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Evidence of Stream Response to Holocene Climatic Change in a Small Wisconsin Watershed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Patricia F. McDowell
Patricia F. McDowell*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403 USA
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Abstract

During the Holocene, moderate climatic and vegetational changes triggered several episodes of adjustment in the Brush Creek fluvial system. The alluvial chronology includes an episode of erosion at 7800 – 5700 yr B.P. corresponding to the mid-Holocene precipitation minimum and an episode of floodplain construction at 5700 – 5000 yr B.P. corresponding to a rapid increase in precipitation. Holocene climatic changes have influenced the sedimentology of the alluvial deposits and soil development on them. Fluvial adjustment is caused primarily by hydrologic and hydraulic changes related to climatic change, but there is no simple model for fluvial response to climatic change. The relationship between the direction of climatic change and the type of fluvial response is complex.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , January 1983 , pp. 100 - 116
Copyright
University of Washington

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