Abstracts / Quaternary International 310 (2013) 227–246236

populations of Hawaii amakihi have evolved tolerance to avianmalaria andare burgeoning in the once quieted lowland forests. Captive breeding andrelease programs have prevented the extinction of at least two species andconsortiums of managed conservation lands increase the extent andsuitability of remaining forest bird habitat.

SEVERITY AND FORCING OF DROUGHT IN THE NORTHWESTERN GREATPLAINS SINCE 1365

Suzan L. Lapp, Jessica R. Vanstone, Jeannine-Marie St. Jacques, David J.Sauchyn. Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative (PARC), University ofRegina, Regina, SK, S4S 7H9, CanadaE-mail address: Lapp200s@uregina.ca.

The 20th century hydroclimatology of the Pacific Northwest has beenlinked to natural recurring large-scale climate patterns such as the PacificDecadal Oscillation (PDO) and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).Tree-ring proxy data analyses carried out in western North America haveproven valuable to quantify natural climate variation over centuries tomillennia. A reconstruction of PDSI over the western Canadian Prairieregion provides a record of drought for the past 800 years. We are able tomine these long reconstructions for much more information about thefrequency/duration of positive (wet) and negative (dry) moistureanomalies during difference phases of PDO and ENSO, as reconstructedfrom tree-ring datasets. As well, by comparing these moisture re-constructions to temperature reconstructions of the region we are able toidentify warm/cool drought periods. These reconstructions reflect theseasonal changes in moisture relative to both the instrumental andfuture time periods. The large-scale climate patterns will also be derivedfrom multiple GCMs, for the 21st century, as tools to better understandprojections of future moisture variability. Decision makers responsiblefor adaptation to climate variability and change may use our forecasts ofpersistent departures from mean hydroclimate to plan for future climateconditions.

THE LAST 2000 YEARS OF CALIFORNIA CLIMATE VARIABILITY:COMPARISON OF SEDIMENT RECORDS OF LATE HOLOCENEPALEOCLIMATE FROM THE WESTERN UNITED STATES

Steve Lund a, Larry Benson b, Matthew Kirby c, Will Berelson a, SarahFeakins a, Frank Corsetti a. aDepartment of Earth Sciences, University ofSouthern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA; bDepartment ofAnthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA;cDepartment of Geology, California State University, Fullerton, CA 92834, USAE-mail address: slund@usc.edu.

Wehave recovered lateHolocenepaleoclimate records fromeight sedimentsequences in the California region, which form a transect from north-western Nevada to Baja California: Pyramid Lake (Nevada), Walker Lake(Nevada), Mono Lake (California), Owens Lake (California), Santa Cruz coast(California), Zaca Lake (California), Lake Elsinore (California), PescaderoBasin (Mexico). The cores are all 14C dated and correlated with paleo-magnetic field secular variation. Work is just beginning in some records,while other records are fully published. In this study, our goal is to compareevidence for multi-decadal to millennial-scale climate/environmentalvariability among the records and look for regional patterns of variability.Different records have different degrees of resolution or response, so dis-tinctive patterns in some records are not expected to be visible in all re-cords. We see clear evidence for centennial- to millennial-scale variabilityin these records, but it is not yet clear that we can assign a specific regionalpattern to that variability. Similarly, we see evidence for ENSO to multi-decadal variability in several of the records, but it is not clear that the samemulti-decadal pattern can be correlated across the region.

A SEASON SPECIFIC PALEOCLIMATE RECORD FROM A NORTHERNWASATCH MOUNTAINS SPELEOTHEM AND LINKAGES TO THE PACIFIC

Zachary Lundeen a, Andrea Brunelle a, Stephen J. Burns b, YemaneAsmerom c, Victor Polyak c. aDepartment of Geography, University of Utah,

Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA; bDepartment of Geosciences, University ofMassachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA; cDepartment of Earthand Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131,USAE-mail address: z.lundeen@utah.edu.

Pacific Ocean influences on spatiotemporal precipitation variability in theAmerican West are well documented, especially with respect to El-Niño-Southern Oscillation and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. However, the ef-fects of these large-scale teleconnection patterns on precipitation distri-bution are most pronounced in the winter, with less noticeable effects therest of the year. Linking terrestrial paleoclimate records to past ENSO orPDO variability in the Pacific Ocean is hampered by the lack of season-specific paleoclimate proxies. Rather than being able to isolate winterseason precipitation amounts, most paleoclimate records are instead morerepresentative of mean annual effective moisture conditions. We presentan isotope-based paleoclimate record from a speleothem in the Bear RiverRange, the northernmost extension of the Wasatch Mountains. Due to thelocation's characteristics, we interpret the speleothem stable isotope dataas a record of winter precipitation amount and temperature variability.The record shows a generalized pattern of wet early Holocene conditions,a dry middle Holocene, and a wet neoglacial period. Significant droughtsoccurred from w6200-7200 cal yr BP, and at w4200 cal yr BP. Tempera-tures were generally cool in the early Holocene and show a consistentwarming trend through the middle Holocene. Anthropogenic warming isevident in the record, with modern oxygen isotope delta values more thantwo standard deviations above the Holocene mean.

DECIPHERING THE ROLE OF CLIMATE- VERSUS HUMAN-CAUSEDDISTURBANCE DURING THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY:A COMPARISON OF ISOTOPIC, STOICHIOMETRIC, POLLEN, AND PLANTMACROFOSSILS FROM TWO LAKES IN THE WESTERN U.S.

Anthony N. Macharia a, Mitchell J. Power a,b. aDepartment of Geography,University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA; bUtah Museum ofNatural History, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USAE-mail address: a.macharia@utah.edu.

Historical paleoenvironmental interpretations of biotic and abiotic pro-cesses in lake sediment records are complicated by recent anthropogenicactivities. To disentangle the role of climate versus people in 19th and 20thcentury lake sediment records we use sedimentary elemental and stableisotopes, plantmacrofossils, charcoal, and pollen records. Ecological effectsof climatic versus anthropogenic disturbances are compared for two lakesin the Western US (Utah Lake (48�100 N, 114�210 W) and Foy Lake (40�

13.820 N, 111� 47.120 W). Trends in bulk sediment d15N values were mosteffective in distinguishing the relative role of climate versus anthropogenicactivity as the dominant mechanism of ecosystem disturbance. In theorganic-rich Foy Lake sediments, influxes of allochthonous materialsgenerated significant shifts in d13C, and C:N ratios while the d15N valuesand charcoal records show the most dramatic shifts in Utah Lake. Thedisturbance from late 19th century sawmill operations and widespreadforest fires were responsible for the observed shifts in Foy Lake, whileagricultural activities, urban development, and 20th century variations inUtah Lake hydrology help explain trends in Utah Lake sediments. Changesin pollen and macrofossil composition in Utah Lake reinforce these in-terpretations. Observed differences in sedimentary d18O at both lakesreflect the contrasting climatological and hydrological settings of the twobasins. These results demonstrate that the influx of nutrients and partic-ulate organic matter from natural and anthropogenic sources producedramatic changes in sedimentary geochemistry. Using multiple tools forinterpreting past environmental change in lake systems can help deciphernatural versus anthropogenic drivers.

PACIFIC OCEAN SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE INFLUENCE ONSOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES CLIMATE DURING THE PASTMILLENNIUM: NEW EVIDENCE FROM A WELL-CALIBRATED, HIGH-RESOLUTION STALAGMITE d18O RECORD FROM THE SIERRA NEVADA,CALIFORNIA