Exploratory Palynology in the Sierra Nevada, California
Issue Date
1965Keywords
CaliforniaCenozoic
microfossils
paleontology
palynomorphs
Quaternary
Sierra Nevada
United States
Pollen, Fossil -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)
Palynology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)
Paleoclimatology -- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)
Committee Chair
Martin, Paul S.Metadata
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The University of Arizona.Rights
Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the Antevs Library, Department of Geosciences, and the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author or the department.Collection Information
This item is part of the Geosciences Theses collection. It was digitized from a physical copy provided by the Antevs Library, Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please email the Antevs Library, antevs@geo.arizona.edu.Abstract
Pollen analysis of two surface transects of modern soil samples and four stratigraphic sections from the central Sierra Nevada of California have provided a climatic record covering the time interval since the recession of the last glaciers of the Wisconsin glaciation. Two separate warm intervals are recognized between the recession of the Wisconsin glaciers and the reappearance of glaciers in the Sierra during the Little Ice Age.Type
textThesis-Reproduction (electronic)
Degree Name
M.S.Degree Level
mastersDegree Program
Graduate CollegeGeochronology
Degree Grantor
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Patterns and Processes of Treeline Forest Response to Late Holocene Climate Change in the Sierra Nevada, California(The University of Arizona., 1996)
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Climatic and Ecological Implications of Shrub-Chronologies at Rock Glacier Sites of the Eastern Sierra Nevada Range, California, U.S.A.(The University of Arizona., 2012)Herb- or shrub-chronology, a technique adapted from dendrochronology, is the study of the annual growth rings in roots of certain perennial dicotyledonous plants. The presence of annual growth increments in high-elevation plants is significant as it highlights the applicability of herbchronology for climatic, ecological and geomorphologic applications in alpine and other extra-arboreal regions. For alpine sites along the eastern crest of the Sierra Nevada range I present the first shrub-ring chronologies of the species Linanthus pungens (Torr.) J.M. Porter & L.A. Johnson. L. pungens individuals were collected at, and are especially ubiquitous at rock glacier sites in north-east trending glacial-cirque valleys. Rock glaciers are an increasingly recognized and studied feature on the alpine landscape, supporting floristically diverse plant populations, distinct thermal regimes decoupled from the external air and perennial water sources fed by interstitial ice. These landforms are expected to be refugia for alpine flora and fauna in some regions for projected warmer and drier climates. To evaluate plant growth on rock glaciers as compared to adjacent talus slopes in the central Sierra Nevada range of California, USA, a series of five cirque basins were selected as sites for paired rock glacier- talus slope vegetation comparisons. Vegetation cover, species richness, diversity measures and plant functional traits were recorded at ten sites (five rock glaciers, five talus slopes) along a 100-kilometer latitudinal span of the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada range. Canonical correspondence analysis was used to evaluate general patterns in cover, diversity and functional traits for the 10 sites and inform subsequent statistical analyses. Both vegetation cover and species richness were significantly greater on rock glacier sites than on adjacent talus slopes even though mean slope values for the rock glacier sites were higher. Significantly, for the present study, rock glaciers support a higher number of the species Linanthus pungens, a climatically sensitive, long-lived alpine sub-shrub, showing that these periglacial landforms are not only floristically distinct but are also habitats containing natural climate archives useful to the field of herbchronology. L. pungens shrub-ring chronologies are determined to be distinct from Pinus albicaulis chronologies growing at the same five sets of sites in the Sierra Nevada study location. P. albicaulis (PIAL) tree-ring chronologies and L. pungens (LIPU) shrub-ring chronologies were constructed for four cirque basin sites. Comparisons were made between chronologies based on growth form (shrub or tree) and site, and on chronology response to average monthly temperature, total monthly precipitation and April 1 snowpack values. Chronologies are significantly more similar to other chronologies of the same growth form (PIAL-PIAL or LIPU-LIPU) than are same-site chronologies of different growth form (i.e. PIAL-LIPU chronologies) (p < 0.05). This holds true for comparisons based on Pearson’s correlation coefficients or Gleichläufigkeit (GLK) values. Growth response to monthly temperature and precipitation values is highly variable for same-site chronologies and also for same growth form chronologies. Topographical position and proximity to treeline was held constant at all sites so differences in climate-growth response within sites and within species may be attributed to factors that are unrealized in the sampling design. Based on composite climate anomaly maps, wide ring widths in PIAL chronologies occur after average winter and spring precipitation and with warm growing seasons while narrow PIAL rings fall after wet springs and with average summer temperatures. Years in which all LIPU rings are wide are found to occur during warm dry springs and growing seasons while years in which all LIPU rings are narrow occur in conjunction with wet winters and springs. Investigation into the longest and most replicated chronology at the Barney Lake (BL) site allowed a climate-growth comparison over a longer period of time (the BL chronology is 112 years in length with sufficient sample replication (EPS > 0.85) to capture a robust common signal from 1952 through 2007). 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Work at BL and the other four alpine L. pungens chronology locations demonstrate a potential for additional research on climate-shrub growth interactions and in particular for investigations into climate controls on upper shrubline growth and movement in the Sierra Nevada range in California.
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Integrated hydrogeochemical modeling of an alpine watershed: Sierra Nevada, California.(The University of Arizona., 1992)Seasonally snow covered alpine areas play a larger role in the hydrologic cycle than their area would indicate. Their ecosystems may be sensitive indicators of climatic and atmospheric change. Assessing the hydrologic and bio-geochemical responses of these areas to changes in inputs of water, chemicals and energy should be based on a detailed understanding of watershed processes. This dissertation discusses the development and testing of a model capable of predicting watershed hydrologic and hydrochemical responses to these changes. The model computes integrated water and chemical balances for watersheds with unlimited numbers of terrestrial, stream, and lake subunits, each of which may have a unique, variable snow-covered area. Model capabilities include (1) tracking of chemical inputs from precipitation, dry deposition, snowmelt, mineral weathering, baseflow or flows from areas external to the modeled watershed, and user-defined sources and sinks, (2) tracking water and chemical movements in the canopy, snowpack, soil litter, multiple soil layers, streamflow, between terrestrial subunits (surface and subsurface movement), and within lakes (2 layers), (3) chemical speciation, including free and total soluble species, precipitates, exchange complexes, and acid-neutralizing capacity, (4) nitrogen reactions, (5) a snowmelt optimization procedure capable of exactly matching observed watershed outflows, and (6) modeling riparian areas. Two years of data were available for fitting and comparing observed and modeled output. To the extent possible, model parameters are set based on physical or chemical measurements, leaving only a few fitted parameters. Thc effects of snowmelt rate, rate of chemical elution from the snowpack, nitrogen reactions, mineral weathering, and flow routing on modeled outputs are examined.
