Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T18:10:52.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Holocene Vegetation Record from the Mississippi River Valley, Southeastern Missouri

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

James E. King  and
William H. Allen Jr.
James E. King
Affiliation:
Quaternary Studies Center, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois 62706 USA
William H. Allen Jr.
Affiliation:
Missouri Geological Survey, Rolla, Missouri 65401 USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Pollen preserved in a peat deposit from a large swamp, the Old Field in the Mississippi River Valley near Advance, Missouri, records radiocarbon-dated vegetation changes between 9000 and about 3000 years ago. The principal feature of both the percentage and influx pollen diagrams is the replacement of arboreal pollen, primarily Quercus, Fraxinus, and Cephalanthus, with Gramineae and NAP between 8700 and 5000 years BP. This vegetation shift is interpreted as reflecting a decrease in the extent of the Old Field swamp and its associated bottomland forest species along with the expansion of a grass-dominated herb community, as a result of a reduction in available ground water. The desiccation of the swamp during this period indicates a reduction in precipitation within the ground-water source area and a shift to a drier climate in the southern Midwest. The pollen suggests that the lowest water levels and driest climate in southeastern Missouri lasted from 8700 to 6500 years BP, at which time there is a partial reappearance of swamp species. Relatively dry conditions, however, continued until at least 5000 years BP. Although pollen influx data are lacking from the upper part of the profile, the relative pollen frequencies suggest an increase in trees after 5000 BP. The replacement of the arboreal vegetation by grasses and herbs between 8700 and 5000 years BP reflects the period of maximum expansion of the Prairie Peninsula in southeastern Missouri. The Old Field swamp provides the first pollen evidence that the vegetational changes along the southern border of the Prairie Peninsula were chronologically similar to those on the northern and northeastern margins.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , November 1977 , pp. 307 - 323
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

Antevs, E., (1948). The Great Basin with emphasis on glacial and postglacial times. III. Climatic changes and pre-white man. University of Utah Bulletin. 38, 168-191.Google Scholar
Beilmann, A.P., Brenner, L.G., (1951). The recent intrusion of forests in the Ozarks. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 38, 261-282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benninghoff, W.S., (1962). Calculation of pollen and spore density in sediments by addition of exotic pollen in known quantities. Pollen et Spores. 4, 332-333.Google Scholar
Bernabo, J.C., Webb, T. III, (1977). Changing patterns in the Holocene pollen record of northeastern North America: A mapped summary. Quaternary Research. 8, 64-96.Google Scholar
Braun, E.L., (1950) Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America. Hafner, New York. Google Scholar
Brush, G.S., (1967). Pollen analysis of late-glacial and postglacial sediments in Iowa. Cushing, E.J., Wright, H.E. Jr., Quaternary Paleoecology. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, 99-115.Google Scholar
Davis, M.B., Deevey, E.S. Jr., (1964). Pollen accumulation rates: Estimates from late-glacial sediment of Rogers Lake. Science. 145, 1293-1295.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Deevey, E.S., Flint, R.F., (1957). Postglacial hypsithermal interval. Science. 125, 182-184.Google Scholar
Delcourt, H.R., Delcourt, P.A., (1975). The blufflands: Pleistocene pathway into the Tunica Hills. American Midland Naturalist. 94, 385-400.Google Scholar
Durkee, L.H., (1971). A pollen profile from Woden Bog in northcentral Iowa. Ecology. 52, 837-844.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, J., (1965). Extraction techniques. Kummel, B., Raup, D., Handbook of Paleontological Techniques. W. H. Freeman, San Francisco, California, 530-587.Google Scholar
Grüger, E., üger, 1972. Late Quaternary vegetation development in south-central Illinois. Quaternary Research. 2, 217-231.Google Scholar
Grüger, J., üger, 1973. Studies on the Late Quaternary vegetation history of northeastern Kansas. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 84, 239-250.Google Scholar
Janssen, C.R., (1973). Local and regional pollen deposition. Birks, H.J.B., West, R.G., Quaternary Plant Ecology. Wiley, New York, 31-42.Google Scholar
Kapp, R.O., (1965). Illinoian and Sangamon vegetation in southwestern Kansas and adjacent Oklahoma. Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology, the University of Michigan. 19, 165-255.Google Scholar
Kapp, R.O., (1969) How to Know Pollen and Spores. W. C. Brown, Dubuque, Iowa. Google Scholar
King, J.E., (1973). Late Pleistocene palynology and biogeography of the western Missouri Ozarks. Ecological Monographs. 43, 539-565.Google Scholar
Klippel, W.E., (1971). Prehistory and environmental change along the southern border of the Prairie Peninsula during the Archaic Period. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Missouri, Columbia. Google Scholar
Küchler, A.W., üchler, 1964 Potential Natural Vegetation of the Conterminous United States. American Geographical Society, Special Publication 36 (map and accompanying manual), New York.Google Scholar
Lichti-Federovich, S., Ritchie, J.C., (1968). Recent pollen assemblages from the western interior of Canada. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 7, 297-344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marbut, C.F., (1902). The evolution of the northern part of the lowlands of southeastern Missouri. University of Missouri Studies. 1, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, (3).Google Scholar
McAndrews, J.H., (1969). Paleobotany of a wild rice lake in Minnesota. Canadian Journal of Botany. 47, 1671-1679.Google Scholar
McAndrews, J.H., (1966). Postglacial history of prairie, savanna and forest in northwestern Minnesota. Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club. 22, 1-72.Google Scholar
McAndrews, J.H., Wright, H.E. Jr., (1969). Modern pollen rain across the Wyoming basins and the northern Great Plains (U.S.A.). Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 9, 17-43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClure, F.A., (1973). Genera of Bamboos native to the New World (Gramineae: Bambusoideae). Smithsonian Contributions of Botany. No. 9 Washington, D.C..Google Scholar
McMillan, R.B., (1976). The dynamics of cultural and environmental change at Rodgers Shelter, Missouri. Wood, W.R., McMillan, R.B., Prehistoric Man and His Environments: A Case Study in the Western Ozark Highland. Academic Press, New York, 211-232.Google Scholar
Ritchie, J.C., (1976). The late-Quaternary vegetational history of the Western Interior of Canada. Canadian Journal of Botany. 54, 1793-1818.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saucier, R.T., (1974). Quaternary geology of the lower Mississippi Valley. Arkansas Archaeological Survey, Research Series 6. .Google Scholar
Sears, P.B., (1942). Xerothermic theory. Botanical Review. 8, 708-736.Google Scholar
Sears, P.B., Couch, G.C., (1932). Microfossils in an Arkansas peat and their significance. Ohio Journal of Science. 32, 63-68.Google Scholar
Sprigg, J.T., (1826) Surveyors Field Notes. Vol 250, United States Federal Land Surveys, Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City, (for section lines and townships, T28N R11E of the 5th Principal Meridian).Google Scholar
Steyermark, J.A., (1963) Flora of Missouri. Iowa State University Press, Ames. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steyermark, J.A., (1959). Vegetational history of the Ozark forest. University of Missouri Studies 31. University of Missouri Press, Columbia. Google Scholar
Sweet, A.T., Bucher, F.S., Krusekopf, H.H., Lewis, H.G., Dunn, J.E., Hall, E.C., Davis, L.66., (1914) Soil Survey of Stoddard County, Missouri. United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils, Washington, D.C.,. Google Scholar
Voigt, J.W., Mohlenbrock, R.H., (1964) Plant Communities of Southern Illinois. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale. Google Scholar
Walker, P.H., (1966). Postglacial environments in relation to landscape and soils on the Cary Drift, Iowa. Iowa State University Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station, Research Bulletin. 549, 838-875.Google Scholar
Watts, W.A., Bright, R.C., (1968). Pollen, seed and mollusk analysis of a sediment core from Pickerel Lake, northeastern South Dakota. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 79, 855-876.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webb, T. III, Bryson, R.A., (1972). Late- and Postglacial climatic change in the northern Midwest, USA: Quantitative estimates derived from fossil pollen spectra by multivariate statistical analysis. Quaternary Research. 2, 70-115.Google Scholar
Willman, H.B., Frye, J.C., (1970). Pleistocene stratigraphy of Illinois. Illinois State Geological Survey Bulletin. 94, Urbana, Illinois.Google Scholar
Winter, T.C., (1962). Pollen sequences at Kirchner Marsh, Minnesota. Science. 138, 526-528.Google Scholar
Wright, H.E. Jr., (1976). The dynamic nature of Holocene vegetation. A problem in paleoclimatology, biogeography, and stratigraphic nomenclature. Quaternary Research. 6, 581-596.Google Scholar
Wright, H.E. Jr., (1974). The environment of early man in the Great Lakes region. Johnson, E., Aspects of Upper Great Lakes Anthropology. Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, 8-14.Google Scholar
Wright, H.E. Jr., (1971). Late Quaternary vegetational history of North America. Turekian, K.K., Late Cenozoic Glacial Ages. Yale University Press, New Haven, 425-464.Google Scholar
Wright, H.E. Jr., (1968). History of the Prairie Peninsula. Bergstrom, R.E., The Quaternary of Illinois. University of Illinois College of Agriculture Special Report. 14, 78-88 Urbana, Illinois.Google Scholar