Lake sediments record large-scale shifts in moisture regimes across the northern prairies of North America during the past two millennia

noaa-lake-23093 North America Past Two Millennia Diatom-inferred Lake Salinity Data Laird, K.R.; Cumming, B.F.; Wunsam, S.; Rusak, J.A.; Oglesby, R.J.; Fritz, S.C.; Leavitt, P.R. North America Past Two Millennia Diatom-inferred Lake Salinity Data 2017-11-13 NCDC-Paleoclimatology ONLINE Files Pending https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/23093 Investigator K.R. Laird Investigator B.F. Cumming Investigator S. Wunsam Investigator J.A. Rusak Investigator R.J. Oglesby Investigator S.C. Fritz Investigator P.R. Leavitt earth science paleoclimate climate reconstructions|paleolimnology age,null,null,year Common Era,null,climate reconstructions|paleolimnology,null,null,N,null earth science paleoclimate climate reconstructions|paleolimnology salinity,diatom assemblage|lake water,null,gram per liter,null,climate reconstructions|paleolimnology,null,null,N,null earth science paleoclimate climate reconstructions|paleolimnology salinity,diatom assemblage|lake water,null,gram per liter,null,climate reconstructions|paleolimnology,null,null,N,Diatom-inferred salinity earth science paleoclimate climate reconstructions|paleolimnology age,null,null,calendar year before present,null,climate reconstructions|paleolimnology,null,null,N,null earth science paleoclimate climate reconstructions|paleolimnology depth,null,null,centimeter,null,climate reconstructions|paleolimnology,null,null,N,null earth science paleoclimate reconstructions lake salinity geoscientificInformation 1894 cal yr BP -49 cal yr BP Complete 50.47 52.68 -110.1 -99.936 552 638 Continent North America Canada Manitoba Nora Lake>LATITUDE 50.47>LONGITUDE -99.936 Continent North America Canada Alberta Chauvin Lake>LATITUDE 52.68>LONGITUDE -110.1 Continent North America Canada Saskatchewan Humboldt Lake>LATITUDE 52.13>LONGITUDE -105.1 None Please cite original publication, online resource, dataset and publication DOIs (where available), and date accessed when using downloaded data. If there is no publication information, please cite investigator, title, online resource, and date accessed. The appearance of external links associated with a dataset does not constitute endorsement by the Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of external Web sites or the information, products or services contained therein. For other than authorized activities, the Department of Commerce/NOAA does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. These links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this Department of Commerce/NOAA Web site. English DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data DATA Center Contact Bruce Bauer bruce.a.bauer@noaa.gov paleo@noaa.gov 303-497-6280 303-497-6513

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Boulder CO 80305-3328 USA online ASCII Laird, K. R.; Cumming, B. F.; Wunsam, S.; Rusak, J. A.; Oglesby, R. J.; Fritz, S. C.; Leavitt, P. R. Lake sediments record large-scale shifts in moisture regimes across the northern prairies of North America during the past two millennia Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100 5 10.1073/pnas.0530193100

Six high-resolution climatic reconstructions, based on diatom analyses from lake sediment cores from the northern prairies of North America, show that shifts in drought conditions on decadal through multicentennial scales have prevailed in this region for at least the last two millennia. The predominant broad-scale pattern seen at all sites is a major shift in moisture regimes from wet to dry, or vice versa (depending on location), that occurred after a period of relative stability. These large-scale shifts at the different sites exhibit spatial coherence at regional scales. The three Canadian sites record this abrupt shift between anno Domini 500 and 800, and subsequently conditions become increasingly variable. All three U.S. sites underwent a pronounced change, but the timing of this change is between anno Domini 1000 and 1300, thus later than in all of the Canadian sites. The mechanisms behind these patterns are poorly understood, but they are likely related to changes in the shape and location of the jet stream and associated storm tracks. If the patterns seen at these sites are representative of the region, this observed pattern can have huge implications for future water availability in this region. Drought is a recurring natural feature of climate that has had dramatic environmental, economic, and social impacts on modern (1) and ancient (2) civilizations. Decade- to century-scale episodes of prolonged drought or high rainfall have been recorded from North America in continental archives as diverse as tree rings (3), tree stumps (4), lake sediments (5), and river deposits (6, 7). The prairie region of North America is particularly susceptible to extreme droughts (8). However, few high-resolution proxy records of climate exist from the prairies. Tree-ring records on the prairies typically are spatially limited to wooded areas at the periphery of the prairies (9) and temporally limited to, at best, ≈500 years (10). Sediments from closed-basin lakes can provide high-temporal-resolution paleoclimatic information from prairie regions for much longer periods. Here we provide evidence from high-resolution (subdecadal to decadal) sediment core records from six lakes on the Canadian and northern U.S. prairies (Fig. 1). All of the sites indicate that shifts in drought regimes have been a prevalent feature of this region, occurring on decadal through multicentennial scales. Inferred changes in climatic conditions over the past two millennia are based on analysis of diatom assemblages preserved in sediment cores, a commonly used technique for tracking past climatic conditions (11). Our focus here is on long-term dynamics and broad-scale similarities among the lake records. This approach is in part undertaken because of the inherent difficulties of comparing short-term dynamics across records constrained by carbon-dated chronologies.

GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/pages2k/NAm2kHydro-2017/noaa-templates/data-version-1.0.0/Nora.Laird.2003.txt NOAA Template File; Lake Nora Salinity Data (NOAA Template Format) GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/pages2k/NAm2kHydro-2017/data-version-1.0.0/Humboldt.Laird.2003.lpd Linked Paleo Data (LiPD) File Format; Lake Humboldt Salinity Data (LiPD Format) GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/pages2k/NAm2kHydro-2017/noaa-templates/data-version-1.0.0/Chauvin.Laird.2003.txt NOAA Template File; Lake Chauvin Salinity Data (NOAA Template Format) GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/pages2k/NAm2kHydro-2017/data-version-1.0.0/Chauvin.Laird.2003.lpd Linked Paleo Data (LiPD) File Format; Lake Chauvin Salinity Data (LiPD Format) GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/pages2k/NAm2kHydro-2017/noaa-templates/data-version-1.0.0/Humboldt.Laird.2003.txt NOAA Template File; Lake Humboldt Salinity Data (NOAA Template Format) GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/pages2k/NAm2kHydro-2017/data-version-1.0.0/Nora.Laird.2003.lpd Linked Paleo Data (LiPD) File Format; Lake Nora Salinity Data (LiPD Format) USA/NOAA DIF Version 9.8.4 2018-12-11 2018-12-11