LITTLE ICE-AGE ARIDITY IN THE NORTH-AMERICAN GREAT-PLAINS - A HIGH-RESOLUTION RECONSTRUCTION OF SALINITY FLUCTUATIONS FROM DEVILS LAKE, NORTH-DAKOTA, USA - COMMENT

On the basis of three sediment-based chronologies, Fritz et al. (1994) concluded that during the 'Little Ice Age' (about AD 1500 to 1850), t he Devils Lake Basin generally had less effective moisture (precipitat ion minus evaporation) and warmer temperatures than at present. In thi s comment we argue that historic data indicate that runoff and effecti ve moisture were greater than at present. The largest nineteenth-centu ry hoods (AD 1826, 1852 and 1861) were significantly greater than the twentieth-century floods, and flooding in the Red River of the North B asin occurred more frequently from AD 1800 to 1870 than since 1870. Be tween AD 1776 and 1870, the ratio of wet to dry years was about 2 to 1 . Mean temperatures in all seasons were cooler for 1850-70 than for 19 31-60. Lake levels of Devils Lake during the first half of the ninetee nth century were higher than they are today, and, even when Devils Lak e was almost dry, the salinity was less than the 'diatom-inferred' sal inity values that Fritz et al. (1994) estimated for 1800 through about 1850. We acknowledge the importance of high-resolution palaeoclimatic records, but interpretation of these records must be consistent with historic information.