NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Denniston et al. 1999 north-central USA Speleothem Stable Isotope Data

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.