Stalagmite records of hydroclimate in central California during termination 1

The last deglaciation is marked by large and abrupt hydroclimatic changes in the Great Basin and the American Southwest. However, comparatively little is known about how hydroclimate varied on the western side of the Sierra Nevada. We present new evidence for abrupt changes in precipitation amount in the central Sierra Nevada during the last deglaciation. Our new record from McLean's Cave overlaps with a previously published record from nearby Moaning Cave (Oster et al., 2009), and extends the record of hydroclimatic change in the region through Heinrich Stadial 1. McLean's Cave speleothem δ18O, δ13C, Mg/Ca, and Sr/Ca indicate a shift to drier conditions at the beginning of Heinrich Stadial 1 from 16.1 to 17.5 ka followed by wetter conditions at the end of Heinrich Stadial 1 when the majority of Great Basin lakes reached their deglacial highstands. During the last deglaciation, coincident shifts in the Moaning and McLean's Cave proxy records indicate drier conditions in the western Sierra Nevada during millennial-scale intervals of warming at high latitudes such as the Bölling and Alleröd, and wetter conditions during cooler intervals such as the Older and Younger Dryas. Thus, the Sierra Nevada speleothem records are consistent with other regional records that document increased winter rainfall during millennial-scale cold periods of the last deglaciation. However, regional differences exist in the hydroclimatic response to the Younger Dryas, with central Californian and interior southwestern sites indicating an increase in winter storms that is not apparent in southern California. Dynamic simulations of atmospheric circulation indicate that wetter conditions during the Younger Dryas relative to the Bölling at McLean's Cave may have resulted from a stronger storm track in the north Pacific at the latitude of northern California.