Middle Holocene dry climate caused by change in atmospheric circulation patterns: Evidence from lake levels and stable isotopes Available to Purchase

Sediment hiatuses, detritus layers, and inwashed terrestrial moss layers in five cores at Crawford Lake, Ontario, Canada, show that the lake level was low between ca. 4.8 and 2 ka (1 ka = 1000 ¹⁴C yr B.P.). This low level is attributed to a dry and warm climate, which has also been documented at other sites in southern Ontario, southern Michigan, and southern Wisconsin. Oxygen isotope (δ¹⁸O) values from authigenic marl show a negative shift of 2.4‰ from −9‰ to −11.4‰ (Vienna Peedee belemnite) between ca. 5 and 2 ka. Enhanced evaporation under dry and likely closed-basin conditions would lead to more enrichment in ¹⁸O, so we suggest that the trend to depleted ¹⁸O indicates a significant change in the δ¹⁸O value of the source meteoric water. The major moisture source for the Great Lakes region is the Gulf of Mexico, from which the amount and seasonality of precipitation are affected by the interplay of air masses from the Gulf of Mexico and North Pacific, probably controlled by jet stream positions and storm tracks. In the late middle Holocene, the isotopically heavy moisture from the gulf might have contributed less precipitation and/or a higher proportion in winter months, probably caused by more frequent eastward extension of dry Pacific air depleted in ¹⁸O. This hypothesis implies that the δ¹⁸O values of paleoprecipitation in the middle Holocene reflected moisture-source history more strongly than paleotemperature.