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Simulated influences of Lake Agassiz on the climate of central North America 11,000 years ago

Nature volume 405, pages 334–337 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

Eleven thousand years ago, large lakes existed in central and eastern North America along the margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. The large-scale North American climate at this time has been simulated with atmospheric general circulation models1,2, but these relatively coarse global models do not resolve potentially important features of the mesoscale circulation that arise from interactions among the atmosphere, ice sheet, and proglacial lakes. Here we present simulations of the climate of central and eastern North America 11,000 years ago with a high-resolution, regional climate model nested within a general circulation model. The simulated climate is in general agreement with that inferred from palaeoecological evidence. Our experiments indicate that through mesoscale atmospheric feedbacks, the annual delivery of moisture to the Laurentide Ice Sheet was diminished at times of a large, cold Lake Agassiz relative to periods of lower lake stands. The resulting changes in the mass balance of the ice sheet may have contributed to fluctuations of the ice margin, thus affecting the routing of fresh water to the North Atlantic Ocean. A retreating ice margin during periods of high lake level may have opened an outlet for discharge of Lake Agassiz into the North Atlantic. A subsequent advance of the ice margin due to greater moisture delivery associated with a low lake level could have dammed the outlet, thereby reducing discharge to the North Atlantic. These variations may have been decisive in causing the Younger Dryas cold event3,4.

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Figure 1: Surface elevation and simulated climate fields over North America at 11 kyr BP.
Figure 2: Simulated and inferred temperature and precipitation climatologies for 11 kyr BP.
Figure 3: Selected fields for the lake simulation, and anomalies between the lake and no-lake simulations.

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Acknowledgements

We thank F. S. Hu, E. Ito, and H. E. Wright for discussions, D. Pollard and J. Teller for discussions and critical reviews, and R. Gallimore, F. Giorgi and D. Zahnle for assistance. Model simulations were conducted at NCAR and the National Environmental Super Computer (NESC) facility of the US Environmental Protection Agency. Special thanks to NESC for help in completing our model simulations. This work was supported by the US Geological Survey (S.W.H.), the National Science Foundation (P.J.B., P.U.C., E.E.S.), and the US Environmental Protection Agency (A.M.S.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. US Geological Survey, Corvallis, 97333, Oregon, USA

    S. W. Hostetler

  2. Department of Geography, University of Oregon, Eugene, 97403, Oregon, USA

    P. J. Bartlein

  3. Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, 97333, Oregon, USA

    P. U. Clark

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, New Mexico Tech, Soccoro, 87801, New Mexico, USA

    E. E. Small

  5. US Environmental Protection Agency, Corvallis, 97333, Oregon, USA

    A. M. Solomon

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Correspondence to S. W. Hostetler.

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Hostetler, S., Bartlein, P., Clark, P. et al. Simulated influences of Lake Agassiz on the climate of central North America 11,000 years ago. Nature 405, 334–337 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35012581

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