Late Quaternary history of black spruce and grasslands in southwest Yukon Territory

1992 ◽  
Vol 70 (7) ◽  
pp. 1336-1345 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. J. Keenan ◽  
L. C. Cwynar
Keyword(s):  
Dominant Species ◽  
Black Spruce ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Minor Component ◽  
White Spruce ◽  
Yukon Territory ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Quaternary History ◽  
A Minor

Pollen records from Long Last Lake and Two Horsemen Pond, near the centre of the arid region of southwest Yukon Territory, do not support the hypotheses that (i) black spruce was a dominant species in the region and (ii) the southwest Yukon supported widespread grasslands during most of the past 10 000 years. Black spruce became established between 8500 and 8000 BP, shortly after the arrival of white spruce, but its low pollen percentages (< 5%) indicate that it was a minor component of forests. Between 6000 and 5000 BP, white spruce populations decreased as black spruce and green alder increased, but black spruce remained a minor constituent of the forest, never becoming a dominant species as at Kettlehole Pond near the southeast margin of the arid southwest Yukon. The initial vegetation was a poplar woodland, dating from 9200 to 8500 BP at Long Last Lake. At both Long Last Lake and Two Horsemen Pond, the high percentages of herb pollen indicate that the forest was open, but the low values of grass pollen suggest that grasslands were not extensive. Coincident with the establishment of spruce woodland at 8500 BP, pollen of herbs declines and remains comparatively low until 1300 BP when herbs, including grasses, increase to maximum values for the period of record, indicating the grassland communities were probably never more abundant during the Holocene than they are now. Key words: southwest Yukon, black spruce, pollen analysis, paleoecology, climate change.

Late Quaternary History of Tundra Vegetation in Northwestern Alaska

1994 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia M. Anderson ◽  
Patrick J. Bartlein ◽  
Linda B. Brubaker
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Type ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
The Past ◽  
Modern Pollen ◽  
Qualitative Approaches ◽  
Tundra Vegetation ◽  
Shrub Tundra ◽  
History Of ◽  
Quaternary History

AbstractPollen analysis of a new core from Joe Lake indicates that the late Quaternary vegetation of northwestern Alaska was characterized by four tundra and two forest-tundra types. These vegetation types were differentiated by combining quantitative comparisons of fossil and modern pollen assemblages with traditional, qualitative approaches for inferring past vegetation, such as the use of indicator species. Although imprecisely dated, the core probably spans at least the past 40,000 yr. A graminoid-Salix tundra dominated during the later and early portions of the glacial record. The middle glacial interval and the transition from glacial to interglacial conditions are characterized by a graminoid-Betula-Salix tundra. A Populus forest-Betula shrub tundra existed during the middle potion of this transition, being replaced in the early Holocene by a Betula-Alnus shrub tundra. The modern Picea forest-shrub tundra was established by the middle Holocene. These results suggest that the composition of modem tundra communities in northwestern Alaska developed relatively recently and that throughout much of the late Quaternary, tundra communities were unlike the predominant types found today in northern North America. Although descriptions of vegetation variations within the tundra will always be restricted by the innate taxonomic limitations of their herb-dominated pollen spectra, the application of multiple interpretive approaches improves the ability to reconstruct the historical development of this vegetation type.

Late Quaternary sedimentation in central Flemish Pass

1992 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. W. Piper ◽  
Christopher P. G. Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Seismic Profiles ◽  
Grand Banks ◽  
The Past ◽  
Labrador Current ◽  
Lithostratigraphic Units ◽  
History Of ◽  
Quaternary History ◽  
Late Wisconsinan

Flemish Pass is a basin in 1000 m water depth on the continental slope off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and has a Quaternary fill principally of turbidites. The late Quaternary history of the pass has been investigated using mid-range side-scan sonargraphs, high-resolution seismic profiles, and cores dated using C-14. The sequence of facies in the cores reveals six lithostratigraphic units deposited in the past 40 ka. At 15–19 ka and ?25–30 ka, sedimentation was dominated by debris-flow and turbidite deposits, together with hemipelagic deposits of similar clay-size mineralogy, derived from the Grand Banks. At other times, ice-rafting and hemipelagic sedimentation, principally of carbonate-rich sediment transported by the Labrador Current, predominated. A late Quaternary regional unconformity on the slope may reflect the effects of ice sheets reaching the shelf break, probably in the Early Wisconsinan. Late Wisconsinan resedimentation was not related to ice-marginal processes and probably resulted from iceberg impacts.

Late Quaternary history of colluvial deposition and erosion in hollows, central California Coast Ranges

1990 ◽  
Vol 102 (7) ◽  
pp. 969-982 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEVEN L. RENEAU ◽  
WILLIAM E. DIETRICH ◽  
DOUGLAS J. DONAHUE ◽  
A. J. TIMOTHY JULL ◽  
MEYER RUBIN
Keyword(s):  
Late Quaternary ◽  
California Coast ◽  
Central California ◽  
History Of ◽  
Quaternary History ◽  
Coast Ranges ◽  
California Coast Ranges

A geochronological framework for sedimentation and Mesoproterozoic tectono-magmatic activity in lower Belt–Purcell rocks exposed west of Kimberley, British Columbia

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (7) ◽  
pp. 444-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher R.M. McFarlane
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Minor Component ◽  
Structural Level ◽  
Peraluminous Granite ◽  
Icp Ms ◽  
Ductile Shearing ◽  
History Of ◽  
Metamorphic Zone ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Plate Reconstruction

The Matthew Creek Metamorphic Zone (MCMZ) exposes what is inferred to be the lowest structural level of the lower Aldridge Formation in the Canadian portion of the Belt–Purcell Supergroup. Zircon, monazite, and titanite were dated using the U–Pb system by LA–ICP–MS. The detrital zircon populations of quartzite layers in these rocks define a provenance dominated by sources of Laurentian affinity with a minor component of non-North American ages between 1600 and 1490 Ma. Special attention was paid to monazite in sillimanite-grade metapelitic schists that was analyzed using in situ LA–ICP–MS techniques guided by BSE imaging and compositional mapping. Textural and geochronological evidence indicate that coupled dissolution–reprecipitation affected detrital monazite at 1413 ± 10 Ma. This was followed by prograde monazite growth at 1365 ± 10 Ma, synchronous with crystallization of the nearby Hellroaring Creek peraluminous granite at 1365 ± 5 Ma. Late-stage pegmatite emplacement and ductile shearing along the contact of the MCMZ and overlying rocks occurred at 1335 ± 5 Ma, interpreted as a period of post-collisional extension, core complex formation, exhumation, and decompression melting. The entire package was subsequently affected by a pervasive ∼1050 Ma hydrothermal overprint that partially reset U–Pb dates in monazite, zircon, and titanite contained in all lithologies examined. The lowermost Belt–Purcell stratigraphy in southeast British Columbia preserves a detailed record of sedimentary provenance and a long history of episodic collision and extension that must be reconciled with plate reconstruction models for the break-up of the Nuna supercontinent and assembly of Rodinia.

Late Quaternary glacial and interglacial environments of the Nechako River - Cheslatta Lake area, central British Columbia

2001 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 719-731 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Plouffe ◽  
V M Levson
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Lake Area ◽  
Glacial Lakes ◽  
Ice Flow ◽  
Coast Mountains ◽  
Quaternary Stratigraphy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Quaternary History

The Quaternary stratigraphy of the Nechako River – Cheslatta Lake area of central British Columbia is described and interpreted to reconstruct the late Quaternary history of the region. Exposures of glacial and nonglacial sediments deposited prior to the last glaciation (Fraser) are limited to three sites. Pollen assemblages from pre-Fraser nonglacial sediments at two of these sites reveal forested conditions around 39 000 BP. During the advance phase of the Fraser Glaciation, glacial lakes were ponded when trunk glaciers blocked some tributary valleys. Early in the glaciation, the drainage was free in easterly draining valleys. Subsequently, the easterly drainage was blocked either locally by sediments and ice or as a result of impoundment of the Fraser River and its tributaries east of the study area. Ice generally moved east and northeast from accumulation zones in the Coast Mountains. Ice flow was influenced by topography. Major late-glacial lakes developed in the Nechako River valley and the Knewstubb Lake region because potential drainage routes were blocked by ice.

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