From Saline to Freshwater: The Diversity of Western Lakes in Space and Time
CONTAINS OPEN ACCESS

Beginning with the nineteenth-century territorial surveys, the lakes and lacustrine deposits in what is now the western United States were recognized for their economic value to the expanding nation. In the latter half of the twentieth century, these systems have been acknowledged as outstanding examples of depositional systems serving as models for energy exploration and environmental analysis, many with global applications in the twenty-first century. The localities presented in this volume extend from exposures of the Eocene Green River Formation in Utah and Florissant Formation in Colorado, through the Pleistocene and Holocene lakes of the Great Basin to lakes along the California and Oregon coast. The chapters explore environmental variability, sedimentary processes, fire history, the impact of lakes on crustal flexure, and abrupt climate events in arid regions, often through the application of new tools and proxies.
A 35,000 yr fire history from the Oregon Coast Range, USA
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Published:August 12, 2021
ABSTRACT
We extend a published 9000 yr fire history record from Little Lake, in the Oregon Coast Range, to 35,000 yr and compare it with the established pollen record from the site. The fire history is based on a high-resolution analysis of charcoal preserved in lake sediments, providing a fire history record that spans the Last Glacial Maximum in North America. The data enabled us to address questions regarding the interactions between large-scale climate changes associated with the shift from glacial to interglacial conditions and the accompanying changes in forest vegetation and fire regimes. The vegetation history indicates a change...
- absolute age
- biomass
- C-14
- carbon
- Cenozoic
- charcoal
- climate change
- Coast Ranges
- cores
- dates
- drought
- fires
- forests
- future
- glacial environment
- interglacial environment
- isotopes
- lake sediments
- last glacial maximum
- miospores
- North America
- Oregon
- paleoclimatology
- paleoecology
- palynomorphs
- pollen
- Quaternary
- radioactive isotopes
- seasonal variations
- United States
- upper Quaternary
- vegetation
- Little Lake