Premium
Late Wisconsin climate in northeastern USA and southeastern Canada, reconstructed from fossil beetle assemblages
Author(s) -
ELIAS SCOTT A.,
ANDERSON KATHERINE H.,
ANDREWS JOHN T.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of quaternary science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.142
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1099-1417
pISSN - 0267-8179
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1417(199609/10)11:5<417::aid-jqs273>3.0.co;2-k
Subject(s) - holocene , glacial period , geology , ice sheet , radiocarbon dating , physical geography , last glacial maximum , holocene climatic optimum , paleoclimatology , range (aeronautics) , before present , climate change , climatology , paleontology , oceanography , geography , materials science , composite material
Mean July and January temperatures are reconstructed from radiocarbon‐dated fossil beetle assemblages, yielding a synthesis of palaeoclimatic history of the regions south of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in North America from 35 000 to 8500 yr BP. Mean July temperatures close to the last glacial maximum were 11–12°C colder than present; mean January temperatures were possibly 10–19°C colder. Mutual climatic range analyses of the beetle assemblages show warming of mean summer temperatures as early as 13.7 kyr, although ice‐proximal sites were consistently about 5°C cooler than ice‐distal sites. Late‐glacial mean summer temperatures peaked between 12 and 11 kyr, then remained fairly constant through the early Holocene. Mean winter temperatures did not reach modern values until after 10 kyr.