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Science 14 October 1977:
Vol. 198. no. 4313, pp. 189 - 192
DOI: 10.1126/science.198.4313.189
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Articles

Holocene Woodlands in the Southwestern Deserts

THOMAS R. VAN DEVENDER 1

1 Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721

Twenty-nine radiocarbon-dated pack rat middens document woodland communities in the deserts of the southwestern United States less than 10,000 years ago. A synchronous change from woodland to desert or grassland occurred about 8000 years ago in the Chihuahuan, Sonoran, and Mohave deserts. A shift of the Aleutian low and the winter storm track to the north, which resulted in drastically reduced winter precipitation in these areas, is inferred. The shift to nonpluvial climates in the Southwest lagged behind the beginning of nonglacial climates in the North because the melting continental glaciers contined to affect general circulation patterns.

Submitted on October 21, 1976
Revised on May 18, 1977


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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