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Holocene climate and environmental change in central New York (USA)

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Abstract

We present a Holocene record of climate and environmental change in central New York (USA) inferred using lithologic and stable isotope data from two sediment cores recovered in Cayuga Lake. The record was divided into three intervals: (1) early Holocene (~11.6–8.8 ka), (2) Hypsithermal (~8.8–4.4 ka), and (3) Neoglacial (~4.4 ka to present). The early Holocene began abruptly, with rising lake level and relatively deep water. Between ~10.8 and 9.2 ka, cool and dry conditions prevailed at a time of maximum solar insolation. This anomaly has been referred to as the “post-Younger Dryas climate interval” and lasted ~1,600 years, the approximate length of one “Bond cycle.” The Hypsithermal was the warmest, wettest and most biologically productive interval of the Holocene in central New York. The Hypsithermal was characterized by centennial to multi-centennial-scale variability. The 8.2 ka event is one such variation. The Neoglacial was an interval of generally cooler and dryer conditions, falling lake levels, and several prominent climate anomalies. At approximately 2.4 ka, δ13C of bulk organic matter increased abruptly by 5‰ as lake level declined, and the lake flora was dominated by Chara sp. during the coldest interval of the Neoglacial. Numerous sediment variables display increased variability ~2.0 ka, which continues today. Archaeological data from the literature suggest that Native American populations may have been large enough to impact land cover by about 2.4 ka and we hypothesize that the “Anthropocene” began at about that time in central New York. We also found paleolimnological evidence for the Medieval Warm Period (~1.4–0.5 ka), which was warmer and wetter than today, and for the Little Ice Age (~500–150 years ago), a period with temperatures colder than today.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Department of Earth Sciences at Syracuse University and the Research Foundation at SUNY for financial support. This paper was written while HTM was on sabbatical at Colgate University. Jordan Kerber at Colgate University, Jack Rasson at Ithaca College, and John Hart at the NYS Museum were of great help in supplying archaeological information. We also thank Lindsay Harrington and Peter Smyntek from SUNY-ESF for help with sample collection and processing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 13244, USA

    Henry T. Mullins

  2. Saskatchewan Isotope Laboratory, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5E2, Canada

    William P. Patterson

  3. Department of Chemistry, SUNY-ESF, Syracuse, NY, 13210, USA

    Mark A. Teece

  4. Department of Geography, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY, 13346, USA

    Adam W. Burnett

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  1. Henry T. Mullins
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Correspondence to Henry T. Mullins.

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Mullins, H.T., Patterson, W.P., Teece, M.A. et al. Holocene climate and environmental change in central New York (USA). J Paleolimnol 45, 243–256 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-011-9495-z

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