Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T06:03:34.087Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Paleoecology of central Kentucky since the last glacial maximum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Gary R. Wilkins ,
Paul A. Delcourt ,
Hazel R. Delcourt ,
Frederick W. Harrison  and
Manson R. Turner
Gary R. Wilkins
Affiliation:
Center for Quaternary Studies of the Southeastern United States, Department of Geological Sciences and Graduate Program in Ecology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996 USA
Paul A. Delcourt
Affiliation:
Center for Quaternary Studies of the Southeastern United States, Department of Geological Sciences and Graduate Program in Ecology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996 USA
Hazel R. Delcourt
Affiliation:
Center for Quaternary Studies of the Southeastern United States, Department of Geological Sciences and Graduate Program in Ecology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996 USA
Frederick W. Harrison
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina 28723 USA
Manson R. Turner
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina 28723 USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Pollen grains and spores, plant macrofossils, and sponge spicules from a 7.2-m sediment core from Jackson Pond dating back to 20,000 yr B.P. are the basis for new interpretations of vegetational, limnological, and climatic changes in central Kentucky. During the full-glacial interval (20,400 to 16,800 yr B.P.) upland vegetation was closed spruce forest with jack pine as a subdominant. Aquatic macrophyte and sponge assemblages indicate that the site was a relatively deep, open pond with low organic productivity. During late-glacial time (16,800 to 11,300 yr B.P.) spruce populations continued to dominate while jack pine declined and sedge increased as the vegetation became a more open, taiga-like boreal woodland. Between 11,300 and 10,000 yr B.P., abundances of spruce and oak pollen oscillated reciprocally, possibly reflecting the Younger Dryas oscillation as boreal taxa underwent a series of declines and increases at the southern limit of their ranges before becoming extirpated and replaced by deciduous forest. In the early Holocene (10,000 to 7300 yr B.P.) a mesic deciduous woodland developed; it was replaced by xeric oak-hickory forest during the middle Holocene between 7300 and 3900 yr B.P. Grass increased after 3900 yr B.P., indicating that the presettlement vegetation mosaic of mixed deciduous forest and prairie (the “Kentucky Barrens”) became established in central Kentucky after the Hypsithermal interval. Sponge spicules increased in number during the Holocene, reflecting reduced water depths in the pond. Sediment infilling, as well as climatic warming and the expansion of fringing shrub thickets, increased nutrient and habitat availability for freshwater sponges.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , September 1991 , pp. 224 - 239
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baker, R. G. Rhodes, R. S. II Schwert, D. P. Ashworth, A. C. Frest, T. J. Hallberg, G. R. Janssens, J. A. A full-glacial biota from southeastern Iowa, USA. Journal of Quaternary Science 1 1986 91 107 Google Scholar
Baskin, J. M. Baskin, C. C. The Big Barrens of Kentucky, not a part of Transeau's Prairie Peninsula. Ohio Biological Survey Biological Notes 15 1981 43 48 Google Scholar
Birks, H. J. B. Numerical zonation, comparison, and correlation of Quaternary pollenstratigraphical data Berglund, B. E. Handbook of Holocene Palaeoecology and Palaeohydrology 1986 Wiley New York 743 774 Google Scholar
Braun, E. L. Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America 1950 Hafner New York Reprinted 1974. Macmillan, New York Google Scholar
Brown, R. Hydrology of the cavernous limestones of the Mammoth Cave area Kentucky. United States Geological Survey Water Supply Paper 1837 1973 1 64 Google Scholar
Bryant, W. S. The Big Clifty Prairie, a remnant outlier of the Prairie Peninsula, Grayson County, Kentucky. Transactions of the Kentucky Academy of Science 38 1977 21 25 Google Scholar
Dean, W. E. Jr. Determination of carbonate and organic matter in calcareous sediments and sedimentary rocks by Loss-On-Ignition: Comparison with other methods. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 44 1974 242 248 Google Scholar
Delcourt, H. R. Late-Quaternary vegetation history of the eastern Highland Rim and adjacent Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee. Ecological Monographs 49 1979 255 280 Google Scholar
Delcourt, H. R. Delcourt, P. A. Wilkins, G. R. Smith, E. N. Jr. Vegetational history of the cedar glades regions of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri during the past 30,000 years. Association of Southeastern Biologists Bulletin 33 1986 128 137 Google Scholar
Delcourt, P. A. Davis, O. K. Bright, R. C. Bibliography of Taxonomic Literature for the Identification of Fruits, Seeds, and Vegetative Plant Fragments 1979 Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge, TN 1 84 ORNL/TM-6818 Google Scholar
Delcourt, P. A. Delcourt, H. R. Vegetation maps for eastern North America: 40,000 yr B.P. to the present Romans, R. Geobotany II 1981 Plenum Press New York 123 166 Google Scholar
Delcourt, P. A. Delcourt, H. R. Late-Quaternary paleoclimates and biotic responses across eastern North America and the northwestern Atlantic Ocean. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 48 1984 263 284 Google Scholar
Delcourt, P. A. Delcourt, H. R. Long-term Forest Dynamics of the Temperate Zone: A Case Study of Late-Quaternary Forests in Eastern North America 1987 Springer-Verlag New York Ecological Studies Series 63 Google Scholar
Faegri, K. Iversen, J. Textbook of Pollen Analysis 1975 McGraw-Hill New York Google Scholar
Harrison, F. W. Sponges (Porifera: Spongillidae) Hart, C. W. Jr. Fuller, S. L. H. Pollution Ecology of Freshwater Invertebrates 1974 Academic Press New York 29 66 Google Scholar
Harrison, F. W. Freshwater sponges. Geoscience Canada 15 1988 193 198 Google Scholar
Harrison, F. W. Utilization of freshwater sponges in paleolimnological studies. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 62 1988 387 397 Google Scholar
Jacobson, G. L. Jr. Grimm, E. C. Synchrony of rapid change in late-glacial vegetation south of the Laurentide Ice Sheet Laub, R. S. Miller, N. G. Steadman, D. W. Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Paleoecology and Archeology of the Eastern Great Lakes Region. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 33 1988 31 38 Google Scholar
Jacobson, G. L. Jr. Webb, T. III Grimm, E. C. Patterns and rates of vegetation change during the deglaciation of eastern North America Ruddiman, W. F. Wright, H. E. Jr. DNAG Volume K3: North America and Adjacent Oceans during the Last Deglaciation 1987 Geological Society of America Boulder, CO 277 288 Google Scholar
Jillson, W. R. Filson's Kentucke—A Facsimile Reproduction of the Original Wilmington Edition of 1784 1930 John P. Morton and Co Louisville, KY Google Scholar
Larabee, P. A. Late-Quaternary Vegetational and Geomorphic History of the Allegheny Plateau at Big Run Bog, Tucker County, West Virginia. M.S. thesis 1986 Department of Geological Sciences, University of Tennessee Knoxville Google Scholar
Liu, Kam-Biu Holocene paleoecology of the boreal forest and Great Lakes-St. Lawrence forest in northern Ontario. Ecological Monographs 60 1990 179 212 Google Scholar
Maher, L. J. Jr. The confidence limit is a necessary statistic for relative and absolute pollen data Proceedings of the Fourth International Palynological Conference Lucknow, India 1977 1 20 Google Scholar
McDowell, R. C. Grabowski, G. J. Jr. Moore, S. L. Geologic Map of Kentucky 1981 United States Geological Survey Google Scholar
McFarlan, A. C. Geology of Kentucky 1943 Lexington, KY Google Scholar
Mills, H. H., and Delcourt, P. A. (in press). Chapter 15: Appalachian Highlands and Interior Low Plateaus. In “DNAG Volume K2: Quaternary Nonglacial Geology of the Conterminous United States” (Morrison, R., Ed.). Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO.Google Scholar
Moore, F. B. Geologic map of the Magnolia Quadrangle, Central Kentucky 1975 United States Geological Survey Google Scholar
Munsell Soil Color Charts 1975 Munsell, Color, MacBeth Division, Kollmorgen Corp Baltimore, MD Munsell Color Google Scholar
Royall, P. D. Delcourt, P. A. Delcourt, H. R. Late-Quaternary paleoecology and paleoenvironments of the Central Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Geological Society of America Bulletin 103 1991 157 170 2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shane, L. C. K. Late-glacial vegetational and climatic history of the Allegheny Plateau and the Till Plains of Ohio and Indiana, U.S.A.. Boreas 16 1987 1 20 Google Scholar
Stuckey, R. L. Origin and development of the concept of the Prairie Peninsula. Ohio Biological Survey Biological Notes 15 1981 4 23 Google Scholar
Transeau, E. N. The prairie peninsula. Ecology 16 1935 423 437 Google Scholar
Watts, W. A. Late Quaternary vegetation of central Appalachia and the New Jersey coastal plain. Ecological Monographs 49 1979 427 469 Google Scholar
Watts, W. A. Vegetational history of the eastern United States 25,000 to 10,000 years ago Porter, S. C. Late-Quaternary Environments of the United States Vol. 1 1983 Univ. of Minnesota Press Minneapolis 294 310 the Late Pleistocene Google Scholar
Webb, T. III Kutzbach, J. E. Climatic change in eastern North America during the past 18,000 years: Comparisons of pollen data with model results Ruddiman, W. F. Wright, H. E. Jr. North America and Adjacent Oceans during the Last Deglaciation Vol. K3 1987 Geological Society of America Boulder, CO 447 462 Google Scholar
Wilkins, G. R. Late-Quaternary Vegetational History at Jackson Pond, Larue County, Kentucky. M.S. thesis 1985 Department of Geological Sciences, University of Tennessee Knoxville Google Scholar
Whitehead, D. R. Fossil pine pollen and fullglacial vegetation in southeastern North Carolina. Ecology 46 1964 767 777 Google Scholar
Whitehead, D. R. Jackson, S. T. Sheehan, M. C. Leyden, B. W. Late-glacial vegetation associated with caribou and mastodon in central Indiana. Quaternary Research 17 1982 241 257 Google Scholar
Wright, H. E. Jr. A square-rod piston sampler for lake sediments. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 37 1967 975 976 Google Scholar
Wright, H. E. Jr. History of the Prairie Peninsula Bergstrom, R. E. The Quaternary of Illinois 1968 University of Illinois Urbana 78 88 Google Scholar
Wright, H. E. Jr. Vegetation east of the Rocky Mountains 18,000 years ago. Quaternary Research 15 1981 113 125 Google Scholar
Wright, H. E. Jr. The amphi-Atlantic distribution of the Younger Dryas paleoclimatic oscillation. Quaternary Science Reviews 8 1989 295 306 Google Scholar