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Pollen Indicators of Land-Use Change in Southern Connecticut

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Richard B. Brugam*
Affiliation:
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520 USA
*
1Present address: Limnological Research Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455.

Abstract

Changes in fossil pollen assemblages from a 2-m core from Linsley Pond, North Branford, Connecticut, are compared with historically documented land use changes in the lake watershed. Dating with 210Pb and 14C reveals two sedimentation rate changes in the core which are associated with the arrival of European farmers; the building of cabins and suburban housing subdivisions on the lake shore. At European settlement in 1700 ad Ambrosia and Rumex pollen first appear, Gramineae-type pollen increases, and Tsuga decreases. Just before the beginning of agricultural disturbance Fagus pollen declines. The chestnut blight of 1913 causes a reduction of Castanea pollen and a subsequent vegetational succession through Betula to Quercus. The sedimentation rate determined by the chestnut blight horizon is consistent with the rate deduced from 210Pb analysis.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
University of Washington

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