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Stable isotope (O and C) and pollen trends in eastern Lake Erie, evidence for a locally-induced climatic reversal of Younger Dryas age in the Great Lakes basin

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Abstract

A cool period from about 11000 to 10 500 BP (11 to 10.5 ka) is recognized in pollen records from the southern Great Lakes area by the return of Picea and Abies dominance and by the persistence of herbs. The area of cooling appears centred on the Upper Great Lakes. A high-resolution record (ca. 9 mm/y) from a borehole in eastern Lake Erie reveals, in the same time interval, this pollen anomaly, isotope evidence of meltwater presence (a — 3 per mil shift in σ18O and a +1.1 per mil shift in σ13C), increased sand, and reduced detrital calcite content, all suggesting concurrent cooling of Lake Erie. The onset of cooling is mainly attributed to the effect of enhanced meltwater inflow on the relatively large upstream Main Lake Algonquin during the first eastward discharge of glacial Lake Agassiz. Termination of the cooling coincides with drainage of Lake Algonquin, and is attributed to loss of its cooling effectiveness associated with a substantial reduction in its surface area. It is hypothesized that the cold extra inflow effectively prolonged the seasonal presence of lake ice and the period of spring overturn in Lake Algonquin. The deep mixing would have greatly increased the thermal conductive capacity of this extensive lake, causing suppression of summer surface lakewater temperatures and reduction of onshore growing-degree days. Alternatively, a rapid flow of meltwater, buoyed on sediment-charged (denser) lakewater, may have kept the lake surface cold in summer. Other factors such as wind-shifted pollen deposition and possible effects from the Younger Dryas North Atlantic cooling could have contributed to the Great Lakes climatic reversal, but further studies are needed to resolve their relative significance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geological Survey of Canada, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, P.O. Box 1006, B2Y 4A2, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada

    C F M Lewis

  2. Geological Survey of Canada, 601 Booth Street, KlA 0E8, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    T W Anderson

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  1. C F M Lewis
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  2. T W Anderson
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Contribution to Climo Locarno — Past and Present Climate Dynamics; Conference September 1990, Swiss Academy of Sciences — National Climate Program

Geological Survey of Canada Contribution 58 890

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Lewis, C.F.M., Anderson, T.W. Stable isotope (O and C) and pollen trends in eastern Lake Erie, evidence for a locally-induced climatic reversal of Younger Dryas age in the Great Lakes basin. Climate Dynamics 6, 241–250 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00193537

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00193537

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