TY - JOUR
T1 - Depositional histories of vegetation and rainfall intensity in Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains (northeast Mexico) since the late Last Glacial
AU - Roy, Priyadarsi D.
AU - Vera-Vera, Guillermo
AU - Sánchez-Zavala, José L.
AU - Shanahan, Timothy M.
AU - Quiroz-Jiménez, Jesús D.
AU - Curtis, Jason H.
AU - Girón-García, Patricia
AU - Lemus-Neri, Víctor H.
AU - Muthusankar, Gowrappan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2020/4
Y1 - 2020/4
N2 - An evaporite enriched sediment archive from the dry Sandia Basin located in the water-stressed western foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains (northeast Mexico) was studied to reconstruct depositional histories of vegetation and rainfall intensity in orbital to millennial-scales over the last ~32.5 cal ka. Surrounding vegetation had more C3 plants during the late last glacial and deglaciation and the expansion of more drought tolerant C4 plants occurred only after ~5 cal ka BP. Clastic minerals were sourced from different lithologies within the watershed and their abundances helped to infer runoff dynamics and hence the rainfall intensities. Deposition of more mixed-layer clay represented wetter intervals over the late last glacial and deglaciation. Transportation of clastics from the nearby lithology during these wetter intervals suggested that high-intensity rainfall events were less frequent. Response to the Heinrich stadials (H3, H2 and early H1) was mainly similar (drier) and erosion in the watershed remained less-than-average. Transportation of more quartz-rich sediments from distal lithologies during the late Bølling-Allerød (B/A) interstadial and between ~6.2 and 4 cal ka BP with a depositional hiatus between ~12.7 and 6.2 cal ka BP represented the intervals of more frequent high-intensity rainfall events, possibly related to short-lived storms. We hypothesize that the Gulf of Mexico sea surface temperature was a principal forcing. Total annual precipitation in this region decreased but the frequency of short-lived storms increased during the warmer Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) states. Warmer conditions also led to deposition of more gypsum. Our observation, however, needs further evaluation under the modern-day greenhouse warming scenario.
AB - An evaporite enriched sediment archive from the dry Sandia Basin located in the water-stressed western foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains (northeast Mexico) was studied to reconstruct depositional histories of vegetation and rainfall intensity in orbital to millennial-scales over the last ~32.5 cal ka. Surrounding vegetation had more C3 plants during the late last glacial and deglaciation and the expansion of more drought tolerant C4 plants occurred only after ~5 cal ka BP. Clastic minerals were sourced from different lithologies within the watershed and their abundances helped to infer runoff dynamics and hence the rainfall intensities. Deposition of more mixed-layer clay represented wetter intervals over the late last glacial and deglaciation. Transportation of clastics from the nearby lithology during these wetter intervals suggested that high-intensity rainfall events were less frequent. Response to the Heinrich stadials (H3, H2 and early H1) was mainly similar (drier) and erosion in the watershed remained less-than-average. Transportation of more quartz-rich sediments from distal lithologies during the late Bølling-Allerød (B/A) interstadial and between ~6.2 and 4 cal ka BP with a depositional hiatus between ~12.7 and 6.2 cal ka BP represented the intervals of more frequent high-intensity rainfall events, possibly related to short-lived storms. We hypothesize that the Gulf of Mexico sea surface temperature was a principal forcing. Total annual precipitation in this region decreased but the frequency of short-lived storms increased during the warmer Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) states. Warmer conditions also led to deposition of more gypsum. Our observation, however, needs further evaluation under the modern-day greenhouse warming scenario.
KW - Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation
KW - Geochemistry
KW - Heinrich stadial
KW - North America
KW - Paleoclimate
KW - Stable isotope
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85079559322&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2020.103136
DO - 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2020.103136
M3 - Artículo
SN - 0921-8181
VL - 187
JO - Global and Planetary Change
JF - Global and Planetary Change
M1 - 103136
ER -