Articles | Volume 14, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1195-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1195-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
15 Aug 2018
Research article |
| 15 Aug 2018
| 15 Aug 2018
Drought and vegetation change in the central Rocky Mountains and western Great Plains: potential climatic mechanisms associated with megadrought conditions at 4200 cal yr BP
RED Lab, Department of Geography, University of Utah, Salt Lake City,
UT 84112, USA
Department of Botany, Charles University, Prague, 12801, Czech
Republic
Jacqueline J. Shinker
Department of Geography and Roy J. Shlemon Center for Quaternary
Studies, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA
Jonathon Preece
Department of Geography and Roy J. Shlemon Center for Quaternary
Studies, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA
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Basil A. S. Davis, Manuel Chevalier, Philipp Sommer, Vachel A. Carter, Walter Finsinger, Achille Mauri, Leanne N. Phelps, Marco Zanon, Roman Abegglen, Christine M. Åkesson, Francisca Alba-Sánchez, R. Scott Anderson, Tatiana G. Antipina, Juliana R. Atanassova, Ruth Beer, Nina I. Belyanina, Tatiana A. Blyakharchuk, Olga K. Borisova, Elissaveta Bozilova, Galina Bukreeva, M. Jane Bunting, Eleonora Clò, Daniele Colombaroli, Nathalie Combourieu-Nebout, Stéphanie Desprat, Federico Di Rita, Morteza Djamali, Kevin J. Edwards, Patricia L. Fall, Angelica Feurdean, William Fletcher, Assunta Florenzano, Giulia Furlanetto, Emna Gaceur, Arsenii T. Galimov, Mariusz Gałka, Iria García-Moreiras, Thomas Giesecke, Roxana Grindean, Maria A. Guido, Irina G. Gvozdeva, Ulrike Herzschuh, Kari L. Hjelle, Sergey Ivanov, Susanne Jahns, Vlasta Jankovska, Gonzalo Jiménez-Moreno, Monika Karpińska-Kołaczek, Ikuko Kitaba, Piotr Kołaczek, Elena G. Lapteva, Małgorzata Latałowa, Vincent Lebreton, Suzanne Leroy, Michelle Leydet, Darya A. Lopatina, José Antonio López-Sáez, André F. Lotter, Donatella Magri, Elena Marinova, Isabelle Matthias, Anastasia Mavridou, Anna Maria Mercuri, Jose Manuel Mesa-Fernández, Yuri A. Mikishin, Krystyna Milecka, Carlo Montanari, César Morales-Molino, Almut Mrotzek, Castor Muñoz Sobrino, Olga D. Naidina, Takeshi Nakagawa, Anne Birgitte Nielsen, Elena Y. Novenko, Sampson Panajiotidis, Nata K. Panova, Maria Papadopoulou, Heather S. Pardoe, Anna Pędziszewska, Tatiana I. Petrenko, María J. Ramos-Román, Cesare Ravazzi, Manfred Rösch, Natalia Ryabogina, Silvia Sabariego Ruiz, J. Sakari Salonen, Tatyana V. Sapelko, James E. Schofield, Heikki Seppä, Lyudmila Shumilovskikh, Normunds Stivrins, Philipp Stojakowits, Helena Svobodova Svitavska, Joanna Święta-Musznicka, Ioan Tantau, Willy Tinner, Kazimierz Tobolski, Spassimir Tonkov, Margarita Tsakiridou, Verushka Valsecchi, Oksana G. Zanina, and Marcelina Zimny
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2423–2445, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2423-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2423-2020, 2020
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Our study covers the full Holocene (the past 11 500 years) climate variability and vegetation composition and provides a test on how vegetation and climate interact to determine fire hazard. An important implication of this test is that percentage of tree cover can be used as a predictor of the probability of fire occurrence. Biomass burned is highest at ~ 45 % tree cover in temperate forests and at ~ 60–65 % tree cover in needleleaf-dominated forests.
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The Eurasian Modern Pollen Database (EMPD) contains pollen counts and associated metadata for 8134 modern pollen samples from across the Eurasian region. The EMPD is part of, and complementary to, the European Pollen Database (EPD) which contains data on fossil pollen found in Late Quaternary sedimentary archives. The purpose of the EMPD is to provide calibration datasets and other data to support palaeoecological research on past climates and vegetation cover over the Quaternary period.
Angelica Feurdean, Boris Vannière, Walter Finsinger, Dan Warren, Simon C. Connor, Matthew Forrest, Johan Liakka, Andrei Panait, Christian Werner, Maja Andrič, Premysl Bobek, Vachel A. Carter, Basil Davis, Andrei-Cosmin Diaconu, Elisabeth Dietze, Ingo Feeser, Gabriela Florescu, Mariusz Gałka, Thomas Giesecke, Susanne Jahns, Eva Jamrichová, Katarzyna Kajukało, Jed Kaplan, Monika Karpińska-Kołaczek, Piotr Kołaczek, Petr Kuneš, Dimitry Kupriyanov, Mariusz Lamentowicz, Carsten Lemmen, Enikö K. Magyari, Katarzyna Marcisz, Elena Marinova, Aidin Niamir, Elena Novenko, Milena Obremska, Anna Pędziszewska, Mirjam Pfeiffer, Anneli Poska, Manfred Rösch, Michal Słowiński, Miglė Stančikaitė, Marta Szal, Joanna Święta-Musznicka, Ioan Tanţău, Martin Theuerkauf, Spassimir Tonkov, Orsolya Valkó, Jüri Vassiljev, Siim Veski, Ildiko Vincze, Agnieszka Wacnik, Julian Wiethold, and Thomas Hickler
Biogeosciences, 17, 1213–1230, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-1213-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-1213-2020, 2020
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Related subject area
Subject: Atmospheric Dynamics | Archive: Terrestrial Archives | Timescale: Holocene
Patterns of centennial to millennial Holocene climate variation in the North American mid-latitudes
North Atlantic Oscillation polarity during the past 3 ka derived from lacustrine sediments of large lowland lake Schweriner See, NE-Germany
Regional pollen-based Holocene temperature and precipitation patterns depart from the Northern Hemisphere mean trends
Mid-Holocene reinforcement of North Atlantic atmospheric circulation variability from a western Baltic lake sediment record
Holocene sea level and environmental change at the southern Cape – an 8.5 kyr multi-proxy paleoclimate record from Lake Voëlvlei, South Africa
Tree-ring-based spring precipitation reconstruction in the Sikhote-Alin' Mountain range
Radionuclide wiggle matching reveals a nonsynchronous early Holocene climate oscillation in Greenland and western Europe around a grand solar minimum
Hydrological variations in central China over the past millennium and their links to the tropical Pacific and North Atlantic oceans
Atmospheric blocking induced by the strengthened Siberian High led to drying in west Asia during the 4.2 ka BP event – a hypothesis
Hydro-climatic variability in the southwestern Indian Ocean between 6000 and 3000 years ago
Evidence for increased expression of the Amundsen Sea Low over the South Atlantic during the late Holocene
The 4.2 ka BP event: multi-proxy records from a closed lake in the northern margin of the East Asian summer monsoon
Placing the Common Era in a Holocene context: millennial to centennial patterns and trends in the hydroclimate of North America over the past 2000 years
Multi-century cool- and warm-season rainfall reconstructions for Australia's major climatic regions
Reconstructing Late Holocene North Atlantic atmospheric circulation changes using functional paleoclimate networks
Periodic input of dust over the Eastern Carpathians during the Holocene linked with Saharan desertification and human impact
Frequency and intensity of palaeofloods at the interface of Atlantic and Mediterranean climate domains
A 250-year periodicity in Southern Hemisphere westerly winds over the last 2600 years
Non-linear regime shifts in Holocene Asian monsoon variability: potential impacts on cultural change and migratory patterns
The influence of atmospheric circulation on the mid-Holocene climate of Europe: a data–model comparison
Late Holocene summer temperatures in the central Andes reconstructed from the sediments of high-elevation Laguna Chepical, Chile (32° S)
Effects of dating errors on nonparametric trend analyses of speleothem time series
Precipitation variability in the winter rainfall zone of South Africa during the last 1400 yr linked to the austral westerlies
Relationship between Holocene climate variations over southern Greenland and eastern Baffin Island and synoptic circulation pattern
Bryan N. Shuman
Clim. Past, 20, 1703–1720, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1703-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1703-2024, 2024
Short summary
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A gap in understanding climate variation exists at centennial to millennial scales, particularly for warm climates. Such variations challenge detection. They exceed direct observation but are geologically short. Centennial to millennial variations that may have influenced North America were examined over the past 7 kyr. Significant patterns were detected from fossil pollen and sedimentary lake level changes, indicating ecological, hydrological, and likely human significance.
Marie-Luise Adolph, Sambor Czerwinski, Mirko Dreßler, Paul Strobel, Marcel Bliedtner, Sebastian Lorenz, Maxime Debret, and Torsten Haberzettl
Clim. Past Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2023-73, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2023-73, 2023
Revised manuscript accepted for CP
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We studied large-scale atmospheric conditions and lake-level variations using lake sediments from Schweriner See, NE-Germany. For the past 3000 years, our results suggest large-scale variability in the North Atlantic Oscillation, which is one of the main drivers of climate in the North Atlantic region, affecting, for example, winter temperature and precipitation. Lake-level variability is linked to precipitation changes and after the 12th century to anthropogenic impacts.
Ulrike Herzschuh, Thomas Böhmer, Manuel Chevalier, Raphaël Hébert, Anne Dallmeyer, Chenzhi Li, Xianyong Cao, Odile Peyron, Larisa Nazarova, Elena Y. Novenko, Jungjae Park, Natalia A. Rudaya, Frank Schlütz, Lyudmila S. Shumilovskikh, Pavel E. Tarasov, Yongbo Wang, Ruilin Wen, Qinghai Xu, and Zhuo Zheng
Clim. Past, 19, 1481–1506, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1481-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1481-2023, 2023
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A mismatch between model- and proxy-based Holocene climate change may partially originate from the poor spatial coverage of climate reconstructions. Here we investigate quantitative reconstructions of mean annual temperature and annual precipitation from 1908 pollen records in the Northern Hemisphere. Trends show strong latitudinal patterns and differ between (sub-)continents. Our work contributes to a better understanding of the global mean.
Markus Czymzik, Rik Tjallingii, Birgit Plessen, Peter Feldens, Martin Theuerkauf, Matthias Moros, Markus J. Schwab, Carla K. M. Nantke, Silvia Pinkerneil, Achim Brauer, and Helge W. Arz
Clim. Past, 19, 233–248, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-233-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-233-2023, 2023
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Productivity increases in Lake Kälksjön sediments during the last 9600 years are likely driven by the progressive millennial-scale winter warming in northwestern Europe, following the increasing Northern Hemisphere winter insolation and decadal to centennial periods of a more positive NAO polarity. Strengthened productivity variability since ∼5450 cal yr BP is hypothesized to reflect a reinforcement of NAO-like atmospheric circulation.
Paul Strobel, Marcel Bliedtner, Andrew S. Carr, Peter Frenzel, Björn Klaes, Gary Salazar, Julian Struck, Sönke Szidat, Roland Zech, and Torsten Haberzettl
Clim. Past, 17, 1567–1586, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1567-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1567-2021, 2021
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This study presents a multi-proxy record from Lake Voёlvlei and provides new insights into the sea level and paleoclimate history of the past 8.5 ka at South Africa’s southern Cape coast. Our results show that sea level changes at the southern coast are in good agreement with the western coast of South Africa. In terms of climate our record provides valuable insights into changing sources of precipitation at the southern Cape coast, i.e. westerly- and easterly-derived precipitation contribution.
Olga Ukhvatkina, Alexander Omelko, Dmitriy Kislov, Alexander Zhmerenetsky, Tatyana Epifanova, and Jan Altman
Clim. Past, 17, 951–967, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-951-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-951-2021, 2021
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We present the first precipitation reconstructions for three sites along a latitudinal gradient in the Sikhote-Alin' mountains (Russian Far East). The reconstructions are based on Korean pine tree rings. We found that an important limiting factor for this species growth was precipitation during the spring-to-early-summer period. The periodicity found in our reconstructions suggests the influence of El Niño–Southern Oscillation and Pacific Dedacadal Oscillation on the region's climate.
Florian Mekhaldi, Markus Czymzik, Florian Adolphi, Jesper Sjolte, Svante Björck, Ala Aldahan, Achim Brauer, Celia Martin-Puertas, Göran Possnert, and Raimund Muscheler
Clim. Past, 16, 1145–1157, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1145-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1145-2020, 2020
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Due to chronology uncertainties within paleoclimate archives, it is unclear how climate oscillations from different records relate to one another. By using radionuclides to synchronize Greenland ice cores and a German lake record over 11 000 years, we show that two oscillations observed in these records were not synchronous but terminated and began with the onset of a grand solar minimum. Both this and changes in ocean circulation could have played a role in the two climate oscillations.
Fucai Duan, Zhenqiu Zhang, Yi Wang, Jianshun Chen, Zebo Liao, Shitao Chen, Qingfeng Shao, and Kan Zhao
Clim. Past, 16, 475–485, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-475-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-475-2020, 2020
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We reconstruct a detailed history of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) using stalagmite records in central China during the last millennium. We estimate responses of the EASM to anthropogenic global warming by comparing its relative intensity between the Current Warm Period and Medieval Climate Anomaly, two recent warm periods. We also study potential links of the EASM to the tropical Pacific and North Atlantic oceans. This work advances our understanding of EASM dynamics.
Aurel Perşoiu, Monica Ionita, and Harvey Weiss
Clim. Past, 15, 781–793, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-781-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-781-2019, 2019
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We present a reconstruction of winter climate around 4.2 ka cal BP in Europe, west Asia, and northern Africa that shows generally low temperatures and heterogeneously distributed precipitation. We hypothesize that in the extratropical Northern Hemisphere the 4.2 ka BP event was caused by the strengthening and expansion of the Siberian High, which effectively blocked the moisture-carrying westerlies from reaching west Asia and also resulted in outbreaks of northerly cold and dry winds.
Hanying Li, Hai Cheng, Ashish Sinha, Gayatri Kathayat, Christoph Spötl, Aurèle Anquetil André, Arnaud Meunier, Jayant Biswas, Pengzhen Duan, Youfeng Ning, and Richard Lawrence Edwards
Clim. Past, 14, 1881–1891, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1881-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1881-2018, 2018
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The
4.2 ka eventbetween 4.2 and 3.9 ka has been widely discussed in the Northern Hemsiphere but less reported in the Southern Hemisphere. Here, we use speleothem records from Rodrigues in the southwestern Indian Ocean spanning from 6000 to 3000 years ago to investigate the regional hydro-climatic variability. Our records show no evidence for an unusual climate anomaly between 4.2 and 3.9 ka. Instead, it shows a multi-centennial drought between 3.9 and 3.5 ka.
Zoë A. Thomas, Richard T. Jones, Chris J. Fogwill, Jackie Hatton, Alan N. Williams, Alan Hogg, Scott Mooney, Philip Jones, David Lister, Paul Mayewski, and Chris S. M. Turney
Clim. Past, 14, 1727–1738, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1727-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1727-2018, 2018
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We report a high-resolution study of a 5000-year-long peat record from the Falkland Islands. This area sensitive to the dynamics of the Amundsen Sea Low, which plays a major role in modulating the Southern Ocean climate. We find wetter, colder conditions between 5.0 and 2.5 ka due to enhanced southerly airflow, with the establishment of drier and warmer conditions from 2.5 ka to present. This implies more westerly airflow and the increased projection of the ASL onto the South Atlantic.
Jule Xiao, Shengrui Zhang, Jiawei Fan, Ruilin Wen, Dayou Zhai, Zhiping Tian, and Dabang Jiang
Clim. Past, 14, 1417–1425, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1417-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1417-2018, 2018
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Multiple proxies of a sediment core at Hulun Lake in the northern margin of the EASM reveal a prominent dry event at the interval of 4210–3840 cal. yr BP that could be the regional manifestation of the 4.2 ka BP event. Future studies should be focused on the investigation of high-quality, high-resolution proxy records from climatically sensitive and geographically representative regions in order to explore the spatiotemporal pattern of the 4.2 ka BP event and the associated dynamic mechanism.
Bryan N. Shuman, Cody Routson, Nicholas McKay, Sherilyn Fritz, Darrell Kaufman, Matthew E. Kirby, Connor Nolan, Gregory T. Pederson, and Jeannine-Marie St-Jacques
Clim. Past, 14, 665–686, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-665-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-665-2018, 2018
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A synthesis of 93 published records reveals that moisture availability increased over large portions of North America over the past 2000 years, the Common Era (CE). In many records, the second millennium CE tended to be wetter than the first millennium CE. The long-term changes formed the background for annual to multi-decade variations, such as "mega-droughts", and also provide a context for amplified rates of hydrologic change today.
Mandy Freund, Benjamin J. Henley, David J. Karoly, Kathryn J. Allen, and Patrick J. Baker
Clim. Past, 13, 1751–1770, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-1751-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-1751-2017, 2017
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To understand how climate change will influence Australian rainfall we must first understand the long-term context of droughts and floods. We reconstruct warm and cool season rainfall in Australia's eight major climatic regions for several centuries into the past, building the clearest picture yet of long-term rainfall variability across the Australian continent. We find recent rainfall increases in the warm season in the north, and declines in the cool season in the south, to be highly unusual.
Jasper G. Franke, Johannes P. Werner, and Reik V. Donner
Clim. Past, 13, 1593–1608, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-1593-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-1593-2017, 2017
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We apply evolving functional network analysis, a tool for studying temporal changes of the spatial co-variability structure, to a set of
Late Holocene paleoclimate proxy records covering the last two millennia. The emerging patterns obtained by our analysis are related to
long-term changes in the dominant mode of atmospheric circulation in the region, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). We obtain a
qualitative reconstruction of the NAO long-term variability over the entire Common Era.
Jack Longman, Daniel Veres, Vasile Ersek, Ulrich Salzmann, Katalin Hubay, Marc Bormann, Volker Wennrich, and Frank Schäbitz
Clim. Past, 13, 897–917, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-897-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-897-2017, 2017
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We present the first record of dust input into an eastern European bog over the past 10 800 years. We find significant changes in past dust deposition, with large inputs related to both natural and human influences. We show evidence that Saharan desertification has had a significant impact on dust deposition in eastern Europe for the past 6100 years.
B. Wilhelm, H. Vogel, C. Crouzet, D. Etienne, and F. S. Anselmetti
Clim. Past, 12, 299–316, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-299-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-299-2016, 2016
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The long-term response of the flood activity to both Atlantic and Mediterranean climatic influences was explored by reconstructing the Foréant record. Both influences result in a higher flood frequency during past cold periods. Atlantic influences seem to result in more frequent high-intensity flood events during past warm periods, suggesting an increase in flood intensity under the global warming. However, no high-intensity events occurred during the 20th century.
C. S. M. Turney, R. T. Jones, C. Fogwill, J. Hatton, A. N. Williams, A. Hogg, Z. A. Thomas, J. Palmer, S. Mooney, and R. W. Reimer
Clim. Past, 12, 189–200, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-189-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-189-2016, 2016
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Southern Hemisphere westerly airflow is considered a major driver of Southern Ocean and global climate. Observational records, however, are limited. Here we present a new Falkland Islands record that exploits "exotic" South America pollen and charcoal to reconstruct changing airflow. We find stronger winds 2000–1000 cal. yr BP, associated with increased burning, and a 250-year periodicity, suggesting solar forcing. Our results have important implications for understanding late Holocene climates.
J. F. Donges, R. V. Donner, N. Marwan, S. F. M. Breitenbach, K. Rehfeld, and J. Kurths
Clim. Past, 11, 709–741, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-709-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-709-2015, 2015
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Paleoclimate records from cave deposits allow the reconstruction of Holocene dynamics of the Asian monsoon system, an important tipping element in Earth's climate. Employing recently developed techniques of nonlinear time series analysis reveals several robust and continental-scale regime shifts in the complexity of monsoonal variability. These regime shifts might have played an important role as drivers of migration, cultural change, and societal collapse during the past 10,000 years.
A. Mauri, B. A. S. Davis, P. M. Collins, and J. O. Kaplan
Clim. Past, 10, 1925–1938, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-1925-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-1925-2014, 2014
R. de Jong, L. von Gunten, A. Maldonado, and M. Grosjean
Clim. Past, 9, 1921–1932, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1921-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1921-2013, 2013
M. Mudelsee, J. Fohlmeister, and D. Scholz
Clim. Past, 8, 1637–1648, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-1637-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-1637-2012, 2012
J. C. Stager, P. A. Mayewski, J. White, B. M. Chase, F. H. Neumann, M. E. Meadows, C. D. King, and D. A. Dixon
Clim. Past, 8, 877–887, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-877-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-877-2012, 2012
B. Fréchette and A. de Vernal
Clim. Past, 5, 347–359, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-5-347-2009, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-5-347-2009, 2009
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Short summary
Between 4200 and 4000 cal yr BP, paleoecological evidence suggests a megadrought occurred in the central Rocky Mountains and western Great Plains. Modern climate analogues were used to explore potential climate mechanisms responsible for the ecological changes. Analogues illustrate that warm and dry conditions persisted through the growing season as a result of anomalously higher-than-normal heights centred over the Great Plains which suppressed moisture transport to the region.
Between 4200 and 4000 cal yr BP, paleoecological evidence suggests a megadrought occurred in the...
