Holocene

Isotopic studies of the tooth enamel from Viking burials from Greenland docu- 

Fig- 7.7 Climatic changes over the last 1,400 years revealed in Greenland ice cores document periods of warmer and colder conditions than today. The Medieval Warm Period witnessed the expansion of the Vikings across the North Atlantic while the Little Ice Age documents a time of cooler conditions and declining harvests. The carbon isotope evidence from human tooth enamel shows a shift from terrestrial to marine diet during this period (data from Dansgaard et al. 1975 Arneborg et al. 1999) 

Archaeological evidence collaborates this scenario. Excavations at Norse houses from the later period of the settlement have revealed the skeletons of cattle that died in their stalls during the winter. Other bioarchaeological information suggests a clear decline in nutrition. There are indications of a decline in stature in the Greenland Vikings over time and a number of the later skeletons exhibit evidence of disease and malnutrition. 

Instrumentation Light Isotope Mass Spectrometer, ICP-MS Application Environment Place Caribbean 

Question Did climate cause the collapse of Maya civilization  

---

According to Hatcher and co-authors47 the CP/MAS NMR technique opens up new means of distinguishing between various structural features of aquatic and ter-restric humic materials of rather old origin. They found, for instance that the aliphatic carbons of the humic substances in Holocene sediments, are dominant components suggesting an input of lipid-like materials. 

Church, M. and Slaymaker, O. (1989). Disequilibrium of Holocene sediment yield in glaciated British Columbia. Nature 337,452 54. 

Meyer, G. A., Wells, S. G., and Jull, A. J. T. (1995). Fire and alluvial chronology in Yellowstone National Park Climatic and intrinsic controls on Holocene geomorphic processes. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 107, 1211-1230. 

Bond G. et al. (1997). A pervasive millennial-scale cycle in North Atlantic Holocene and glacial climates. Science 278,1257-1266. 

Coe, M. T. and Bonan, G. B. (1997). Feedbacks between climate and surface water in northern Africa during the middle Holocene, /. Geophys. Res. 102,11087-11101. 

Kutzbach, J., Bonan, G., Foley, J. and Harrison, S. P. (1996). Vegetation and soil feedbacks on the response of the African monsoon to orbital forcing in the early to middle Holocene, Nature 384, 623-626. 

Cuffey, K. M., Clow, G. D., Alley, R. B. et al. (1995). Large Arctic temperature change at the Wisconsin-Holocene glacial transition. Science 270, 455 58. Cuffey, K. M. and Clow, G. D. (1997). Temperature, accumulation and ice sheet elevation in central Greenland through the last deglacial transition. /. Geophys. Res. 102, 26383-26396. 

Denton, G. H., Bickheim, J., Wilson, S. C., and Stuiver, M. (1989). Late Wisconsin and early Holocene glacial history, inner Ross Embayment, Antarctica. Quatern. Res. 31,151-182. 

Thompson, L. et al. (1995). Late glacial stage and Holocene tropical ice core records from Huascaran, Peru. Science 269, 46-50. 

As a result, in the Holocene a clear pattern of climate-induced variation in 5 C values of plant material and in bone collagen exists across Emope (Van Klinken et al. 1994). Figures 3.1 and 3.2 show that wood and collagen values are closely correlated, demonstrating that the trend is passed on in the food chain. The trend of enrichment from northwestern to southern Europe correlates very strongly with the climatic pattern across Europe the climatic isotopic variability is on the order of 2 to 4%o. 

There are also indications that climate-related shifts in wood 5 C of 1 to 3%o have occurred in time such shifts have been observed at the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary (Becker et al. 1991 Van de Water et al. 1994), and at later (Epstein and Krishnamurthy 1990) and earlier times (Aucour et al. 1993 Leavitt and Danzer 1992). Other temporal variations in plants can be seasonal (Leavitt and Long 1991 Loader et al. 1995). 

Figure 3.1. Regional variation in 5 C values due to climatic influences as observed in Holocene charcoal samples. Note the north-south climatic trend, combined with an Atlantic-continental trend (west to east).

Figure 3.2. Average carbon isotopic ratios for all human, herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore bone samples from the European Holocene in the data base A Uncorrected ratios (Cu) B climate-corrected ratios (Cc). Only countries with more than 10 samples are included. For a description of the climatic correction procedure see text. 

Table 3.2 shows the 5 Cu and 5 Cc values of herbivores, omnivores, carnivores and humans. The (climate-corrected) trophic level effect between herbivores and carnivores is 0.90%o. Human values are closer to carnivore and omnivore values than to herbivore 5 Cc values. The human 5 Cc values are on average 0.66%o more positive than the herbivore 5 Cc values, a good estimate for a carnivore effect in humans (see section on trophic level effects, below). The average human 5 Cc value is -19.92 1.28%o,which would indicate that Holocene humans in Europe had a diet that consisted of C3 terrestrial foods, whieh is as might be expected. By looking at the humans separate from the total bone data set, we notice potential human food selection (Fig. 3.3) we can see a non-climatic pattern, which is much less uniform than in the total bone data set (Fig. 3.2b). Italy (6 Cc = -21.3%o) has a much more negative 8 Cc value than the Czech Republic (8 Cc =-18.7%o), Spain (8 Cc = -19.3%o) and Greece (-18.9%o but the 8 N of 9.0%odoes not indicate marine food), while the northern European coimtries are closer to a 5 Cc value of-20%o. What the actual causes are for this pattern in the human samples is not clear to better understand these variations it is best to consider, where possible, the 8 N values with the 8 Cc values. 

Tabic 3.2. A comparison of the average 5 Cj and 5 Cc values of human, herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore bone samples from the European Holocene. 

Tabic 3.3, Average bone collagen 5 N values of different species from the European Holocene,... 

Becker, B., Kromer, B. and Trimbom, P. 1991 A stable-isotope tree-ring timescale of the Late Glacial/Holocene boundary. Nature 353 647-649. 

Loader, N.J., Switsur, V.R. and Field, E.M. 1995 High-resolution stable isotope analysis of tree rings implications of microdendroclimatology for palaeoenvironmental research. The Holocene 5 457-460. 

Leyden, J.J., Wassenaar, L.L, Hobson, K.A., Walker, E.G. (2006). Stable hydrogen isotopes of bison bone collagen as a proxy for Holocene climate on the Northern Great Plains. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Vol. 239, pp. 87-99. (http //dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2006.01.009)... 

Birks, H. J. B. 1989. Holocene isochrone maps of tree spreading in the British Isles. J. Biogeography 18 103-115. 

Watanabe (1986, 1989, 1990a,b, 1991) studied the vein pattern, the age of vein-type deposits and the volcanic rocks in southwest Hokkaido and showed that the major veins such as those at the Toyoha and Chitose have been formed at dextral strike-slip movement of an E-W trend, and those veins are situated at the west-southwest extension of the maximum displaced zone within the dextral shear belt along the Kuril arc. Watanabe (1990b) also showed that the veins in the Sapporo-Iwanai district strike E-W and are oblique to the NW-SE volcanic chains which are sub-parallel to the maximum principal stress estimated in southwest Hokkaido during Late Miocene to Holocene and oblique subduction of Pacific Plate was active during the Plio-Pleistocene age. 

---