ANTH 302 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Empetrum Nigrum, Southwest Alaska, Canadian Arctic Archipelago
30 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
The last epoch of the quaternary period: began roughly 12,000 cal bp & continues through the present. Defined by charles lyell (1833): father of geology, time when rocks and sediment contain totally modern flora and fauna. Beginning of the holocene: 12,000 10,000 cal bp, varied environment changes, generally warmer climate, human-environment interaction has increased significantly since the. Pleistocene-holocene boundary as homo sapiens have transformed from hunters to city-dwellers. Anathermal: 12,000 10,000 cal bp, early stage, cooler than today, wetter than today. Altithermal or holocene thermal maximum: 10,000 5,000 cal bp, period of maximum summer warmth, warmer, mostly drier conditions than today. Medithermal: 5,000 to present, late stage, progressive cooling, return to present day precipitation/vegetation regimes. Physiographic regions: arctic plain, brooke range/northern rockies (eastern cordillera), intermontane basins and plateaus, alaska range/coastal range (western cordillera), northern great plains, canadian (laurentian) shield, canadian arctic archipelago, greenland. Tundra: 6-12 inches annual precipitation, permafrost substrate (25-90 cm deep).
