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Influences of forested and grassland vegetation on late Quaternary ecosystem development as recorded in lacustrine sediments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2019

Kendra K. McLauchlan Open the ORCID record for Kendra K. McLauchlan [Opens in a new window] ,
Ioan Lascu Open the ORCID record for Ioan Lascu [Opens in a new window] ,
Emily Mellicant ,
Robert J. Scharping Open the ORCID record for Robert J. Scharping [Opens in a new window]  and
Joseph J. Williams Open the ORCID record for Joseph J. Williams [Opens in a new window]
Kendra K. McLauchlan*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, USA
Ioan Lascu*
Affiliation:
Department of Mineral Sciences, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EQ, United Kingdom
Emily Mellicant
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, USA
Robert J. Scharping
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, USA Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
Joseph J. Williams
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
*
*Corresponding author e-mail address: [email protected] (K.K. McLauchlan), [email protected] (I. Lascu).
*Corresponding author e-mail address: [email protected] (K.K. McLauchlan), [email protected] (I. Lascu).
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Abstract

Geosphere-biosphere interactions are ubiquitous features of the Earth surface, yet the development of interactions between newly exposed lithologic surfaces and colonizing plants during primary succession after glaciation are lacking temporal detail. To assess the nature, rate, and magnitude of vegetation influence on parent material and sediment delivery, we analyzed ecosystem and geochemical proxies from lacustrine sediment cores at a grassland site and a forested site in the northern United States. Over time, terrigenous inputs declined at both sites, with increasing amounts of organic inputs toward present. The similarities between sites were striking given that the grassland sequence began in the Early Holocene, and the forested sequence began after the last glacial maximum. Multiple mechanisms of chemical weathering, hydrologic transport, and changes in source material potentially contribute to this pattern. Although there were strong links between vegetation composition and nitrogen cycling at each site, it appears that changes in forest type, or from oak woodland to grassland, did not exert a large influence on elemental (K, Ti, Si, Ca, Fe, Mn, and S) abundance in the sedimentary sequences. Rather, other factors in the catchment-lake system determined the temporal sequence of elemental abundance.

Keywords

HolocenePaleolimnologyNorth AmericaSedimentologyLakesInorganic geochemistryVegetation dynamicsWeathering
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 92 , Issue 1 , July 2019 , pp. 201 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2019 

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