Holocene landscape response to seasonality of storms in the Mojave Desert

Miller, David M.; Schmidt, Kevin M.; Mahan, Shannon A.; McGeehin, John P.; Owen, Lewis A.; Barron, John A.; Lehmkuhl, Frank; Löhrer, Rene

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2009.10.001

Cited by 88 publications

(100 citation statements)

References 84 publications

(135 reference statements)

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“…Many authors, including Bull (1991), Harvey et al (1999), McDonald et al (2003, Miller et al (2010), and Antinao and McDonald (2013a, b) have invoked changes in the frequency and/or intensity of extreme storms to drive fluvial-system aggradation in the southwestern US. Miller et al (2010), for example, documented a correlation between sea-surface temperatures in the Gulf of California (a proxy for monsoon activity) and alluvial-fan aggradation in the Mojave Desert.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Miller et al (2010), for example, documented a correlation between sea-surface temperatures in the Gulf of California (a proxy for monsoon activity) and alluvial-fan aggradation in the Mojave Desert. The role of monsoon thunderstorms specifically in driving aggradation in the Mojave Desert is uncertain given the limited impact of the North American Monsoon (NAM) system on the Mojave Desert (Higgins et al, 1997).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the timing of local paleovegetation changes is unusually well constrained; i.e., 87 dated packrat middens within the central Mojave Desert exist with woodland species (Juniperus) clearly present or absent from 17 to 0 ka. Also, dozens of state-of-the-art stratigraphic and surface-exposure ages have been obtained (e.g., Miller et al, 2010;Antinao and McDonald, 2013a, and references therein). Semiarid-to-arid climatic transitions are of particular interest given that semiarid landscapes may be particularly sensitive to climatic changes (e.g., Langbein and Schumm, 1958) and because large portions of earth's surface have the potential to transition from semiarid to arid climates in the future (e.g., Held and Soden, 2006;Lau et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To test the PVCH most comprehensively, however, it is necessary to constrain the timing of the woodland-to-desertscrub transition at the lowest elevations of each source catchment because vegetation changes are time-transgressive with elevation (occurring first at low elevations and later at high elevations) and hence it is the vegetation changes at the lowest elevations of source catchments that are responsible for triggering aggradation according to the PVCH (McDonald et al, 2003;Sect. 2 in this paper). Miller et al (2010) concluded that alluvial-fan aggradation in the Mojave Desert was principally due to more frequent and/or more intense storms based on an approximate correlation between the timing of alluvial-fan aggradation and elevated sea-surface temperatures in the Gulf of California (a proxy for monsoon activity). Specifically, both records exhibit two peaks from the latest Pleistocene to the present; i.e., one at ca.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The dual-pulsed nature of alluvial-fan aggradation from the latest Pleistocene to present was also emphasized by Bull (1991), who noted "the aggradation event that was associated with the PleistoceneHolocene climate change consisted of two main pulses (Q3a and Q3b) with an intervening period of stream-channel incision" (p. 114). Miller et al (2010) considered the dualpulsed nature of aggradation to be inconsistent with PVCH. However, two pulses of aggradation separated by approximately 4-8 ka and resulting from a single pulse of sediment yield is precisely what the PVCH predicts (documented in Sect.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The linkages among hillslope-vegetation changes, elevation, and the timing of late-Quaternary fluvial-system aggradation in the Mojave Desert revisited

Pelletier

2014

Earth Surf. Dynam.

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Abstract. Valley-floor-channel and alluvial-fan deposits and terraces in the southwestern US record multiple episodes of late-Quaternary fluvial-system aggradation and incision. Perhaps the most well-constrained of these episodes took place from the latest Pleistocene to the present in the Mojave Desert. One hypothesis for this episode -i.e., the paleovegetation-change hypothesis (PVCH) -posits that a reduction in hillslope vegetation cover associated with the transition from Pleistocene woodlands to Holocene desert scrub generated a pulse of sediment that triggered a primary phase of aggradation downstream, followed by channel incision, terrace abandonment, and initiation of a secondary phase of aggradation further downstream. A second hypothesisi.e., the extreme-storm hypothesis -attributes episodes of aggradation and incision to changes in the frequency and/or intensity of extreme storms. In the past decade a growing number of studies has advocated the extremestorm hypothesis and challenged the PVCH on the basis of inconsistencies in both timing and process. Here I show that in eight out of nine sites where the timing of fluvial-system aggradation in the Mojave Desert is reasonably well constrained, measured ages of primary aggradation are consistent with the predictions of the PVCH if the time-transgressive nature of paleovegetation changes with elevation is fully taken into account. I also present an alternative process model for PVCH that is more consistent with available data and produces sediment pulses primarily via an increase in drainage density (i.e., a transformation of hillslopes into low-order channels) rather than solely via an increase in sediment yield from hillslopes. This paper further documents the likely important role of changes in upland vegetation cover and drainage density in driving fluvial-system response during semiarid-to-arid climatic changes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The linkages among hillslope-vegetation changes, elevation, and the timing of late-Quaternary fluvial-system aggradation in the Mojave Desert revisited

Pelletier

2014

Earth Surf. Dynam.

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A mechanistic modeling and data assimilation framework for Mojave Desert ecohydrology

Bedford

Miller

2014

Water Resources Research

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This study demonstrates and addresses challenges in coupled ecohydrological modeling in deserts, which arise due to unique plant adaptations, marginal growing conditions, slow net primary production rates, and highly variable rainfall. We consider model uncertainty from both structural and parameter errors and present a mechanistic model for the shrub Larrea tridentata (creosote bush) under conditions found in the Mojave National Preserve in southeastern California (USA). Desert-specific plant and soil features are incorporated into the CLM-CN model by Oleson et al. (2010). We then develop a data assimilation framework using the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) to estimate model parameters based on soil moisture and leaf-area index observations. A new implementation procedure, the ''multisite loop EnKF,'' tackles parameter estimation difficulties found to affect desert ecohydrological applications. Specifically, the procedure iterates through data from various observation sites to alleviate adverse filter impacts from nonGaussianity in small desert vegetation state values. It also readjusts inconsistent parameters and states through a model spin-up step that accounts for longer dynamical time scales due to infrequent rainfall in deserts. Observation error variance inflation may also be needed to help prevent divergence of estimates from true values. Synthetic test results highlight the importance of adequate observations for reducing model uncertainty, which can be achieved through data quality or quantity.

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Annually resolved late Holocene paleohydrology of the southern Sierra Nevada and Tulare Lake, California

Adams

Negrini

Cook

et al. 2015

Water Resources Research

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Here we present 2000 year long, annually resolved records of streamflow for the Kings, Kaweah, Tule, and Kern Rivers in the southwestern Sierra Nevada of California and consequent lake-level fluctuations at Tulare Lake in the southern San Joaquin Valley. The integrated approach of using moisturesensitive tree ring records from the Living Blended Drought Atlas to reconstruct annual discharge and then routing this discharge to an annual Tulare Lake water balance model highlights the differences between these two types of paleoclimate records, even when subject to the same forcing factors. The reconstructed streamflow in the southern Sierra responded to yearly changes in precipitation and expressed a strong periodicity in the 2-8 year range over most of the reconstruction. The storage capacity of Tulare Lake caused it to fluctuate more slowly, masking the 2-8 year streamflow periodicity and instead expressing a strong periodicity in the 32-64 year range over much of the record. Although there have been longer droughts, the 2015 water year represents the driest in the last 2015 years and the 2012-2015 drought represents the driest 4 year period in the record. Under natural conditions, simulated Tulare Lake levels would now be at about 60 m, which is not as low as what occurred multiple times over the last 2000 years. This long-term perspective of fluctuations in climate and water supply suggests that different drought scenarios that vary in terms of severity and duration can produce similar lake-level responses in closed lake basins.

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Holocene landscape response to seasonality of storms in the Mojave Desert

Cited by 88 publications

References 84 publications

The linkages among hillslope-vegetation changes, elevation, and the timing of late-Quaternary fluvial-system aggradation in the Mojave Desert revisited

The linkages among hillslope-vegetation changes, elevation, and the timing of late-Quaternary fluvial-system aggradation in the Mojave Desert revisited

A mechanistic modeling and data assimilation framework for Mojave Desert ecohydrology

Annually resolved late Holocene paleohydrology of the southern Sierra Nevada and Tulare Lake, California

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