Late Pleistocene and early Holocene plant remains from Hueco Tanks State Historical Park; the development of a refugium
Van Devender TR and Riskind DH. 1979. Late Pleistocene and early Holocene plant remains from Hueco Tanks State Historical Park; the development of a refugium. The Southwestern Naturalist. 24(1):127-140
Plant macrofossils from packrat middens from the Hueco Mountains, El Paso and Hudspeth Counties, Texas, allow comparison of the present and past vegetations on igneous and limestone substrates. Middens document a pinyon-juniper woodland at 13,500 = 250 B.P. in the Hueco Tanks State Historical park and at 12,030 + 210 B.P. in the adjacent limestone Hueco Mountains. A more xeric juniper-oak woodland was present in the Hueco Tanks at 9,380 + 270 B.P. and at 9,370 + 130 and 8,150 + 170 B.P. in the limestone Hueco Mountains. About 8,000 years ago, the onset of middle Holocene climates differentially reduced woodland elements on the nearby limestone massifs while the igneous, syenite-derived soils of Hueco Tanks supported a comparatively mesic, low-elevation oak-juniper woodland refugium. Favorable edaphic conditions and topography allowed woodland species to persist at the Hucco Tanks until the present time.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Van Devender, Thomas; Riskind, David
- Date of Issue
- 1979
- Units
- GUMO , ORPI
- Keywords
- floral studies, GRBIB, Holocene, Mammalia, middens, Paleobotany, Paleoecology, Paleontology, Plant Studies