The anatomy of a climatic oscillation: Vegetation change in eastern North America during the Younger Dryas chronozone.
Bryan Shuman, Thompson Webb III, Patrick Bartlein, John W. Williams (2002).
Quaternary Science Reviews 21:1777-1791.

Abstract: Century-scale climate changes reshaped circulation patterns over the North Atlantic and adjacent regions during the last glacial-to-interglacial transition. Here, we show that vegetation across eastern North America shifted dramatically at the beginning and end of the Younger Dryas chronozone (YDC: 12,900_¯11,600-and-nbsp;cal-and-nbsp;yr-and-nbsp;B.P.), when changes in ocean circulation rapidly cooled and then warmed the North Atlantic sea-surface. On both the site-specific scale and the continental-scale, vegetation changed only gradually during the millennia before (15,000_¯13,000-and-nbsp;cal-and-nbsp;yr-and-nbsp;B.P.) and after (11,000_¯9000-and-nbsp;cal-and-nbsp;yr-and-nbsp;B.P.) the YDC, but climate changes ca 12,900 and 11,600-and-nbsp;cal-and-nbsp;yr-and-nbsp;B.P. altered the vegetation on both spatial scales within centuries. Plant associations changed and some taxa rapidly migrated hundreds of kilometers (-and-gt;300-and-nbsp;km within ~100-and-nbsp;yr). In limited regions near the North Atlantic coast, abrupt cooling ca 12,900-and-nbsp;cal-and-nbsp;yr-and-nbsp;B.P. resulted in a return to earlier vegetation types. Elsewhere, however, the vegetation patterns during the YDC were distinct from those of both earlier and later intervals. They indicate abrupt, `non-reversing' seasonal temperature changes that were probably related to atmospheric circulation changes during the YDC, rather than to the direct influence of North Atlantic sea-surface temperatures. Atmospheric circulation patterns during the YDC were unique within the last 21,000-and-nbsp;yr because of a unique combination of climate controls. Insolation, ice sheet extent, and atmospheric composition were significantly different from their full-glacial states, even when the North Atlantic returned to near full-glacial conditions. The YDC vegetation patterns demonstrate (1) rapid ecological responsiveness to abrupt climate change and (2) spatially varied patterns of YDC climate change.