Pubs.GISS: Abstract of Kneller and Peteet 1999

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Kneller and Peteet 1999

Kneller, M., and D. Peteet, 1999: Late-glacial to early Holocene climate changes from a central Appalachian pollen and macrofossil record. Quaternary Res., 51, 133-147, doi:10.1006/qres.1998.2026.

A late-glacial to early Holocene record of pollen, plant macrofossils, and charcoal has been obtained from two cores from Browns Pond in the central Appalachians of Virginia. An AMS radiocarbon chronology defines the timing of moist and cold excursions, superimposed on the overall warming trend from 14,200 to 7500 ¹⁴C yr B.P. This site has cold, moist conditions from ca. 14,200 to 12,700 ¹⁴C yr. B.P., with warming at 12,730, 11,280, and 10,050 ¹⁴C yr. B.P. A decrease in deciduous broadleaved tree taxa and Pinus strobus (hapoxylon) pollen, simultaneous with a reexpansion of Abies, denotes a brief, cold reversal from 12,260 to 12,200 ¹⁴C yr. B.P. A second cold reversal, inferred from increases in montane conifers, is centered at 7500 ¹⁴C yr. B.P. The cold reversals at Browns Pond may be synchronous with climate change in Greenland and northwestern Europe. Warming at 11,280 ¹⁴C yr. B.P. shows the complexity of regional climate responses during the Younger Dryas chronozone.