Early Holocene Vegetation Record from the Salton Basin, California

Authors

Roberta B. Rinehart
Donald A. McFarlane, Claremont McKenna College; Pitzer College; Scripps CollegeFollow

Document Type

Article

Department

Biology (CMC), WM Keck Science (CMC), Biology (Pitzer), WM Keck Science (Pitzer), Biology (Scripps), WM Keck Science (Scripps), WM Keck Science

Publication Date

1995

Abstract

Plant and vertebrate macrofossils in an early Holocene fossil packrat (Neotoma sp.) midden with a radiocarbon age of 8640 ± 100 ¹⁴ C yr B.P. are reported from the Chocolate Mountains, near the Salton Sea, Riverside County, California. An inventory of the midden has permitted a comparison of the modern flora and fauna of the site with that extant during the early Holocene. Whereas the biota had assumed most aspects of its modern Sonoran desert aspect by this date, statistically significant evidence of differences is attributed to an increased flow of surface water in Salt Creek, a high-standing, low-salinity Lake LeConte, and the late arrival of some characteristic Sonoran desert plants. These observations are consistent with models of significant fall-winter precipitation in the Sonoran Desert, although we cannot exclude alternative explanations.

DOI

10.1006/qres.1995.1027

Recommended Citation

Roberta B. Rinehart, Donald A. McFarlane, Early Holocene Vegetation Record from the Salton Basin, California, Quaternary Research, Volume 43, Issue 2, March 1995, Pages 259-262, ISSN 0033-5894, 10.1006/qres.1995.1027.