@article {452, title = {Micropaleontologic record of late pliocene and quaternary paleoenvironments in the northern Albemarle embayment, North Carolina, USA}, journal = {Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology}, volume = {264}, year = {2008}, note = {id: 815; 331MZ Times Cited:2 Cited References Count:79Y}, pages = {54-77}, abstract = {Micropaleontological data provide a strong actualistic basis for detailed interpretations of Quaternary paleoenvironmental change. The 90 m-thick Quaternary record of the Albemarle Embayment in the mid-Atlantic coastal plain of the USA provides an excellent opportunity to use such an approach in a region where the details of Quaternary environmental change are poorly known. The foraminiferal record in nine cores from the northern Outer Banks, east of Albemarle Sound, North Carolina, indicates the deposition of subhorizontal, mostly open-marine early to late Pleistocene units unconformably upon a basement of late Pliocene reduced-oxygen, fine-grained, shelf-basin deposits. Pollen data record several warm-cool fluctuations within the early to mid-Pleistocene deposits. Diatom data indicate that some fresh and brackish-water units occur within the generally open-marine Pleistocene succession. A channel cut by the paleo-Roanoke River during the last glacial sea-level lowstand occurs in the northern part of the study area. Pollen indicates that the basal fluvial valley fill accumulated in cooler than modern climate conditions in the latest Pleistocene. Overlying silts and muds accumulated under cool climatic, estuarine conditions according to diatom and pollen data. Radiocarbon ages from the estuarine deposits indicate that the bulk of these sediments accumulated during the latest Pleistocene. The estuarine channel-fill deposits are overlain by Holocene open-marine sands deposited as the rising sea transgressed into the estuary approximately 8.5 to 9.0 kyr BR Within the barrier island drill cores of this study, fully marine sedimentation occurred throughout the Holocene. However, immediately west of the present barrier island, mid- to late Holocene estuarine deposits underlie the modern Albemarle Sound. The islands that currently form a continuous barrier across the mouth of Albemarle Sound have a complex history of Holocene construction and destruction and large portions of them may be less than 3 kyr old. The barrier island sands overlie open-marine sands of Colington Shoal in the north and to the south overlie fluvial and marine sand filling paleo-Roanoke tributary valleys. The Pleistocene sediments underlying the northern Outer Banks study area are mainly of open inner to midshelf origin. If, as is likely, sea level continues to rise, a return to such environmental conditions is likely in the near future. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.}, issn = {0031-0182}, doi = {10.1016/j.palaeo.2008.03.012}, author = {Culver, S. J. and Farrell, K. M. and Mallinson, D. J. and Horton, B. P. and Willard, D. A. and Thieler, E. R. and Riggs, S. R. and Snyder, S. W. and Wehmiller, J. F. and Bernhardt, C. E. and Hillier, C.} } @article {582, title = {Impact of millennial-scale Holocene climate variability on eastern North American terrestrial ecosystems: pollen-based climatic reconstruction}, journal = {Global and Planetary Change}, volume = {47}, year = {2005}, note = {944zeTimes Cited:48Cited References Count:68}, month = {May}, pages = {17-35}, abstract = {We present paleoclimatic evidence for a series of Holocene millennial-scale cool intervals in eastern North America that occurred every similar to 1400 years and lasted similar to 300-500 years, based on pollen data from Chesapeake Bay in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The cool events are indicated by significant decreases in pine pollen, which we interpret as representing decreases in January temperatures of between 0.2 degrees and 2 degrees C. These temperature decreases include excursions during the Little Ice Age (similar to 1300-1600 AD) and the 8 ka cold event. The timing of the pine minima is correlated with a series of quasi-periodic cold intervals documented by various proxies in Greenland, North Atlantic, and Alaskan cores and with solar minima interpreted from cosmogenic isotope records. These events may represent changes in circumpolar vortex size and configuration in response to intervals of decreased solar activity, which altered jet stream patterns to enhance meridional circulation over eastern North America. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.}, issn = {0921-8181}, doi = {10.1016/j.gloplacha.2004.11.017}, author = {Willard, D. A. and Bernhardt, C. E. and Korejwo, D. A. and Meyers, S. R.} }