New correlation of stable carbon isotopes with changing late-Holocene fluvial environments in the Trinity River basin of Texas, USA
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12266279 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stephen A Hall (0000-0002-5232-4942, Red Rock Geological Enterprises, USA, corresponding author), Thomas W Boutton (0000-0002-7522-5728, Texas A&M University), Christopher Lintz (Texas Parks and Wildlife Department), Christopher R Lintz (Texas Parks and Wildlife Department), Timothy G Baugh (Oklahoma Historical Society) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 541-549 |
| Publication date | 2011-12-06 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Holocene (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0959-6836 • E-ISSN: 1477-0911 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0959683611427338 |
| OpenAlex | W2053262915 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 37 |
A late-Holocene alluvial sequence in north-central Texas has a 1 m thick buried cumulic soil with an A-C profile called the West Fork paleosol. It formed 2300 to 1000 yr BP and is a local equivalent of the Copan paleosol that is present throughout the southern US Great Plains. Stable carbon isotopes indicate that the paleosol and underlying gray clay formed under vegetation dominated by C 4 species (mean δ 13 C: −18.3 ± 0.3‰). Diverse paleoenvironmental studies indicate that the period of paleosol formation was cool and wet and that alluvial water-tables were high, resulting in broad wet meadows across alluvial valleys, characterized by communities of grasses. Present-day wet meadows and bottomlands with Mollisols with A-C profiles along streams in the Great Plains are dominated by C 4 tallgrass species and may serve as analogues to wet-meadow environments during the late Holocene. A shift in climate to warm-dry conditions about 1000 yr BP was accompanied by deep channel cutting, low alluvial water-tables, and colonization of abandoned floodplains by trees and other C 3 species, as indicated by a change in carbon isotopes to lower values (mean δ 13 C: −20.8 ± 0.5‰) and correlating with the ‘Medieval Warm Period’. Other stable carbon isotope studies from late-Holocene alluvium in Texas have been mistakenly interpreted as evidence for paleoenvironmental conditions opposite to those presented in this investigation. We conclude that interpretations of stable carbon isotopes from alluvium based on broad patterns of upland C 4 grasses and climate can be in error, especially in cases where wet-meadow deposits and soils are present
Alluvial plain · Alluvium · Floodplain · Fluvial · Geography · Holocene · Holocene climatic optimum · Isotopes of carbon · Loess · Paleosol · Physical geography · Structural basin · Total organic carbon · Geological formations and processes · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Tree-ring climate responses · Ecology · Geology · Paleontology
Buried Trees, Water Table Fluctuations, and 3000 Years of Changing Climate in West-Central Oklahoma
Late Quaternary Floodplain History of the Brazos River in East-Central Texas
C 4 Plant Productivity and Climate-CO 2 Variations in South-Central Texas during the Late Quaternary
Late Holocene Paleoecology of the Southern Plains
Stable Isotopic Evidence for Latest Pleistocene and Holocene Climatic Change in North-Central Texas
Late Quaternary Vegetation and Climate Changes in Central Texas Based on the Isotopic Composition of Organic Carbon
Long-Term Aridity Changes in the Western United States
Climate in Medieval Time
Carbon isotope variation in modern soils of the tallgrass prairie
Alluvial stratigraphic evidence for channel incision during the Mediaeval Warm Period on the central Great Plains, USA
Late-Holocene dune activity linked to hydrological drought, Nebraska Sand Hills, USA
Stable-carbon isotope composition of Poaceae pollen
Archeological Testing at 41TR170, along the Clear Fork of the Trinity River, Tarrant County, Texas
Extended 14 C Data Base and Revised Calib 3.0 14 C Age Calibration Program
Environment And Archaeology Of The Central Osage Plains
IntCal09 and Marine09 Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curves, 0-50,000 Years cal BP
Grasslands of the Great Plains
| Citations per year | 0.15 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2013 - 2014 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |