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A record of Lateglacial and early Holocene environmental and ecological change from southwestern Connecticut, USA
Author(s) -
Oswald W. Wyatt,
Foster David R.,
Doughty Elaine D.,
Faison Edward K.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of quaternary science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.142
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1099-1417
pISSN - 0267-8179
DOI - 10.1002/jqs.1299
Subject(s) - holocene , swamp , vegetation (pathology) , geology , peat , younger dryas , physical geography , marsh , sphagnum , ecology , pollen , wetland , geography , paleontology , biology , medicine , pathology
Analyses of a sediment core from Highstead Swamp in southwestern Connecticut, USA, reveal Lateglacial and early Holocene ecological and hydrological changes. Lateglacial pollen assemblages are dominated by Picea and Pinus subg. Pinus , and the onset of the Younger Dryas (YD) cold interval is evidenced by higher abundance of Abies and Alnus viridis subsp. crispa . As climate warmed at the end of the YD, Picea and Abies declined and Pinus strobus became the dominant upland tree species. A shift from lacustrine sediment to organic peat at the YD–Holocene boundary suggests that the lake that existed in the basin during the Lateglacial interval developed into a swamp in response to reduced effective moisture. A change in wetland vegetation from Myrica gale to Alnus incana subsp. rugosa and Sphagnum is consistent with this interpretation of environmental changes at the beginning of the Holocene. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.