Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T18:10:02.515Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A late-glacial transition from Picea glauca to Picea mariana in southern New England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Matts Lindbladh ,
W. Wyatt Oswald ,
David R. Foster ,
Edward K. Faison ,
Juzhi Hou  and
Yongsong Huang
Matts Lindbladh*
Affiliation:
Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 49, 230 53 Alnarp, Sweden
W. Wyatt Oswald
Affiliation:
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Emerson College, Boston, MA 02116-4624, USA Harvard Forest, Harvard University, Petersham, MA 01366, USA
David R. Foster
Affiliation:
Harvard Forest, Harvard University, Petersham, MA 01366, USA
Edward K. Faison
Affiliation:
Harvard Forest, Harvard University, Petersham, MA 01366, USA
Juzhi Hou
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA
Yongsong Huang
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail address:[email protected] (M. Lindbladh).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Picea is an important taxon in late-glacial pollen records from eastern North America, but little is known about which species of Picea were present. We apply a recently developed palynological method for discriminating the three Picea species in eastern North America to three records from New England. Picea glauca was dominant at ∼ 14,500–14,000 cal yr BP, followed by a transition to Picea mariana between ∼ 14,000 and 13,500 cal yr BP. Comparison of the pollen data with hydrogen isotope data shows clearly that this transition began before the beginning of the Younger Dryas Chronozone. The ecological changes of the late-glacial interval were not a simple oscillation in the position of a single species' range, but rather major changes in vegetation structure and composition occurring during an interval of variations in several environmental factors, including climate, edaphic conditions, and atmospheric CO2 levels.

Keywords

Black spruceCARTCO2Forest historyNew EnglandPicea glaucaPicea marianaPicea rubensPollen analysisRed spruceWhite spruceYounger Dryas
Type
Short Paper
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 67 , Issue 3 , May 2007 , pp. 502 - 508
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

Almquist, H., Dieffenbacher-Krall, A.C., Flanagan-Brown, R., and Sanger, D. The Holocene record of lake levels of Mansell Pond, central Maine, USA. Holocene 189, (2001). 189–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, R.S., Miller, N.G., Davis, R.B., and Nelson, R.E. Terrestrial fossils in the marine Presumpscot Formation: implications for Late Wisconsinan paleoenvironment and isostatic rebound along the cost of Maine. Canadian Journal of Earth Science 27, (1990). 1241–1246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, R.L., Foster, D.R., and Motzkin, G. Integrating lateral expansion into models of peatland development in temperate New England. Journal of Ecology 91, (2003). 68–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bagnell, C.R. Species distinction among pollen grains of Abies, Picea and Pinus in the Rocky Mountain area. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 19, (1975). 203–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birks, H.J.B., and Peglar, S.M. Identification of Picea pollen of Late Quaternary age in eastern North America: a numerical approach. Canadian Journal of Botany 58, (1980). 2042–2058.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Björk, S., Walker, M.J.C., Cwynar, L.C., Johnsen, S., Knudsen, K.-L., Lowe, J.J., and Wohlfarth, B. An event stratigraphy for the last termination in the North Atlantic region based on the Greenland ice-core record: a proposal by the INTIMATE group. Journal of Quaternary Science 13, (1998). 283–292.3.0.CO;2-A>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. Radiocarbon calibration and analysis of stratigraphy: the OxCal program. Radiocarbon 37, (1995). 425–430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. Development of the radiocarbon program OxCal. Radiocarbon 43, (2001). 355–363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brubaker, L.B., Graumlich, L.J., and Anderson, P.M. An evaluation of statistical techniques for discriminating Picea glauca from Picea mariana pollen in northern Alaska, USA. Canadian Journal of Botany 65, (1987). 899–906.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cain, S.A. Palynological studies at Sodon Lake: I. Size frequency study of fossil spruce pollen. Science 108, (1948). 115–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cushing, E.J. Size increase in pollen grains mounted in thin slides. Pollen et Spores 3, (1961). 265–274.Google Scholar
Cwynar, L.C., and Levesque, A.J. Chironomid evidence for late-glacial climatic reversals in Maine. Quaternary Research 43, (1995). 405–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, M.B. Three pollen diagrams from central Massachusetts. American Journal of Science 256, (1958). 540–570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, M.B. Climatic changes in southern Connecticut recorded by pollen deposition at Rogers Lake. Ecology 50, (1969). 409–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, M.B. Holocene vegetational history of the eastern United States. Wright, H.E. Jr. Late Quaternary Environments of the United States: Volume 2, The Holocene (1983). University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 166–181.Google Scholar
Davis, R.B., Jacobson, G.L. Jr. Late glacial and early Holocene landscapes in northern New England and adjacent areas of Canada. Quaternary Research 23, (1985). 341–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, R.B., Bradshaw, T.E., Stuckenrath, T.E. Jr., Borns, H.W. Jr. Vegetation and associated environments during the past 14,000 years near Moulton Pond, Maine. Quaternary Research 5, (1975). 436–465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, M.B., Spear, R.W, and Shane, L.C.K. Holocene climate of New England. Quaternary Research 14, (1980). 240–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faegri, K., Iversen, J. Textbook of Pollen Analysis Fourth edition (1989). John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, UK.Google Scholar
Foster, D.R. The dynamics of Sphagnum in forest and peatland communities in southeastern Labrador, Canada. Arctic 37, (1984). 133–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, D.R. Vegetation development following fire in Picea mariana (black spruce)-Pleurozium forests of south-eastern Labrador, Canada. Journal of Ecology 73, (1985). 517–534.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, D.R., and Zebryk, T.M. Long-term vegetation dynamics and disturbance history of a Tsuga-dominated forest in New England. Ecology 74, (1993). 982–998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grimm, E.C. Coniss: a Fortran 77 program for stratigraphically constrained cluster analysis by the method of incremental sum of squares. Computers and Geoscience 13, (1987). 13–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, B.C.S. A comparison of numerical and quantitative methods of separating pollen of black and white spruce. Canadian Journal of Botany 63, (1985). 2159–2163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hou, J., Huang, Y., Wang, Y., Shuman, B., Oswald, W.W., Faison, E., and Foster, D.R. Postglacial climate reconstruction based on compound-specific D/H ratios of fatty acids from Blood Pond, New England. Geochemistry, Geophysics, and Geosystems 7, (2006). 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Y., Shuman, B., Wang, Y., Webb, T. III Hydrogen isotope ratios of palmitic acid in lacustrine sediments record late-Quaternary climate variations. Geology 30, (2002). 1103–1106.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, S.T., Overpeck, J.T., Webb, T. III, Keattch, S.E., and Anderson, K.E. Mapped plant-macrofossil and pollen records of Late Quaternary vegetation change in Eastern North America. Quaternary Science Reviews 16, (1997). 1–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobson, G.L. Jr., Webb, T. III, and Grimm, E.C. Patterns and rates of vegetation change during the deglaciation of eastern North America. Ruddiman, W.F., Wright, H.E. Jr. North America and Adjacent Oceans During the Last Deglaciation. The Geology of North America K-3, (1987). Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado. 277–288.Google Scholar
Klinger, L.F. Coupling of soils and vegetation in peatland succession. Arctic and Alpine Research 28, (1996). 380–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levesque, A.J., Mayle, F.E., Walker, I.R., and Cwynar, L.C. A previously unrecognized late-glacial cold event in eastern North America. Nature 361, (1993). 623–626.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindbladh, M., O'Connor, R., Jacobson, G.L. Jr. Morphometric analysis of pollen grains for paleoecological studies: classification of Picea from eastern North America. American Journal of Botany 89, (2002). 1459–1467.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lindbladh, M., Jacobson, G.L., and Schauffler, M. The postglacial history of three Picea species in New England, USA. Quaternary Research 59, (2003). 61–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, N.G. Mosses as paleoecological indicators of late glacial terrestrial environments: some North American studies. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 107, (1980). 373–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, N.G. Late Quaternary fossil moss floras of eastern North America: evidence of major floristic changes during the late Pleistocene–early Holocene transition. Symposia Biologica Hungarica 35, (1987). 343–360.Google Scholar
Monnin, E., Indermuhle, A., Dallenbach, A., Flückiger, J., Stauffer, B., Stocker, T.F., Raynaud, D., and Barnola, J.-M. Atmospheric CO2 concentrations over the last glacial termination. Science 291, (2001). 112–114.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newby, P.E., Killoran, P., Waldorf, M.R., Shuman, B.N., Webb, R.S., and Webb III, T. 14,000 years of sediment, vegetation, and water-level changes at the Makepeace Cedar Swamp, southeastern Massachusetts. Quaternary Research 53, (2000). 352–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oswald, W.W., Faison, E.K., Foster, D.R., Doughty, E.D., Hansen, B.C.S., in press. Post-glacial changes in spatial patterns of vegetation across southern New England. Journal of Biogeography, .Google Scholar
Peteet, D.M., Daniels, R.A., Heusser, L.E., Vogel, J.S., Southon, J.R., and Nelson, D.E. Late-glacial pollen, macrofossils and fish remains in northeastern U.S.A.—The Younger Dryas oscillation. Quaternary Science Reviews 12, (1993). 597–612.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polley, H.W., Johnson, H.B., Marinot, B.D., and Mayeux, H.S. Increase in C3 plant water-use efficiency and biomass over Glacial to present CO2 concentrations. Nature 361, (1993). 61–64.Google Scholar
Richard, P. Atlas pollinique des arbes et de quelques arbustes indigenes du Quebec. I Introduction generale. II Gymnospermes. Naturalist Canadian 97, (1970). 1–34.Google Scholar
Schauffler, M., Jacobson, G.L. Jr. Persistence of coastal spruce refugia during the Holocene in northern New England, USA, detected by stand-scale pollen stratigraphies. Journal of Ecology 90, (2002). 235–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shemesh, A., and Peteet, D. Oxygen isotopes in fresh water biogenic opal—Northeastern US Alleröd-Younger Dryas temperature shift. Geophysical Research Letters 25, (1998). 1935–1938.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shuman, B.N., Bravo, J., Kaye, J., Lynch, J.A., Newby, P., Webb, T. III Late-Quaternary water-level variations and vegetation history at Crooked Pond, southeastern Massachusetts. Quaternary Research 56, (2001). 401–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shuman, B., Webb, T. III, Bartlein, P., and Williams, J.W. The anatomy of a climatic oscillation: vegetation change in eastern North America during the Younger Dryas chronozone. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, (2002). 1777–1791.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shuman, B., Newby, P., Huang, Y., Webb, T. III Evidence for the close climate control of New England vegetation history. Ecology 85, (2004). 1297–1310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southon, J.R. A first step to reconciling the GRIP and GISP2 ice-core chronologies, 0–14,500 yr BP. Quaternary Research 53, (2000). 32–37.Google Scholar
Spear, R.W., Davis, M.B., and Shane, L.C.K. Late Quaternary history of low- and mid-elevation vegetation in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Ecological Monographs 64, (1994). 85–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stockmarr, J. Tablets with spores used in absolute pollen analysis. Pollen et Spores 13, (1971). 615–621.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., and Grootes, P.M. GISP2 oxygen isotope ratios. Quaternary Research 53, (2000). 277–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M., Grootes, P.M., and Braziunas, T.F. The GISP2 δ18O climate record of the past 16,500(years and the role of the sun, ocean and volcanoes. Quaternary Research 44, (1995). 341–354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suter, S.M. Late-glacial and Holocene vegetation history in southeastern Massachusetts: a 14,000 year pollen record. Current Research in the Pleistocene 2, (1985). 87–89.Google Scholar
Terasmae, J., and Matthews, H.L. Late Wisconsin white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) at Brampton Ontario. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 17, (1980). 1087–1095.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Viau, A.E., Gajewski, K., Fines, P., Atkinson, D.E., and Sawada, M. Widespread evidence of 1500 yr climate variability in North America during the past 14,000 yr. Geology 30, (2002). 455–458.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Viereck, L.A., Dyrness, C.T., Van Cleve, K., and Foote, M.J. Vegetation, soils, and forest productivity in selected forest types in interior Alaska. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 13, (1983). 703–720.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Viereck, L.A., Van Cleve, K., and Dyrness, C.T. Forest ecosystem distribution in the taiga environment. Van Cleve, K., Chapin, F.S. III, Flanagan, P.W., Viereck, L.A., and Dyrness, C.T. Forest Ecosystems in the Alaska Taiga: A Synthesis of Structure and Function. (1986). Springer-Verlag, New York, New York. 22–43.Google Scholar
Watts, W.A. Late Quaternary vegetation of Central Appalachia and the New Jersey Coastal Plain. Ecological Monographs 49, (1979). 427–469.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webb, T. III, Bartlein, P.J., Harrison, S.P., and Anderson, K.H. Vegetation, lake levels, and climate in eastern North America for the past 18,000 years. Wright, H.E. Jr., Kutzbach, J.E., Webb, T. III, and Bartlein, P.J. Global Climates Since the Last Glacial Maximum. (1993). University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 415–467.Google Scholar
Whitehead, D.R. Late-glacial and postglacial vegetational history of the Berkshires, western Massachusetts. Quaternary Research 12, (1979). 333–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, H.E., Mann, D.H., and Glaser, P.H. Piston corers for peat and lake sediments. Ecology 65, (1984). 657–659.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yarie, J. Forest community classification of the Porcupine River drainage, interior Alaska and its application to forestry management.. (1983). United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, Portland, Oregon, USA.Google Scholar
Young, K.L., Woo, M.K., and Edlund, S.A. Influence of local topography, soils, and vegetation on microclimate and hydrology at a high Arctic site, Ellesmere, Island, Canada. Arctic and Alpine (1997). 270–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar