CLIMBS: REVISITING BIG BONE LICK TO DEVELOP A LATE QUATERNARY CLIMATE RECORD FOR KENTUCKY

Flood events are increasing in frequency and impact in Kentucky. To develop engineered resiliency, we must first understand the patterns of Kentucky’s late Quaternary flooding events and their relationship to climatological changes. A major goal of the CLIMBS (Climate Resilience through Multidisciplinary Big Data Learning, Prediction, and Building Response Systems) Project 2: Paleoperspectives, is to do this through reconstruction of a Holocene climate record for Kentucky. Sediments from Big Bone Lick State Historic Site record late Pleistocene to mid-Holocene climate history of Northern Kentucky. Known since the 1700’s as the birthplace of North American Vertebrate Paleontology, it was only in 2015 that abundant plant, fungal, and other organic-walled microfossils (palynomorphs) were recovered. We are re-examining legacy slides from Kentucky Geological Survey core BBL 3 and combining them with results from an archaeological trench to analyze changes in paleoecology and paleoclimate recorded by the palynomorph assemblages. Both the core and trench materials contain a diverse palynoflora, with abundant non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs), primarily fungi, that can be used to reconstruct the local microclimate and provide details about past ecosystems. Palynomorphs reworked from Devonian – Triassic sediments are common. Quaternary plant palynomorphs record the transition from bog to open-canopy forest to wet seep to lowland temperate wet forest, while fossil fungi record a variety of saprophytic habitats, ranging from waterlogged herbaceous and woody material to dung. While reconstructing temperatures that are generally cooler than today, the palynology of samples from Big Bone Lick provide an important record of ecological change during a time of past warming.