Abstract
Climatic change has become a major scientific and political issue during the past decade. Articles concerning global warming due to the greenhouse effect and ozone depletion from industrial chemicals are common in the news media and scientific literature. As stated by Schneider (1989), “the intense heat, forest fires, and drought of the summer of 1988 and the observation that the 1980s are the warmest decade on record have ignited an explosion of media, public, and governmental concern that the long-debated global warming has arrived”.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Benson LV (1988) Preliminary Paleolimnologic Data for the Walker Lake Subbasin, California and Nevada. Water-Resources Investigations Report 87-4258. U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO.
Benson LV and Thompson RS (1987) Lake level variation in the Lahontan Basin for the past 50,000 years. Quatern. Res. 28:69–85.
Betancourt JL (1987) Paleoecology of pinyon-juniper woodlands: summary, pp 129–139 In Everett RL (editor) Proceedings of the pinyon-juniper conference, USDA Technical Report INT-215, Reno, NV.
Billings WD (1951) Vegetational zonation in the Great Basin of western North America, pp. 101–122. In Compt. Rend, du Colloque sur les Bases Ecologique de la Regeneration de la Vegetation des Zones Arides. IUBS, Paris.
Bradbury JP (1987) Late Holocene diatom paleolimnology of Walker Lake, Nevada. Archiv. Hydrobiol. 79:1–27.
Bradbury JP, Forester RM, and Thompson RS (1989) Late quaternary paleolimnology of Walker Lake, Nevada. J. Paleolimn. 1:249–267.
Bradley RS, Barry RG, and Kildas G (1982) Climatic fluctuations of the western United States during the period of instrumental record. Contribution 42, Department of Geology and Geography, Univ. Massachusetts, Amherst, MA.
Brown RW (1987) Ecophysiology and water relations research in the Pinyon-Juniper Vegetation Type, pp 398–405 In Everett RL (editor) Proceedings of the Pinyon-Juniper Conference, USDA Technical Report INT-215, Reno, NV.
Burk RL and Stuiver M (1981) Oxygen isotope ratios in trees reflect mean annual temperature and humidity. Science 211:1417–1419.
Claassen HC (1986) Late-Wisconsin paleohydrology of the westcentral Amargosa Desert, Nevada. Chem. Geol. (Isotope Geoscience Section) 58:311–323.
Currey, DR (1987) A reconstruction of high levels of Great Salt Lake, Utah, in late Holocene time, pp 45–47. In Proceedings of the Third Annual LANDSAT Workshop, Univ. California, Santa Barbara, CA.
Currey DR, Atwood G, and Mabey DR (1983) Major levels of Great Salt Lake and Lake Bonneville. Utah Geological and Mineral Survey, Utah Department of Natural Resources, Map 73.
Currey DR and James SR (1982) Paleoenvironments of the northeastern Great Basin and northeastern Basin rim region: a review of geological and biological evidence, pp. 27–52. In Madsen DB and O’Connell JF (editors), Man and Environment in the Great Basin, Society for American Archaeology Papers Vol. 2.
Davis JO (1978) Quaternary tephrochronology of the Lake Lahontan area, Nevada and California. Univ. Nevada Archaeological Survey Research Paper 7.
Davis JO (1982) Bits and pieces: the last 35,000 years in the Lahontan area. pp. 53–75. In Madsen DB, O’Connell JF (editors) Man and Environment in the Great Basin. Society for American Archaeology Papers Vol. 2.
Davis OK (1984) Pollen frequencies reflect vegetation patterns in a Great Basin (U.S.A.) mountain range. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 40:295–315.
Douglass AE (1914) A method of estimating rainfall by the growth of trees. In Huntington E (editor) The Climatic Factor, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.
Douglass AE (1919) Climatic cycles and tree-growth: a study of the annual rings in trees in relation to climate and solar activity. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 289, Washington, DC.
Epstein S, Thompson P, and Yapp CJ (1977) Oxygen and hydrogen isotopic ratios in plant cellulose. Science 198:1209–1215.
Flaschka IM (1984) Climatic change and water supply in the Great Basin. Unpublished thesis, Univ. Arizona, Tucson.
Friedman I, Izett GA, and Gleason JD (1985) Isotopic paleoclimate from hydrated volcanic ash. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, 17:587.
Fritts HC (1974) Relationships of ring widths in arid-site conifers to variations in monthly temperature and precipitation. Ecol. Monogr. 44:411–440.
Fritts HC (1976) Tree-rings and Climate. Academic Press.
Graybill DA (1985) Western U.S. tree-ring index chronology data for detection of arboreal response to increasing carbon dioxide, pp. 1–63. Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, Series 26. Univ. Arizona, Tucson, AZ.
Graybill DA (1987) A network of high elevation conifers in the western U.S. for detection of tree-ring growth response to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, pp. 463–474. In Jacoby GC, Hombeck JW (editors) Proceedings of the International Symposium on Ecological Aspects of Tree-ring Analyses. Department of Energy Conference-8608144, Washington, DC.
Harmon RS, Schwarcz HP, and O’Neil JR (1979) D/H ratios in speleothem fluid inclusions: a guide to variation in the isotopic compositions of meteoric precipitation. Earth Planetary Sci. Letts. 42:254–266.
Hastings JR and Turner RM (1965) The Changing Mile. Univ. Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ.
Heusser LE and Shackleton NJ (1979) Direct marine-continental correlation: 150,000-year oxygen isotope-pollen record from the North Pacific. Science 204:837–839.
Holmes RL, Adams RK, and Fritts HC (1986) Tree-ring chronologies of western North America: California, eastern Oregon and northern Great Basin, with procedures used in the chronology development work, including users manuals for computer programs COFECHA and ARSTAN. Univ. Arizona, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, Chronology Series VI. Tucson, AZ.
Houghton JG (1969) Characteristics of Rainfall in the Great Basin. Univ. Nevada, Desert Research Institute. Reno, NV.
Houghton JG, Sakamoto CM, and Gifford RO (1975) Nevada’s weather and climate. Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, Special Publication 2, Reno, NV.
Hubbs CL and Miller RR (1948) The zoological evidence/correlation between fish distribution and hydrographic history in the desert basins of the western United States, pp. 17–166. In The Great Basin, with emphasis on glacial and post glacial times. Bulletin of the Univ. Utah Vol. 38.
Hubbs CL, Miller RR, and Hubbs LC (1974) Hydrographic history and relict fishes of the north-central Great Basin. Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences 7.
Hughes MK, Kelly PM, Pilcher JR, and LaMarche VC (1982) Climate from Tree-rings. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.
Ingraham NL and Taylor BE (1986) Hydrogen isotope study of large-scale meteoric water transport in northern California and Nevada. J. Hydrol. 85:183–197.
Karl TR, Metcalf LK, Nicodemus ML, and Quayle RG (1987) Historical Climato-logical Series, National Climate Data Center, Asheville, NC.
Libby ML, Pandolphi LJ, Payton PH, Marshall J III, Becker B, and Giertz-Siebenlist V (1976) Isotopic tree thermometers. Nature 261:284–288.
Long A, Warnecke L, and Betancourt JL (1990) Stable isotopes, fossil packrat middens and paleoclimate. In Martin PS, Betancourt J, Van Devender JR (editors) Fossil Packrat Middens: The Last 40,000 Years of Biotic Change, Univ. Arizona Press (in press).
Maggs, WW (1989) Warming will alter water resources. EOS 70:67–74.
Mehringer PJ Jr. (1967) Pollen analysis of the Tule Springs site area, Nevada, pp. 129–200. In Wormington HM and Ellis D (editors) Nevada State Museum Anthropological Papers Vol 13, Carson City, NV.
Mehringer PJ Jr. (1977) Great Basin late Quaternary environments and chronology, pp. 113–167. In Fowler, DD (editor), Models and Great Basin Prehistory: A Symposium. Desert Research Institute Publications in the Social Sciences 12, Reno, NV.
Mehringer PJ Jr. (1985) Late-Quaternary pollen records from the interior Pacific Northwest and northern Great Basin of the United States, pp. 165–187. In Bryant VA, Holloway RG (editors) Pollen Records of Late-Quaternary North American Sediments. American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists, Dallas, TX.
Mehringer PJ Jr. (1986) Prehistoric environments, pp. 31–50. In D’Azevedo WL (editor) Handbook on North American Indians. Volume 11: Great Basin. Sturtevant WC (editor), Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
Mehringer PJ Jr. and Warren CN (1976) Marsh, dune and archaeological chronology, Ash Meadows, Amargosa Desert, Nevada, pp. 120–150. In Elston R (editor) Holocene Environmental Change in the Great Basin. Nevada Archeological Survey Research Papers Vol. 6.
Mehringer PJ Jr. (1986) Holocene history of Skull Creek dunes, Catlow Valley, Oregon, U.S.A. J. Arid. Environ. 11:117–138.
Mehringer PJ Jr. and Wigand PE (1987) Western Juniper in the Holocene. pp. 109–119. In Proceedings of the Pinyon-Juniper Conference, USDA Technical Report INT-215, Reno.
Mehringer PJ Jr. and Wigand PE (1990) Comparison of Late Holocene environments from woodrat middens and pollen, Diamond Craters, Oregon. In Martin PS, Betancourt J, and Van Devender TR (editors) Fossil Packrat Middens: The Last 40,000 Years of Biotic Change. Univ. Arizona Press, (in press).
Meko DM and Stockton CW (1984) Secular variations in streamflow in the western United States. J. Clim. Appl. Meteor. 23:889–897.
Mifflin MD and Wheat MM (1979) Pluvial lakes and estimated pluvial climates of Nevada. Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, Bulletin 94, Reno, NV.
Mitchell JM, Dzerdzeevskii B, Flohn H, Hofmeyr WL, Lamb HH, Rao KN, and Wallen CC (1966) Climatic change, Technical Note 79, World Meteorological Organization, Geneva.
Morrison RB (1964) Lake Lahontan: geology of southern Carson Desert, Nevada. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 401.
Morrison RB and JC Frye (1965) Correlation of the middle and late Quaternary successions of the Lake Lahontan, Lake Bonneville, Rocky Mountain (Wasatch Range), southern Great Plains, and eastern Midwest areas. Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Report 9, Reno, NV.
Mouat DA and Johnson RR (1981) An inventory and assessment of wildlife habitat in Grand Canyon National Park using remote sensing techniques, pp. 105–113. In Proc. 4th Pecors Symposium on Remote Sensing, Sioux Falls, Iowa.
NOAA (1988) Climatological data annual summary. National Climate Data Center, Asheville, 102(13).
Odum EP (1971) Fundamentals of Ecology. Third Edition. W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, PA.
Overpeck JT, Webb T III, and Prentice IC (1985) Quantitative interpretation of fossil pollen spectra: dissimilarity coefficients and the method of modern analogs. Quatem. Res. 23:87–108.
Pearman GI, Francey RJ, and Fraser PJB (1976) Climatic implications of stable carbon isotopes in tree rings. Nature 260:771–773.
Petersen KL (1988) Climate and the Dolores River Anasazi. Univ. Utah Anthropological Papers 113.
Pippin LC and Davis JO (1986) Long pollen record from pluvial lake sediments at Summer Lake, south central Oregon. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs 18:719.
Rogers GF (1982) Then and Now: A Photographic History of Vegetation Change in the Central Great Basin Desert. Univ. Utah Press, Salt Lake City, UT.
Rose MR, Robinson WJ, and Dean JS (1982) Dendroclimatic reconstruction for the southeastern Colorado Plateau. Laboratory of Tree-ring Research, Univ. Arizona, Tuscon, AZ.
Russell IC (1895) Present and extinct lakes of Nevada. National Geographic Society Monographs 1:101–136.
Schneider SH (1989) The greenhouse effect: science and policy. Science 243:771–781.
Schwarcz HP (1986) Geochronology and isotopic geochemistry of speleothems. In Fritz P and Fontes JCh (editors) Handbook of Terrestrial Geochemistry, vol 2, The Terrestrial Environment. Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Siegal RD (1983) Paleoclimatic significance of D/H and 13C/12C ratios in Pleistocene and Holocene wood. Unpublished M.S. thesis, Univ. Arizona, Tucson, AZ.
Smith GI and Street-Perrott FA (1983) Pluvial lakes of the western United States, pp. 190–191. In Porter SC (editor) Late-quaternary Environments of the United States, Vol. 1 The Late Pleistocene. Univ. Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN.
Spaulding WG (1985) Vegetation and climates of the last 45,000 years in the vicinity of the Nevada Test Site, south-central Nevada. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1329.
Spaulding WG, Leopold EB, and Van Devender TR (1983) Late Wisconsin paleoecology of the American Southwest, pp. 259–293. In Wright HE Jr and Porter SC (editors), Late Quaternary Environments of the United States, Vol. 1, The Late Pleistocene. Univ. Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN.
Stokes MA, Drew LG, and Stockton CW (1973) Tree-ring chronologies of western North America, I. Selected tree-ring stations. Laboratory of Tree-ring Research Chronology Series 1, Univ. Arizona, Tucson, AZ.
Thompson RS (1984) Late Pleistocene and Holocene environments in the Great Basin. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Univ. Arizona, Tucson, AZ.
Turner RM and Karpiscak MM (1980) Recent vegetation changes along the Colorado River between Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Mead, Arizona. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1132.
Walter H (1954) Le facteur eau dans les regions arides et sa signification pour l’organisation de la vegetation dans les contrees sub-tropicales. pp. 27–39. In Les Divisions Ecologiques du Monde. CNRS, Paris.
Watson PC (1977) Dendrochronologic Reconstruction of Water Levels for Pyramid Lake, Nevada, 1745 to 1904 A.D., unpublished M.S. Thesis, Univ. Nevada, Reno, NV.
Webb RH (1986) Spatial and temporal distribution of radiocarbon ages on rodent middens from the southwestern United States. Radiocarbon 28:1–8.
Wells PV (1983) Paleobiogeography of montane islands in the Great Basin since the last glaciopluvial. Ecol. Monogr. 53:341–382.
Went FW (1957) The Experimental Control of Plant Growth. Chronica Botanica, Waltham, MA.
Whittaker RH (1970) Communities and Ecosystems. Macmillian, NY.
Wigand PE (1987) Diamond Pond, Harney County, Oregon: vegetation history and water table in the eastern Oregon Desert. Great Basin Naturalist 47:427–458.
Winograd U, Szabo BJ, Coplen TB, Riggs AC, and Kolesar PT (1985) Two-million year record of deuterium in Great Basin ground waters. Science 227:519–522.
Winograd U, Szabo BJ, Coplen TB, and Riggs AC (1988) A 250,000-year climatic record from Great Basin calcite: implications for Milankovitch Theory. Science 242:1275–1280.
Yapp CJ and Epstein S (1982) A reexamination of cellulose carbon-bound hydrogen δD measurements and some factors affecting plant-water D/H relationships. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 46:955–965.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wharton, R.A. et al. (1990). The North American Great Basin: A Sensitive Indicator of Climatic Change. In: Plant Biology of the Basin and Range. Ecological Studies, vol 80. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74799-1_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74799-1_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-74801-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-74799-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive