A Holocene Record of Climate Change from the Sierra Nevada, CA, USA: A Paleolimnological Perspective of California Drought (original) (raw)

2004

Abstract

Drought has had disastrous impacts on western North American ecosystems, economies and society, and for many regions is predicted to be a likely consequence of future climate change. The instrumental record, however, spans too short a period to provide the full range of drought variability (including frequency, duration and magnitude), which is critical information to anticipate and prepare for future drought events. Paleolimnology provides a means to reconstruct long-term (1000s of years) climate records from which to determine drought variability. Here we present a Holocene drought record from the eastern Sierra Nevada, CA, USA, and compare this record to similar records from western North America in order to explore spatial variability of Holocene drought. A 3.1 m sediment core was retrieved from Kirman Lake (2,174 m a.s.l.), located west of Bridgeport, CA. At present, Kirman Lake is a relatively small (11.9 ha), shallow (3.8 m), slightly alkaline (pH=7.6), freshwater (salinity=9...

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