APPLYING A QUANTITATIVE METHOD FOR RECONSTRUCTING LATE-QUATERNARY CLIMATE ON THE U.S. GREAT PLAINS BASED ON BURIED SOIL PROPERTIES

Although extensive stratigraphic work on the U.S. Great Plains during the last 60 years laid a foundation for reconstructing late-Quaternary (14,000 cal. yr. B.P. to present) paleoenvironments, questions remain about the late-Quaternary climate history of the region. This is because few quantitative paleoclimate methods have been developed that utilize all proxies that occur in the region. For example, buried soils are often preserved in eolian and fluvial deposits across the Plains, and there is opportunity to reconstruct late-Quaternary climate based on the properties of those soils. This can be accomplished because climate, along with other soil forming factors, drives pedogenesis, and select soil properties reflect the effect of climate on soil formation.

This presentation introduces the Buried Soil Climate Reconstruction model (BuSCR), a quantitative method for reconstructing Great Plains climate based on buried soil properties. BuSCR was developed using regression analysis of modern soil-climate relationships across the Great Plains. We applied the model to a sequence of late- and mid-Holocene buried soils preserved in a series of canyons in central Oklahoma. Observations of buried soils in the field, including soil welding and truncated horizons, reveal challenges in applying the model. We will show, however, that the challenges encountered when applying the model to soils in central Oklahoma do not prevent application and use of the model in a variety of other buried soil environments.