Speleothem evidence for Holocene fluctuations of the prairie-forest ecotone, north-central USA

Carbon and oxygen isotopic trends from seven Midwestern speleothems record significant offsets in the timing of middle-Holocene vegetation change. Interactions of dry Pacific and moist Gulf of Mexico air masses maintained a sharp moisture gradient across Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin such that the arrival of prairie was offset by 2000 years between caves and pollen sites located only 50 km apart. Oxygen isotopes shift concomitantly with carbon in most cases, although these changes are believed to represent increased evaporative enrichment of ¹⁸O prior to infiltration during the prairie period.