Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:15:01.414Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A 16,000 14C yr B.P. packrat midden series from the USA–Mexico Borderlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Camille A. Holmgren ,
M. Cristina Peñalba ,
Kate Aasen Rylander  and
Julio L Betancourt
Camille A. Holmgren*
Affiliation:
Desert Laboratory, University of Arizona & U.S. Geological Survey, 1675 W. Anklam Rd., Tucson, AZ 85745, USA
M. Cristina Peñalba
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Ecología, A.P. 1354, Hermosillo 83000, Sonora, Mexico
Kate Aasen Rylander
Affiliation:
Desert Laboratory, University of Arizona & U.S. Geological Survey, 1675 W. Anklam Rd., Tucson, AZ 85745, USA
Julio L Betancourt
Affiliation:
Desert Laboratory, University of Arizona & U.S. Geological Survey, 1675 W. Anklam Rd., Tucson, AZ 85745, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: +1-520-670-6806.E-mail address:holmgren@geo.arizona.edu (C.A. Holmgren).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A new packrat midden chronology from Playas Valley, southwestern New Mexico, is the first installment of an ongoing effort to reconstruct paleovegetation and paleoclimate in the U.S.A.–Mexico Borderlands. Playas Valley and neighboring basins supported pluvial lakes during full and/or late glacial times. Plant macrofossil and pollen assemblages from nine middens in the Playas Valley allow comparisons of two time intervals: 16,000–10,000 and 4000–0 14C yr B.P. Vegetation along pluvial lake margins consisted of open pinyon–juniper communities dominated by Pinus edulis, Juniperus scopulorum, Juniperus cf. coahuilensis, and a rich understory of C4 annuals and grasses. This summer-flowering understory is also characteristic of modern desert grassland in the Borderlands and indicates at least moderate summer precipitation. P. edulis and J. scopulorum disappeared or were rare in the midden record by 10,670 14C yr B.P. The late Holocene is marked by the arrival of Chihuahuan desert scrub elements and few departures as the vegetation gradually became modern in character. Larrea tridentata appears as late as 2190 14C yr B.P. based on macrofossils, but may have been present as early as 4095 14C yr B.P. based on pollen. Fouquieria splendens, one of the dominant desert species present at the site today, makes its first appearance only in the last millennium. The midden pollen assemblages are difficult to interpret; they lack modern analogs in surface pollen assemblages from stock tanks at different elevations in the Borderlands.

Keywords

PleistoceneHolocenepluvial lakesvegetation historypackrat middenspinyon–juniper woodlanddesert grasslandpollen
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 60 , Issue 3 , November 2003 , pp. 319 - 329
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, B.D., and Anderson, R.Y., (2000). A continuous record of late Pleistocene climate variability from the Estancia Basin, New Mexico. Geological Society of America Bulletin 112, 1444–1458.Google Scholar
Anderson, R.S., and Van Devender, T.R., (1991). Comparison of pollen and macrofossils in packrat middens. A chronological sequence from the Waterman Mountains of southern Arizona, USA. Review of Paleobotany and Palynology 68, 1–28.Google Scholar
Bahre, C.J., and Webster, G.L., (2001). Changing Plant Life of La Frontera. Observations of Vegetation in the United States/Mexico Borderlands. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. 84–95.Google Scholar
Betancourt, J.L., Pierson, E.A., Aasen-Rylander, K., Fairchild-Parks, J.A., and Dean, J.S., (1993). Influence of history and climate on New Mexico pinyon–juniper woodlands. Aldon, E.F., and Shaw, D.W. Managing Pinyon–Juniper Ecosystems for Sustainability and Social Needs. Proceedings of the Symposium April 26–30, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Gen. Tech. Rep. RM-236. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Exp. Station, Ft. Collins, CO. 42–62.Google Scholar
Betancourt, J.L., Rylander, K.A., Peñalba, C., and McVickar, J.L., (2001). Late Quaternary vegetation history of Rough Canyon, south-central New Mexico, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 165, 71–95.Google Scholar
Buck, B.J., and Monger, H.C., (1999). Stable isotopes and soil-geomorphology as indicators of Holocene climate change, northern Chihuahuan Desert. Journal of Arid Environments 43, 357–373.Google Scholar
Connin, S.L., Betancourt, J.L., and Quade, J., (1998). Late Pleistocene C4 plant dominance and summer rainfall in the southwestern United States from isotopic study of herbivore teeth. Quaternary Research 50, 179–193.Google Scholar
Davis, O.K., and Anderson, R.S., (1987). Pollen in packrat (Neotoma) middens. pollen transport and the relationship of pollen to vegetation. Palynology 11, 185–198.Google Scholar
Fleischhauer, H.L. Jr., Stone, W.J., (1982). Quaternary Geology of Lake Animas, Hidalgo Country, New Mexico. New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Circular 174. Socorro, NM.Google Scholar
Harris, A.H., (1987). Reconstruction of Mid-Wisconsin environments in southern New Mexico. National Geographic Research 3, 142–151.Google Scholar
Hawley, J.W., Hibbs, H.J., Kennedy, J.F., Creel, B.J., Remmenga, M.D., Johnson, M., Lee, M., Dinterman, P., (2000). Trans-International Boundary Aquifers in Southwestern New Mexico. Technical Completion Report, Interagency Contract No. X-996-350-01-3. New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute, . Available at: http://wrri.nmsu.edu/publish/otherrpt/swnm/ Google Scholar
Haynes, C.V., (1991). Geoarchaeological and paleohydrological evidence for a Clovis–age drought in North America and its bearing on extinction. Quaternary Research 35, 438–450.Google Scholar
Hunter, K.L., Betancourt, J.L., Riddle, B.R., Van Devender, T.R., Cole, K.L., and Spaulding, W.G., (2001). Ploidy race distributions since the Last Glacial Maximum in the North American desert shrub, Larrea tridentata. Global Ecology and Biogeography 10, 521–533.Google Scholar
Jull, A.J., Haynes, C.V., Donahue, D.J., Burr, G.S., Beck, J.W., (1998). Radiocarbon ages at Murray Springs, Arizona and the influence of climate change on Clovis Man. Revue d’ Archaéometrie Supp 339–343.Google Scholar
Krider, P.R., (1998). Paleoclimatic significance of late Quaternary lacustrine and alluvial stratigraphy, Animas Valley, New Mexico. Quaternary Research 50, 283–289.Google Scholar
Lanner, R.M., and Van Devender, T.R., (1981). Late Pleistocene piñon pines in the Chihuahuan Desert. Quaternary Research 15, 278–280.Google Scholar
Liu, B., Phillips, F.M., and Campbell, A.R., (1996). Stable carbon and oxygen isotopes of pedogenic carbonates, Ajo Mountains, southern Arizona. implications for paleoenvironmental change. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 124, 233–246.Google Scholar
Long, A., (1966). Late Pleistocene and Recent Chronologies of Playa Lakes in Arizona and New Mexico, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Markgraf, V., Bradbury, J.P., Forester, R.M., Singh, G., and Sternberg, R.S., (1984). San Agustin Plains, New Mexico. age and paleoenvironmental potential reassessed. Quaternary Research 22, 336–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, P.S., (1963). The last 10,000 years. Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Martin, P.S., Mehringer, P.J. Jr. Pleistocene pollen analysis and biogeography of the southwest. Wright, H.E. Jr., and Frey, D.G., (1965). The Quaternary of the United States. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. 433–451.Google Scholar
Mehringer, P.J., and Haynes, C.V., (1965). The pollen evidence for the environment of early man and extinct mammals of the Lehner mammoth site, southeastern Arizona. American Antiquity 32, 17–23.Google Scholar
Monger, H.C., Cole, D.R., Gish, J.W., and Giordano, T.H., (1998). Stable carbon and oxygen isotopes in Quaternary soil carbonates as indicators of ecogeomorphic changes in the northern Chihuahuan Desert, USA. Geoderma 82, 137–172.Google Scholar
Phillips, F.M., Campbell, A.R., Kruger, C., Johnson, P., Roberts, R., Keyes, E., (1992). A Reconstruction of the Water Balance in Western United States Lake Basins to Climatic Change. New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute Report 269 Google Scholar
Schwennesen, A.T., (1918). Ground Water in the Animas, Playas. Hachita and San Luis Basins, New Mexico., United States Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 422 Google Scholar
Shackley, M.S., Huckell, B.B., and Huckell, L.W., (1999). McEuen Cave in Early Maize in the Greater Southwest. Archaeology Southwest 13, 12 Google Scholar
Spaulding, W.G., (1991). A middle Holocene vegetation record from the Mojave Desert of North America and its paleoclimatic significance. Quaternary Research 35, 427–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spaulding, W.G., Betancourt, J.L., Croft, L.K., and Cole, K.L., (1990). Packrat middens. their composition and methods of analysis. Betancourt, J.L., Van Devender, T.R., and Martin, P.S. Packrat Middens: The Last 40,000 Years of Biotic Change. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. 59–84.Google Scholar
Tagg, M.D., (1996). Early cultigens from Fresnal Shelter, southeastern New Mexico. American Antiquity 62, 311–324.Google Scholar
Thompson, R.S., (1985). Palynology and Neotoma middens. American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists Contributions Series 16, 89–112.Google Scholar
Upham, S., MacNeish, R.S., Galinat, W.C., and Stevenson, C.M., (1987). Evidence concerning the origin of Maiz de Ocho. American Anthropologist 89, 410–419.Google Scholar
Van Devender, T.R., (1990). Late Quaternary vegetation and climate of the Chihuahuan Desert, United States and Mexico. Betancourt, J.L., Van Devender, T.R., and Martin, P.S. Packrat Middens. The Last 40,000 Years of Biotic Change. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. 104–133.Google Scholar
Van Devender, T.R., (1990). Late Quaternary vegetation and climate of the Sonoran Desert, United States and Mexico. Betancourt, J.L., Van Devender, T.R., and Martin, P.S. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. 134–165.Google Scholar
Van Devender, T.R., (1995). Desert grassland history. changing climates, evolution, biogeography, and community dynamics. McClaran, M.P., and Van Devender, T.R. The Desert Grassland. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. 68–95.Google Scholar
Van Devender, T.R., Betancourt, J.L., and Wimberley, M., (1984). Biogeographic implications of a packrat midden sequence from the Sacramento Mountains, south-central New Mexico. Quaternary Research 22, 344–360.Google Scholar
Van Devender, T.R., and Everitt, B.L., (1977). The latest Pleistocene and Recent vegetation of Bishop's Cap, south-central New Mexico. Southwest. Nature 23, 289–302.Google Scholar
Van Devender, T.R., and Toolin, L.J., (1983). Late Quaternary vegetation of the San Andres Mountains, Sierra County, New Mexico. Eidenbach, P.L. The Prehistory of Rhodes Canyon. Survey and Mitigation, Report to Holloman Air Force Base. Human Systems Research, Tylorole, NM. 33–54.Google Scholar
Van Devender, T.R., and Worthington, R.D., (1977). The herpetofauna of Howell's Ridge Cave and the paleoecology of the northwestern Chihuahuan Desert. Wauer, R.H., and Riskind, D.H. Transactions of the Symposium on the Biological Resources of the Chihuahuan Desert Region, United States and Mexico, Transactions and Proceedings Series Number 13. U.S. Department of Interior National Park Service, Washington, DC. 85–106.Google Scholar
Wagner, W.L., (1977). Floristic affinities of Animas Mountains, southwestern New Mexico, M.S. thesis. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Waters, M.R., (1989). Late Quaternary lacustrine history and paleoclimatic significance of pluvial Lake Cochise, southeastern Arizona. Quaternary Research 32, 1–11.Google Scholar
Wills, W.H., (1988). Early Prehistoric Agriculture in the American Southwest. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.Google Scholar