QUATERNARY ENVIRONMENTS IN WESTERN NORTH AMERICA: BOTANICAL, PALEOBOTANICAL, AND PALEOLACUSTRINE DATASETS

Several datasets for investigating Quaternary environments in western North America have been compiled by the USGS and collaborators. The “Atlas of Relations Between Climatic Parameters and Distributions of Important Trees and Shrubs in North America” (http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1999/p1650-a/) provides information on the distributions of nearly 600 species, and the climate space they occupy, for paleoclimatic reconstructions and modeling. The USGS/NOAA Western North American Packrat Midden Database provides researchers with access to standardized midden data useful for investigating late Quaternary changes in plant species distributions in response to climate and environmental change. The database currently contains original data from more than 1300 packrat midden samples collected from over 200 caves or rock shelters in western North America from southern British Columbia to northern Mexico (http://climchange.cr.usgs.gov/data/midden/). A paleolacustrine database is currently under construction, and includes the compilation and evaluation of sediment core and shoreline data from nearly 500 publications on late Quaternary lakes in western North America. In addition, we are compiling data from pollen studies in this region: these data will be submitted to the NOAA/NGDC North American Pollen Database (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/napd.html).