Open AccessA 1200 year record of hydrologic variability in the Sierra Nevada from sediments in Walker Lake, Nevada
Author(s) -
Yuan Fasong,
Linsley Braddock K.,
Lund Steve P.,
McGeehin John P.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
geochemistry, geophysics, geosystems
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.928
H-Index - 136
ISSN - 1525-2027
DOI - 10.1029/2003gc000652
Subject(s) - geology , radiocarbon dating , sediment , hydrology (agriculture) , drainage basin , dendrochronology , structural basin , streams , total organic carbon , climate change , physical geography , climatology , oceanography , geomorphology , paleontology , computer network , geotechnical engineering , cartography , computer science , geography , ecology , biology
Measurements of the oxygen isotopic composition (δ 18 O) of the total inorganic carbon (TIC) fraction from cored sediments of Walker Lake, Nevada, were conducted at an average resolution of ∼3 years per sample over the last 1200 years. On the basis of radiocarbon analysis on the total organic carbon (TOC) fraction, a δ 18 O time series was created to reconstruct changes in hydrologic conditions back to AD 800. The timings of variations in the TIC δ 18 O record are generally consistent with the tree ring‐based Sacramento River flow record spanning AD 869 to 1977, indicating that Walker Lake δ 18 O contains information about past changes in at least regional hydrologic conditions. Comparison with the δ 18 O record from Pyramid Lake sediments indicates that both basins have recorded five century‐scale oscillations in regional hydrologic conditions since AD 800. Several of these changes in hydrologic conditions appear synchronous with century‐scale California Current water temperature changes derived from analysis of sediment cores from the Santa Barbara Basin also attesting to the regional extent of these climatic fluctuations. Nearly synchronous oscillations in the Sierra wetness and the California Current suggest that regional changes in atmospheric circulation may have played an important role in century‐scale climate variability over the last millennium.