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Paleoclimatic Implications of Holocene Plant Remains from the Sierra Bacha, Sonora, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Thomas R. Van Devender ,
Tony L. Burgess ,
Jessie C. Piper  and
Raymond M. Turner
Thomas R. Van Devender
Affiliation:
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, 2021 North Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona 85743
Tony L. Burgess
Affiliation:
Desert Laboratory, Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721
Jessie C. Piper
Affiliation:
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, 2021 North Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona 85743
Raymond M. Turner
Affiliation:
Desert Laboratory, Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721
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Abstract

A total of 93 plant taxa were identified from 11 packrat (Neotoma sp.) midden samples from the Sierra Bacha on the coast of the Gulf of California near Puerto Libertad, Sonora, Mexico. Nine indurated samples have radiocarbon dates ranging from 9970 to 320 yr B.P. Sonoran desertscrub was present on rocky slopes throughout the Holocene. Early Holocene assemblages dominated by Fouquieria columnaris (boojum tree) reflect vegetation and climate more like modern Baja California with greater winter rainfall and cooler summers. Middle Holocene vegetation was essentially modern with modest indications of greater monsoonal rainfall even though cold-water upwelling locally inhibits summer precipitation. The results are similar to all previous midden reconstructions of early and middle Holocene climates in the Sonoran Desert, but contradict general atmospheric circulation model simulations.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , January 1994 , pp. 99 - 108
Copyright
University of Washington

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