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Elevational Shifts of Coleogyne ramossissima in the Mojave Desert during the Little Ice Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Kimberly L. Hunter  and
Joseph R. McAuliffe
Kimberly L. Hunter
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154
Joseph R. McAuliffe
Affiliation:
Desert Botanical Garden, 1201 North Galvin Parkway, Phoenix, Arizona 85008
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Abstract

Plant macrofossils from woodrat (Neotoma) middens collected in the Mojave Desert of southern Nevada were used to reconstruct the timing and magnitude of vegetation change during the past 1000 yr. Although vegetation at the site now is dominated by the shrub Coleogyne ramossissima, this species does not occur in fossil middens prior to 600 ± 50 yr B.P. The appearance and persistence of C. ramosissima in middens was coincident with the Little Ice Age (ca. 1250 to 1850 A.D.) and was probably related to an increase in precipitation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , September 1994 , pp. 216 - 221
Copyright
University of Washington

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