Holocene glaciation of the central Sierra Nevada, California

Bowerman, Nicole; Clark, Douglas H.

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.10.014

Cited by 75 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 31 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The fire-scar record becomes dense enough to analyze during the LIA and indicates very low levels of fire activity then. Evidence from glacial advances in the Sierra Nevada range of California and the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest (68) suggest decreases in summer temperature during the LIA of ∼2°C in Sierra Nevada (69). Native American populations also collapse after approximately 1;500 CE, which would have significantly reduced the impact from human-caused fires where they were important previously (Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term perspective on wildfires in the western USA

Marlon

Bartlein

Gavin

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

486

391

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding the causes and consequences of wildfires in forests of the western United States requires integrated information about fire, climate changes, and human activity on multiple temporal scales. We use sedimentary charcoal accumulation rates to construct long-term variations in fire during the past 3,000 y in the American West and compare this record to independent fire-history data from historical records and fire scars. There has been a slight decline in burning over the past 3,000 y, with the lowest levels attained during the 20th century and during the Little Ice Age (LIA, ca. 1400–1700 CE [Common Era]). Prominent peaks in forest fires occurred during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (ca. 950–1250 CE) and during the 1800s. Analysis of climate reconstructions beginning from 500 CE and population data show that temperature and drought predict changes in biomass burning up to the late 1800s CE. Since the late 1800s , human activities and the ecological effects of recent high fire activity caused a large, abrupt decline in burning similar to the LIA fire decline. Consequently, there is now a forest “fire deficit” in the western United States attributable to the combined effects of human activities, ecological, and climate changes. Large fires in the late 20th and 21st century fires have begun to address the fire deficit, but it is continuing to grow.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term perspective on wildfires in the western USA

Marlon

Bartlein

Gavin

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

486

391

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…An exception has been the American West, defined here as those states west of the 100th meridian, including Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. Despite a vigorous history of studies on individual glaciers (e.g., Armstrong, 1989;Rasmussen, 2009) and their glacial geology (Davis, 1988;Bowerman and Clark, 2011;Osborn et al, 2012), this region has not been subject to a rigorous glacial inventory.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying 20th Century Glacier Change in the Sierra Nevada, California

Basagic

Fountain

2011

Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…The maps of the VTM survey are representative of the Hispanic period, and perhaps reach into the Holocene at 29 During the LIA, a period of slightly cooler, wetter climate prevailed in the temperate climates of the middle latitudes. In California, small cirque glaciers in the Sierra Nevada Mountains reached their maximum advance for the Holocene (Clark and Gillespie 1997;Phillips et al 2009;Bowerman and Clark 2011), and Mono and Silver Lakes in the Mojave Desert reached high stands (Enzel et al 1992). The climate has warmed since the early 19 th century, the termination of the LIA.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Spanish and Mexican Baseline of California Tree and Shrubland Distributions Since the Late 18th Century

Minnich¹,

Goforth²

2015

aliso

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/aliso Part of the Botany Commons, and the Forest Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Minnich, Richard A.; Goforth, Brett R.; and Minnich, Richard (2015) ABSTRACTHistorical distributions of 31 tree species, chaparral, and coastal sage scrub described by Spanish land explorers in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (1769-1806) and in land grant diseñ os (1784-1846) are reconstructed at 634 localities across central and southern California. This baseline predates most formal botanical surveys by nearly a century, allowing for assessment of vegetation change over the broadest time frame for comparison with pre-historical evidences and future distributions. Spanish accounts are compared with historical sources in the Mexican era (1821-1848), American settlement , and modern range maps of the 1929-1934 Vegetation Type Map (VTM) survey. Among tree species that were recorded in Spanish explorations, the site-specific localities are consistent with VTM maps at the spatial resolution of the land expeditions. In contrast with massive deforestation across eastern North America since European colonization, hardwood and conifer forests in California sustained inconsequential cutting during Hispanic settlement. Spanish accounts and Mexican diseñ os occasionally provide remarkable detail of fine-scale distributions which have not changed over the past two centuries, including Pinus radiata forest at Cambria and Monterey, the eastern limit of Quercus lobata and Q. agrifolia woodlands with Aesculus californica in the Salinas Valley, as well as isolated stands of Cupressus macrocarpa and C. sargentii. Disjunct occurrences of trees in southern California were recorded at the same places they occur today, including an isolated grove of Q. engelmannii at the Baldwin Park Arboretum, and the Pinus coulteri stand in the mountains above Santa Barbara. The southern margin of mixed conifer forest in the San Bernardino Mountains has remained on the crest of the range since Garcés' account in 1776. Long-term tree distributions are evaluated with respect to land use, grazing and climate change. We advocate the use of historical records as proxy data for climate change studies.

show abstract

Holocene glaciation of the central Sierra Nevada, California

Cited by 75 publications

References 31 publications

Long-term perspective on wildfires in the western USA

Long-term perspective on wildfires in the western USA

Quantifying 20th Century Glacier Change in the Sierra Nevada, California

The Spanish and Mexican Baseline of California Tree and Shrubland Distributions Since the Late 18th Century

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About