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Postglacial Vegetation History of the Mackenzie River Basin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Glen M. MacDonald
Glen M. MacDonald*
Affiliation:
Life Sciences Division, Scarborough College, University of Toronto, West Hill, Ontario M1C 1A5, Canada
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Abstract

Three radiocarbon-dated cores from small lakes provide pollen records of postglacial vegetation change in the central Mackenzie River basin. These data are combined with previously published records to reconstruct vegetation development from central Alberta to the Mackenzie delta. The paleoecological data demonstrate that a continuous corridor of herb-and-shrub-dominated vegetation extended between Beringia and the Great Plains of North America from deglaciaiton until about 10,000 yr B.P. The initial vegetation was replaced by spruce forests between 10,000 and 8500 yr B.P. Significant vegetation change continued until approximately 500 yr B.P. when the muskeg-dominated landscape typical of the present subarctic was established. The initial herb-and-shrub vegetation was likely a reprise of conditions which existed during earlier Pleistocene deglaciations. These conditions may have provided a favorable environment for animals adapted to nonforested vegetation and promoted migration southward from Beringia and northward from the Great Plains during the last deglaciation and earlier Pleistocene deglaciations. The sequence of postglacial vegetation change in the Mackenzie basin likely reflects a combination of climatic change, edaphic change, and plant migration patterns and interactions.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , September 1987 , pp. 245 - 262
Copyright
University of Washington

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