Hostname: page-component-784d4fb959-splj4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-16T15:51:49.082Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Influence of Changing Atmospheric Circulation on Precipitation δ18O–Temperature Relations in Canada during the Holocene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Thomas W.D. Edwards ,
Brent B. Wolfe  and
Glen M. Macdonald
Thomas W.D. Edwards
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Quaternary Sciences Institute, and Waterloo Centre for Groundwater Research, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3G1
Brent B. Wolfe
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Quaternary Sciences Institute, and Waterloo Centre for Groundwater Research, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3G1
Glen M. Macdonald
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, 90024-1524
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Postglacial precipitation δ18O history has been reconstructed for two regions of Canada. Long-term shifts in the oxygen-isotope composition of annual precipitation (δ18Op) in southern Ontario appear to have occurred with a consistent isotope–temperature relation throughout the past 11,500 14C yr. The modern isotope–temperature relation in central Canada near present boreal treeline evidently became established between 5000 and 4000 years ago, although the relation during the last glacial maximum and deglaciation may also have been similar to present. In the early Holocene, however, unusually high δ18Op apparently persisted, in spite of low temperature locally, probably associated with high zonal index. A rudimentary sensitivity analysis suggests that a small reduction in distillation of moisture in Pacific air masses traversing the western Cordillera, perhaps accompanied by a higher summer:winter precipitation ratio, could have been responsible for the observed effect. Equivalent isotope–temperature “anomalies” apparently occurred elsewhere in western North America in response to changing early-Holocene atmospheric circulation patterns, suggesting that a time-slice map of δ18Op for North America during this period might provide a useful target for testing and validation of atmospheric general circulation model simulations using isotopic water tracers.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , November 1996 , pp. 211 - 218
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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Amundson, O., Kendall, C., Wang, Y., and DeNiro, M.(1996). Isotopic evidence for shifts in atmospheric circulation patternsduring the late Quaternary in mid-North America. Geology 24, 23–26.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartlein, P.J., Webb, T., III, and Fleri, E. (1984). Holocene climatic changein the northern Midwest: Pollen derived estimates. Quaternary Research 22, 361–374.Google Scholar
Bryson, R. A. (1966).Air masses, streamlines, and the boreal forest. Geographical Bulletin 8, 228–269.Google Scholar
Bryson, R. A., and Hare, R. K. (1974).The climate of North America. In “Climates of North America”; (Bryson, R. A and Hare, R. K., Eds.), pp.1–47. Elsevier, New York.Google Scholar
Bryson, R.A., and Wendland, W. M. (1967). Tentative climatic patternsfor some late-glacial and postglacial episodes in central North America.In “Life, Land and Water”; (Mayer-Oakes, W. J Ed.), pp. 271–298.University of Manitoba Press, Winnipeg.Google Scholar
Bryson, R.A., Baerreis, D. A., and Wendland, W. M. (1970). The characterof late-glacial and post-glacial climatic changes. In “Pleistocene and Recent Environments of the Central Great Plains”; (Dort, W. , Jr., and Jones, J. K. , Jr., Eds.), pp. 53–74. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Bursey, G.G., Edwards, T. W.D., and Frape, S. K. (1991). Water balance and geochemistry studies in a tundra watershed, District of Keewatin,N.W.T.In “Northern Hydrology: Selected Perspectives”; (Prowseand, T. D., Ommanney, C. S. L Eds.), pp. 17–31. Symposium No. 6, National Hydrology Research Institute, Saskatoon.Google Scholar
Charles, C. D., Rind, D., Jouzel, J., Koster, R.D., and Fairbanks, R. G. (1994). Glacial-interglacial changes in moisture sources for Greenland:Influences on the ice core record of climate. Science 263, 508–511.Google ScholarPubMed
Clague, J. J., Mathewes, R.W., Buhay, W. M., and Edwards, T. W. D.(1992). Early Holocene climate at Castle Peak, southern Coast Mountains,British Columbia, Canada. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 95, 153–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dansgaard, W. (1964). Stable isotopes in precipitation. Tellus 16, 436–468.Google Scholar
Dean, W. E., Ahlbrandt, T. S., Anderson, R. Y., and Bradbury, J. P. (1996).Regional aridity in North America during the middle Holocene. TheHolocene 6, 145–155.Google Scholar
Duthie, H. C., Yang, J.-R., Edwards, T. W.D. Wolfe, B. B., and Warner, B. G. (1996). Hamilton Harbour, Ontario: 8300 years of limnological andenvironmental change inferred from microfossil and isotopic analyses.Journal of Paleolimnology 15, 79–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dyke, A. S., and Prest, V. K. (1987). Late Wisconsinan and Holocene retreatof the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Geological Survey of Canada, Map 1702A,Ottawa.Google Scholar
Edwards, T. W. D. (1987). “Postglacial Climatic History of Southern On-tario from Stable Isotope Studies.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wa-terloo.Google Scholar
Edwards, T. W. D. (1993). Interpreting past climate from stable isotopes incontinental organic matter. In “Climate Change in Continental IsotopicRecords” (Swart, P. K., McKenzie, J, Lohmann, K. C., and Savin, S. ,Eds.), pp. 333–341. Geophysical Monograph 78, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Edwards, T. W.D., and McAndrews, J. H. (1989). Paleohydrology of aCanadian Shield lake inferred from 18O in sediment cellulose. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 26, 1850–1859.Google Scholar
Edwards, T. W.D., and Fritz, P. (1986). Assessing meteoric water composition and relative humidity from 18O and 2H in wood cellulose: Paleoclimatic implications for southern Ontario, Canada. Applied Geochemistry 1, 715–723.Google Scholar
Edwards, T. W.D., and Fritz, P. (1988). Stable isotope paleoclimate records for southern Ontario: Comparison of results from marl and wood. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 25, 1397–1406.Google Scholar
Edwards, T. W.D., Aravena, R. O., Fritz, P., and Morgan, A. V. (1985).Interpreting paleoclimate from 18O and 2H in plant cellulose: Comparisonwith evidence from fossil insects and relict permafrost in southwestern Ontario. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 22, 1720–1726.Google Scholar
Environment Canada (1982). Canadian climate normals: Temperature andprecipitation, 1951–80, the North—Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories. Atmospheric Environment Service, Toronto.Google Scholar
Feng, X., and Epstein, S. (1994). Climatic implications of an 8000-yearhydrogen isotope time series from bristlecone pine trees. Science 265,1079–1081.Google Scholar
Friedman, I., Carrara, P., and Gleason, J. (1988). Isotopic evidence forclimate change in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado-9600 BP to present.Quaternary Research 30, 350–353.Google Scholar
Gat, J.R., Bowser, C.J., and Kendall, C. (1994). The contribution of evaporation from the Great Lakes to the continental atmosphere: Estimate basedon stable isotope data. Geophysical Research Letters 21, 557–560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, J. J., Edwards, T. W. D., and Prowse, T. D. (1994). Evaporation in the North: Overview of quantitative studies using stable isotopes. In “Mackenzie Basin Impact Study (MBIS) Interim Report #2” (Co-hen, S. J. , Ed.), pp. 138–150. Environment Canada, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Gibson, J. J., Edwards, T. W. D., Bursey, G. G., and Prowse, T. D. (1993). Estimating evaporation using stable isotopes: Quantitative results andsensitivity analysis for two catchments in northern Canada. Nordic Hydrology 24, 79–94.Google Scholar
Grootes, P. M., Stuiver, M., White, J. W. C., Johnsen, S., and Jouzel, J. (1993). Comparison of oxygen isotope records from the GISP2 and GRIPGreenland ice cores. Nature 366, 552–554.Google Scholar
Jahren, A. H., Amundson, R., Kelly, G., Tieszen, L., and Kendall, C. (1995). Biogenic carbonate in the hackberry endocarp as a terrestrial paleoclimate indicator. International Union for Quaternary Research XIV International Congress, Abstracts, p. 124.Google Scholar
Jouzel, J., Barkov, N. I., Barnola, J. M., Bender, M., Chappellaz, J., Genthon, C., Kotlyakov, V. M., Lipenkov, V., Lorius, C., Petit, J. R., Raynaud, D., Raisbeck, G., Ritz, C., Sowers, T., Stievenard, M., Yiou, F., and Yiou, P. (1993). Extending the Vostok ice-core record of paleoclimate to the penultimate glacial period. Nature 364, 407–412.Google Scholar
Jouzel, J., Koster, R. D., Suozzo, R. J., and Russell, G. L. (1994). Stablewater isotope behaviour during the last glacial maximum: A generalcirculation model analysis. Journal of Geophysical Research 99, 25, 791–25,801.Google Scholar
Krishnamurthy, R. V., Syrup, K. A., Baskaran, M., and Long, A. (1995). Late glacial climate record of mid western United States from the hydrogen isotope ratio of lake organic matter. Science 269, 1565–1567.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kutzbach, J. E. (1987). Model simulations of the climatic patterns during the deglaciation of North America. In “North America and Adjacent Oceans During the Last Deglaciation” (Ruddiman, W. F. and Wright, H. E., Jr., Eds.), pp. 425–446. Geological Society of America, Denver.Google Scholar
Lawrence, J. R., and White, J. W. C. (1991). The elusive climate signal in the isotopic composition of precipitation. In “Stable Isotope Geochemistry: A Tribute to Samual Epstein” (Taylor, H. P. Jr., Neil, J. R. O', and Kaplan, I. R., Eds.), pp. 169–185. Trinity University Geochemical Society, San Antonio.Google Scholar
MacDonald, G. M. (1989).Postglacial palaeoecology of the sub-alpine forest-grassland ecotone: New insights on vegetation and climate change in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and adjacent foothills. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 73, 155–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacDonald, G. M. (1995). Vegetation of the continental Northwest Territories at 6ka BP. Géographie physique et Quaternaire 49, 37–43.Google Scholar
MacDonald, G.M., Edwards, T. W.D., Moser, K. A., Pienitz, R., and Smol, J. P. (1993). Rapid response of tree line vegetation and lakes to past climate warming. Nature 361, 243–246.Google Scholar
McAndrews, J. H. (1981). Late Quaternary climate of Ontario: Temperature trends from the fossil pollen record. In “Quaternary Paleoclimate” (Mahaney, W. C., Ed.), pp. 319–333. Geoabstracts, Norwich.Google Scholar
Moser, K. A., and MacDonald, G. M. (1990). Holocene vegetation change at treeline north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. Quaternary Research 34, 227–239.Google Scholar
Plummer, L. N. (1993). Stable isotope enrichment in paleowaters of the southeast Atlantic coastal plain, United States. Science 262, 2016–2020.Google Scholar
Remenda, V. H., Cherry, J. A., and Edwards, T. W. D. (1994). Isotopic composition of old ground water from Lake Agassiz: Implications for late Pleistocene climate. Science 266, 1975–1978.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rozanski, K. (1985). Deuterium and oxygen-18 in European groundwa-ters—links to atmospheric circulation in the past. Chemical Geology 52, 349–363.Google Scholar
Rozanski, K., Araguás-Araguás, L., and Gonfiantini, R. (1992). Relation between long-term trends of oxygen-18 isotope composition of precipitation and climate. Science 258, 981–985.Google Scholar
Rozanski, K., Araguás-Araguás, L., and Gonfiantini, R. (1993). Isotopic patterns in modern global precipitation. In “Climate Change in Continental Isotopic Records” (Swart, P. K. McKenzie, J. Lohmann, K. C., and Savin, S., Eds.), pp. 1–36. Geophysical Monograph 78, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Schweger, C. E., and Hickman, M. (1989). Holocene paleohydrology of central Alberta: Testing the general-circulation-model climate simulations. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 26, 1826–1833.Google Scholar
Vance, R. E., Beaudouin, A. B., and Luckman, B. H. (1995). The palaeoeco-logical record of 6ka BP climate in the Canadian prairie provinces. Géographie physique et Quaternaire 49, 81–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webb, T. III, Bartlein, P.J., Harrison, S. P., and Anderson, K. H. (1993). Vegetation, lake levels, and climate in eastern North America for the past 18,000 years. In “Global Climates Since the Last Glacial Maximum” (Wright, H. E., Jr.,Kutzbach, J. E., Webb, T. III, Ruddiman, W. F., Street-Perrot, F. A., and Bartlein, P. J., Eds.), pp. 415–467. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Wolfe, B. B., Edwards, T. W. D., and Aravena, R. (1995). Holocene paleo-hydrology at the northern treeline, Northwest Territories, Canada, revealed by oxygen isotope analysis of lacustrine sediment cellulose. Symposium on Isotopes in Water Resources Management, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 20–24 March 1995, IAEA-SM-366/ 134 P.Google Scholar
Wolfe, B. B., Edwards, T. W. D., Aravena, R., and MacDonald, G. M. (1996). Rapid Holocene hydrologic change along boreal treeline revealed by δ13C and δ18O in organic lake sediments, Northwest Territories, Canada. Journal of Paleolimnology 15, 171–181.Google Scholar
Yapp, C. R., and Epstein, S. (1977). Climatic implications of D/H ratios of meteoric water over North America (9500–22,000 BP) as inferred from ancient wood cellulose C-H hydrogen. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 34, 333–350.Google Scholar