climate change, permafrost and cryogenic carbonate formation: insights from a recently deglaciated, high-elevation cave in the Austrian Alps
Late Glacial–Holocene climatic transition record at the Argentinian Andean piedmont between 33 and 34° S
Holocene changes in African vegetation: tradeoff between climate and water availability
Orbital changes, variation in solar activity and increased anthropogenic activities: controls on the Holocene flood frequency in the Lake Ledro area, Northern Italy
Mass-movement and flood-induced deposits in Lake Ledro, southern Alps, Italy: implications for Holocene palaeohydrology and natural hazards
A Late Glacial to Holocene record of environmental change from Lake Dojran (Macedonia, Greece)
Bunker Cave stalagmites: an archive for central European Holocene climate variability
Temperature variability at Dürres Maar, Germany during the Migration Period and at High Medieval Times, inferred from stable carbon isotopes of Sphagnum cellulose
Carolina Franco, Antonio Maldonado, Christian Ohlendorf, A. Catalina Gebhardt, María Eugenia de Porras, Amalia Nuevo-Delaunay, César Méndez, and Bernd Zolitschka
Clim. Past, 20, 817–839, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-817-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-817-2024, 2024
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We present a continuous record of lake sediments spanning the Holocene from central west Patagonia. By examining various indicators like elemental composition and grain size data, we found that, around ~5500 years ago, the way sediments settled in the lake changed. On a regional scale, our results suggest that rainfall, influenced by changes in the Southern Hemisphere Westerly Winds, played a key role in shaping the environment of the region for the past ~10 000 years.
Gifford H. Miller, Simon L. Pendleton, Alexandra Jahn, Yafang Zhong, John T. Andrews, Scott J. Lehman, Jason P. Briner, Jonathan H. Raberg, Helga Bueltmann, Martha Raynolds, Áslaug Geirsdóttir, and John R. Southon
Clim. Past, 19, 2341–2360, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-2341-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-2341-2023, 2023
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Receding Arctic ice caps reveal moss killed by earlier ice expansions; 186 moss kill dates from 71 ice caps cluster at 250–450, 850–1000 and 1240–1500 CE and continued expanding 1500–1880 CE, as recorded by regions of sparse vegetation cover, when ice caps covered > 11 000 km2 but < 100 km2 at present. The 1880 CE state approached conditions expected during the start of an ice age; climate models suggest this was only reversed by anthropogenic alterations to the planetary energy balance.
Sarah A. Woodroffe, Leanne M. Wake, Kristian K. Kjeldsen, Natasha L. M. Barlow, Antony J. Long, and Kurt H. Kjær
Clim. Past, 19, 1585–1606, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1585-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1585-2023, 2023
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Salt marsh in SE Greenland records sea level changes over the past 300 years in sediments and microfossils. The pattern is rising sea level until ~ 1880 CE and sea level fall since. This disagrees with modelled sea level, which overpredicts sea level fall by at least 0.5 m. This is the same even when reducing the overall amount of Greenland ice sheet melt and allowing for more time. Fitting the model to the data leaves ~ 3 mm yr−1 of unexplained sea level rise in SE Greenland since ~ 1880 CE.
Yicheng Shen, Luke Sweeney, Mengmeng Liu, Jose Antonio Lopez Saez, Sebastián Pérez-Díaz, Reyes Luelmo-Lautenschlaeger, Graciela Gil-Romera, Dana Hoefer, Gonzalo Jiménez-Moreno, Heike Schneider, I. Colin Prentice, and Sandy P. Harrison
Clim. Past, 18, 1189–1201, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1189-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1189-2022, 2022
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We present a method to reconstruct burnt area using a relationship between pollen and charcoal abundances and the calibration of charcoal abundance using modern observations of burnt area. We use this method to reconstruct changes in burnt area over the past 12 000 years from sites in Iberia. We show that regional changes in burnt area reflect known changes in climate, with a high burnt area during warming intervals and low burnt area when the climate was cooler and/or wetter than today.
David T. Liefert and Bryan N. Shuman
Clim. Past, 18, 1109–1124, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1109-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1109-2022, 2022
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A large drought potentially occurred roughly 4200 years ago, but its impacts and significance are unclear. We find new evidence in carbonate oxygen isotopes from a mountain lake in southeastern Wyoming, southern Rocky Mountains, of an abrupt reduction in effective moisture (precipitation–evaporation) or snowpack from approximately 4200–4000 years ago. The drought's prominence among a growing number of sites in the North American interior suggests it was a regionally substantial climate event.
Laura J. Larocca and Yarrow Axford
Clim. Past, 18, 579–606, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-579-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-579-2022, 2022
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This paper synthesizes 66 records of glacier variations over the Holocene from lake archives across seven Arctic regions. We find that summers only moderately warmer than today drove major environmental change across the Arctic in the early Holocene, including the widespread loss of glaciers. In comparison, future projections of Arctic temperature change far exceed estimated early Holocene values in most locations, portending the eventual loss of most of the Arctic's small glaciers.
Franziska A. Lechleitner, Christopher C. Day, Oliver Kost, Micah Wilhelm, Negar Haghipour, Gideon M. Henderson, and Heather M. Stoll
Clim. Past, 17, 1903–1918, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1903-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1903-2021, 2021
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Soil respiration is a critical but poorly constrained component of the global carbon cycle. We analyse the effect of changing soil respiration rates on the stable carbon isotope ratio of speleothems from northern Spain covering the last deglaciation. Using geochemical analysis and forward modelling we quantify the processes affecting speleothem stable carbon isotope ratios and extract a signature of increasing soil respiration synchronous with deglacial warming.
Guanghui Dong, Leibin Wang, David Dian Zhang, Fengwen Liu, Yifu Cui, Guoqiang Li, Zhilin Shi, and Fahu Chen
Clim. Past, 17, 1395–1407, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1395-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1395-2021, 2021
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A compilation of the results of absolute dating and high-resolution paleoclimatic records from the Xishawo site in the Dunhuang area and historical archives reveals that two desertification events occurred at ~ 800–600 BCE and ~ 1450 CE. The later desertification event was consistent with the immediate fall in tribute trade that occurred in ~ 1450 CE, which indicates that climate change played a potentially important role in explaining the decline of the Ancient Silk Road trade.
Rosine Cartier, Florence Sylvestre, Christine Paillès, Corinne Sonzogni, Martine Couapel, Anne Alexandre, Jean-Charles Mazur, Elodie Brisset, Cécile Miramont, and Frédéric Guiter
Clim. Past, 15, 253–263, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-253-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-253-2019, 2019
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A major environmental change, 4200 years ago, was recorded in the lacustrine sediments of Lake Petit (Mediterranean Alps). The regime shift was described by a modification in erosion processes in the watershed and aquatic species in the lake. This study, based on the analysis of the lake water balance by using oxygen isotopes in diatoms, revealed that these environmental responses were due to a rapid change in precipitation regime, lasting ca. 500 years.
Simon L. Pendleton, Gifford H. Miller, Robert A. Anderson, Sarah E. Crump, Yafang Zhong, Alexandra Jahn, and Áslaug Geirsdottir
Clim. Past, 13, 1527–1537, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-1527-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-1527-2017, 2017
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Recent warming in the high latitudes has prompted the accelerated retreat of ice caps and glaciers, especially in the Canadian Arctic. Here we use the radiocarbon age of preserved plants being exposed by shrinking ice caps that once entombed them. These ages help us to constrain the timing and magnitude of climate change on southern Baffin Island over the past ~ 2000 years. Our results show episodic cooling up until ~ 1900 CE, followed by accelerated warming through present.
Carolyne Pickler, Hugo Beltrami, and Jean-Claude Mareschal
Clim. Past, 12, 2215–2227, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-2215-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-2215-2016, 2016
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The ground surface temperature histories of the past 500 years were reconstructed at 10 sites in northern Ontario and Quebec. The regions experienced a warming of ~1–2 K for the past 150 years, agreeing with borehole reconstructions for southern Ontario and Quebec and proxy data. Permafrost maps locate the sites in a region of discontinuous permafrost but our reconstructions suggest that the potential for permafrost was minimal to absent over the past 500 years.
Jean-Francois Berger, Laurent Lespez, Catherine Kuzucuoğlu, Arthur Glais, Fuad Hourani, Adrien Barra, and Jean Guilaine
Clim. Past, 12, 1847–1877, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-1847-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-1847-2016, 2016
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This paper focuses on early Holocene rapid climate changes in the Mediterranean zone, which are under-represented in continental archives, and on their impact on prehistoric societies from the eastern to central Mediterranean (central Anatolia, Cyprus, NE and NW Greece). Our study demonstrates the reality of hydrogeomorphological responses to early Holocene RCCs in valleys and alluvial fans and lake–marsh systems. We finally question their socio-economic and geographical adaptation capacities.
C. Pickler, H. Beltrami, and J.-C. Mareschal
Clim. Past, 12, 115–127, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-115-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-115-2016, 2016
J. Ruan, F. Kherbouche, D. Genty, D. Blamart, H. Cheng, F. Dewilde, S. Hachi, R. L. Edwards, E. Régnier, and J.-L. Michelot
Clim. Past, 12, 1–14, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-1-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-1-2016, 2016
N. L. Balascio, W. J. D'Andrea, and R. S. Bradley
Clim. Past, 11, 1587–1598, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-1587-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-1587-2015, 2015
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Sediment cores were collected from a lake that captures runoff from two glaciers in Greenland. Our analysis of the sediments shows that these glaciers were active over the last 9,000 years and advanced and retreated in response to regional climate changes. The data also provide a long-term perspective on the rate of 20th century glacier retreat and indicate that recent anthropogenic-driven warming has already impacted the regional cryosphere in a manner outside the range of natural variability.
S. Albani, N. M. Mahowald, G. Winckler, R. F. Anderson, L. I. Bradtmiller, B. Delmonte, R. François, M. Goman, N. G. Heavens, P. P. Hesse, S. A. Hovan, S. G. Kang, K. E. Kohfeld, H. Lu, V. Maggi, J. A. Mason, P. A. Mayewski, D. McGee, X. Miao, B. L. Otto-Bliesner, A. T. Perry, A. Pourmand, H. M. Roberts, N. Rosenbloom, T. Stevens, and J. Sun
Clim. Past, 11, 869–903, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-869-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-869-2015, 2015
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We propose an innovative framework to organize paleodust records, formalized in a publicly accessible database, and discuss the emerging properties of the global dust cycle during the Holocene by integrating our analysis with simulations performed with the Community Earth System Model. We show how the size distribution of dust is intrinsically related to the dust mass accumulation rates and that only considering a consistent size range allows for a consistent analysis of the global dust cycle.
H. Beltrami, G. S. Matharoo, L. Tarasov, V. Rath, and J. E. Smerdon
Clim. Past, 10, 1693–1706, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-1693-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-1693-2014, 2014
C. Spötl and H. Cheng
Clim. Past, 10, 1349–1362, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-1349-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-1349-2014, 2014
A. E. Mehl and M. A. Zárate
Clim. Past, 10, 863–875, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-863-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-863-2014, 2014
C. Hély, A.-M. Lézine, and APD contributors
Clim. Past, 10, 681–686, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-681-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-681-2014, 2014
B. Vannière, M. Magny, S. Joannin, A. Simonneau, S. B. Wirth, Y. Hamann, E. Chapron, A. Gilli, M. Desmet, and F. S. Anselmetti
Clim. Past, 9, 1193–1209, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1193-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1193-2013, 2013
A. Simonneau, E. Chapron, B. Vannière, S. B. Wirth, A. Gilli, C. Di Giovanni, F. S. Anselmetti, M. Desmet, and M. Magny
Clim. Past, 9, 825–840, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-825-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-825-2013, 2013
A. Francke, B. Wagner, M. J. Leng, and J. Rethemeyer
Clim. Past, 9, 481–498, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-481-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-481-2013, 2013
J. Fohlmeister, A. Schröder-Ritzrau, D. Scholz, C. Spötl, D. F. C. Riechelmann, M. Mudelsee, A. Wackerbarth, A. Gerdes, S. Riechelmann, A. Immenhauser, D. K. Richter, and A. Mangini
Clim. Past, 8, 1751–1764, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-1751-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-1751-2012, 2012
R. Moschen, N. Kühl, S. Peters, H. Vos, and A. Lücke
Clim. Past, 7, 1011–1026, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-7-1011-2011, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-7-1011-2011, 2011
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Short summary
We present results from western Mexico, where very few palaeoclimatic research sites exist. The record has good chronological resolution (ca. 20 years) and clear climatic trends during the last 2ka. The most important signals are: dry conditions during the late Classic (AD 500 to 1000), especially from AD 600 to 800, and low lake levels during the LIA, in two phases that follow Spörer and Maunder solar minima. Drier conditions are related with a lower intensity of the North American monsoon.
We present results from western Mexico, where very few palaeoclimatic research sites exist. The...
