Publisher Summary This chapter reviews that the Late Wisconsinan North American ice sheet complex consisted of three major ice sheets: (1) the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which was centred on the Canadian Shield, but also expanded across the Interior Plains to the west and south, (2) the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which inundated the western mountain belt between the northernmost co-terminus United States and Beringia, and (3) the Innuitian Ice Sheet, which covered most of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago north of about 7°N latitude. The ice cover over Newfoundland and the Maritime Provinces of Canada is usually referred to as the Appalachian Ice Complex, because ice flowed out from local centres rather than from the Canadian Shield. All of the peripheral ice sheets were confluent at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) with the Laurentide Ice Sheet, and the Greenland Ice Sheet was confluent with the Innuitian Ice Sheet. The nucleus of this complex, the Laurentide, comprised three major sectors, the Labrador Sector, the Keewatin Sector, and the Baffin Sector, named for areas of inception mid probable areas of outflow at LGM and located respectively east, west and north of Hudson Bay. The chapter presents revised maps of North American deglaciation at 500-year and finer resolution. These maps represent an updating of a series prepared nearly two decades ago for the INQUA 1987 Congress.

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An outline of North American deglaciation with emphasis on central and northern Canada

It is suggested that the GRIP Greenland ice-core should constitute the stratotype for the Last Termination. Based on the oxygen isotope signal in that core, a new event stratigraphy spanning the time interval from ca. 22.0 to 11.5 k GRIP yr BP (ca. 19.0-10.0 k 14 C yr BP) is proposed for the North Atlantic region. This covers the period from the Last Glacial Maximum, through Termination 1 of the deep-ocean record, to the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, and encompasses the Last Glacial Late-glacial of the traditional northwest European stratigraphy. The isotopic record for this period is divided into two stadial episodes, Greenland Stadials 1 (GS-1) and 2 (GS-2), and two interstadial events, Greenland Interstadials 1 (GI-1) and 2 (GI-2). In addition, GI-1 and GS-2 are further subdivided into shorter episodes. The event stratigraphy is equally applicable to ice-core, marine and terrestrial records and is considered to be a more appropriate classificatory scheme than the terrestrially based radiocarbon-dated chronostratigraphy that has been used hitherto. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An event stratigraphy for the Last Termination in the North Atlantic region based on the Greenland ice-core record: a proposal by the INTIMATE group

The Greenland ice core from NorthGRIP (NGRIP) contains a proxy climate record across the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary of unprecedented clarity and resolution. Analysis of an array of physical and chemical parameters within the ice enables the base of the Holocene, as reflected in the first signs of climatic warming at the end of the Younger Dryas/Greenland Stadial 1 cold phase, to be located with a high degree of precision. This climatic event is most clearly reflected in an abrupt shift in deuterium excess values, accompanied by more gradual changes in d 18 O, dust concentration, a range of chemical species, and annual layer thickness. A timescale based on multi-parameter annual layer counting provides an age of 11 700 calendar yr b2 k (before AD 2000) for the base of the Holocene, with a maximum counting error of 99 yr. A proposal that an archived core from this unique sequence should constitute the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Holocene Series/Epoch (Quaternary System/Period) has been ratified by the International Union of Geological Sciences. Five auxiliary stratotypes for the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary have also been recognised. Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Formal definition and dating of the GSSP (Global Stratotype Section and Point) for the base of the Holocene using the Greenland NGRIP ice core, and selected auxiliary records

The region studied includes the Laurentian Great Lakes and a diversity of smaller glacial lakes, streams and wetlands south of permanent permafrost and towards the southern extent of Wisconsin glaciation. We emphasize lakes and quantitative implications. The region is warmer and wetter than it has been over most of the last 12000 years. Since 1911 observed air temperatures have increased by about 0.118C per decade in spring and 0.068C in winter; annual precipitation has increased by about 2.1% per decade. Ice thaw phenologies since the 1850s indicate a late winter warming of about 2.58C. In future scenarios for a doubled CO2 climate, air temperature increases in summer and winter and precipitation decreases (summer) in western Ontario but increases (winter) in western Ontario, northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. Such changes in climate have altered and would further alter hydrological and other physical features of lakes. Warmer climates, i.e. 2 CO2 climates, would lower net basin water supplies, stream flows and water levels owing to increased evaporation in excess of precipitation. Water levels have been responsive to drought and future scenarios for the Great Lakes simulate levels 0. 2t o 2 .5 m lower. Human adaptation to such changes is expensive. Warmer climates would decrease the spatial extent of ice cover on the Great Lakes; small lakes, especially to the south, would no longer freeze over every year. Temperature simulations for stratified lakes are 1‐78C warmer for surface waters, and 68C cooler to 88C warmer for deep waters. Thermocline depth would change (4 m shallower to 3.5 m deeper) with warmer climates alone; deepening owing to increases in light penetration would occur with reduced input of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from dryer catchments. Dissolved oxygen would decrease below the thermocline. These physical changes would in turn aAect the phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthos and fishes. Annual phytoplankton production may increase but many complex reactions of the phytoplankton community to altered temperatures, thermocline depths, light penetrations and nutrient inputs would be expected. Zooplankton biomass would increase, but, again, many complex interactions are expected. Generally, the thermal habitat for warm-, cool- and even cold-water fishes would increase in size in deep stratified lakes, but would decrease in shallow unstratified lakes and in streams. Less dissolved oxygen below the thermocline of lakes would further degrade stratified lakes for cold water fishes. Growth and production would increase for fishes that are now in thermal environments cooler than their optimum but decrease for those that are at or above their optimum, provided they cannot move to a deeper or headwater thermal refuge. The zoogeographical boundary for fish species could move north by 500‐600 km; invasions of warmer water fishes and extirpations of colder water fishes should increase. Aquatic ecosystems across the region do not necessarily exhibit coherent responses to climate changes and variability, even if they are in close proximity. Lakes, wetlands and streams respond diAerently, as do lakes of diAerent depth or productivity. DiAerences in hydrology and the position in the hydrological flow system, in terrestrial vegetation and land use, in base climates and in the aquatic biota can all cause diAerent responses. Climate change eAects interact strongly with eAects of other human-caused stresses such as eutrophication, acid precipitation, toxic chemicals and the spread of exotic organisms. Aquatic ecological systems in the region are sensitive to climate change and variation.

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Potential effects of climate changes on aquatic systems: laurentian great lakes and precambrian shield region

Regional pollen assemblage zones for the late-glacial period of the Swiss Plateau are introduced and defined. They include four major zones (Artemisia, Juniperus—Hippophae, Betula, Pinus PAZ) with several subzones. Pollen and oxygen-isotope analyses on lacustrine sediments from several lakes in the area reveal four distinct phases of climatic oscillation in the time period of 13 000-9500 yr BP.

The first oscillation, termed the Aegelsee fluctuation, occurs shortly before 12 000 yr BP and varve counts suggest its duration was ca. 100 yr. It is characterised by a short decrease in the oxygen isotopes as well as a short increase in NAP associated with a depression in birch pollen values. The second oscillation, which occurs in the δ18O record shortly before the deposition of the Laacher See Tephra (ca. 11 000 yr BP), is termed the Gerzensee fluctuation. It occurs during a pine-dominated phase and its vegetational effects cannot be determined palynologically. The most prominent regressive phase is the Younger Dryas biozone (ca. 10 700-10 000 yr BP) characterised by an increase in heliophilous NAP and low δ18O values. The Younger Dryas biozone can often be subdivided palynologically into two parts: a first part rich in grasses and juniper and a second part with higher Filipendula and birch values. During the Preboreal biozone another distinct oscillation is evidenced only in the oxygen isotope ratios.

Comparison of the Swiss oxygen isotope profiles with the Greenland Dye 3 record suggests that not only the three major shifts in the δ18O curves but also the minor ones are closely comparable, suggesting some common climatic control.

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Late‐glacial climatic oscillations as recorded in Swiss lake sediments

Attempts1–5 to relate late-glacial events in northeastern North America to the well-documented climato- and chrono-stratigraphy of Europe and the British Isles6 have not been considered convincing because the evidence presented was from isolated sites, and could therefore be interpreted as local fluctuations not related to a general, widespread climatic change7–10. However, recent palyno-logical studies in northeastern North America postulating a late-glacial climatic oscillation11–15 have caused renewed interest in relating such an oscillation to the Allerod/younger Dryas event. We have extended our preliminary results from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick13,14, and here present the evidence for a climatic event in Atlantic Canda. This event involved a warming trend before 11,000 yr BP that was interrupted by a cold period which persisted until the abrupt Holocene warming at ∼10,000 yr BP. We propose a possible mechanism to link this event with that of Europe.

Late-glacial climatic oscillation in Atlantic Canada equivalent to the Allerød/younger Dryas event

The Pleistocene glaciations in the Dutch sector of the North Sea, C. LABAN, Publisher University of Amsterdam, 1995 Proefschrift (PhD) thesis (194 pp) ISBN 90-9008587-4

Ralph R. Stea

Papers

Late-glacial climatic oscillation in Atlantic Canada equivalent to the Allerød/younger Dryas event

The Pleistocene glaciations in the Dutch sector of the North Sea, C. LABAN, Publisher University of Amsterdam, 1995 Proefschrift (PhD) thesis (194 pp) ISBN 90-9008587-4