Late Pleistocene coastal paleogeography of the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, Canada, and its implications for terrestrial biogeography and early postglacial human occupation

2003 ◽  
Vol 40 (12) ◽  
pp. 1755-1766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renée Hetherington ◽  
J Vaughn Barrie ◽  
Robert GB Reid ◽  
Roger MacLeod ◽  
Dan J Smith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Glacial Refugia ◽  
Spatial Modelling ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Land Bridge ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Queen Charlotte Islands

Molluscs, sediment lithology, and published sub-bottom profiles are used to deduce sea levels, outline the influence of glacially induced crustal displacement, and reconstruct the paleoenvironment of the northeast Pacific late Quaternary coastline. Geo-spatial modelling shows subaerially exposed land that could have been inhabited by plants and animals, and also coastally migrating early North American peoples. Ice-free terrain, present by at least 13 790 ± 150 14C years BP, a land bridge, and edible molluscs are identified. Queen Charlotte Islands (QCI) late Pleistocene coastal paleogeography may assist in explaining the biogeography of many terrestrial plant and animal species along the broader northeastern Pacific margin and provide evidence for researchers seeking late Pleistocene – early Holocene glacial refugia. Late Pleistocene – early Holocene coastlines that are not drowned and that may harbour early archaeological sites are identified along the western QCI, where migrants probably first travelled and the westernmost British Columbia mainland, where the effects of glacial ice were reduced.

Paleoecological and archaeological implications of a Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene record of vegetation and climate from the Pacific coastal plain of Panama

2003 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dolores R. Piperno ◽  
John G. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Forest ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Coastal Plain ◽  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Tropical Deciduous Forest ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Core Sediment ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Holocene Record

AbstractA phytolith record from Monte Oscuro, a crater lake located 10 m above sea level on the Pacific coastal plain of Panama, shows that during the Late Pleistocene the lake bed was dry and savanna-like vegetation expanded at the expense of tropical deciduous forest, the modern potential vegetation. A significant reduction of precipitation below current levels was almost certainly required to effect the changes observed. Core sediment characteristics indicate that permanent inundation of the Monte Oscuro basin with water occurred at about 10,500 14C yr B.P. Pollen and phytolith records show that deciduous tropical forest expanded into the lake’s watershed during the early Holocene. Significant burning of the vegetation and increases of weedy plants at ca. 7500 to 7000 14C yr B.P. indicate disturbance, which most likely resulted from early human occupation of the seasonal tropical forest near Monte Oscuro and the development of slash-and-burn methods of cultivation.

Preliminary investigation of a late Wisconsinan fauna from K1 cave, Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii), Canada

2004 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn L. Ramsey ◽  
Paul A. Griffiths ◽  
Daryl W. Fedje ◽  
Rebecca J. Wigen ◽  
Quentin Mackie
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Human Migration ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Haida Gwaii ◽  
Queen Charlotte Islands ◽  
Late Wisconsinan ◽  
Early Human

Recent investigations of a limestone solution cave on the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii) have yielded skeletal remains of fauna including late Pleistocene and early Holocene bears, one specimen of which dates to ca. 14,400 14C yr B.P. This new fossil evidence sheds light on early postglacial environmental conditions in this archipelago, with implications for the timing of early human migration into the Americas.

Late Pleistocene and early Holocene rivers and wetlands in the Bonneville basin of western North America

2003 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles G. Oviatt ◽  
David B. Madsen ◽  
Dave N. Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
Great Basin ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Coarse Sand ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
River Channels ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Lake Bonneville ◽  
River Bed ◽  
Bonneville Basin

AbstractField investigations at Dugway Proving Ground in western Utah have produced new data on the chronology and human occupation of late Pleistocene and early Holocene lakes, rivers, and wetlands in the Lake Bonneville basin. We have classified paleo-river channels of these ages as “gravel channels” and “sand channels.” Gravel channels are straight to curved, digitate, and have abrupt bulbous ends. They are composed of fine gravel and coarse sand, and are topographically inverted (i.e., they stand higher than the surrounding mudflats). Sand channels are younger and sand filled, with well-developed meander-scroll morphology that is truncated by deflated mudflat surfaces. Gravel channels were formed by a river that originated as overflow from the Sevier basin along the Old River Bed during the late regressive phases of Lake Bonneville (after 12,500 and prior to 11,000 14C yr B.P.). Dated samples from sand channels and associated fluvial overbank and wetland deposits range in age from 11,000 to 8800 14C yr B.P., and are probably related to continued Sevier-basin overflow and to groundwater discharge. Paleoarchaic foragers occupied numerous sites on gravel-channel landforms and adjacent to sand channels in the extensive early Holocene wetland habitats. Reworking of tools and limited toolstone diversity is consistent with theoretical models suggesting Paleoarchaic foragers in the Old River Bed delta were less mobile than elsewhere in the Great Basin.

A reconnaissance survey of late Quaternary sea levels, Bella Bella/Bella Coola region, central British Columbia coast

1978 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. T. Andrews ◽  
R. M. Retherford
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Middle Part ◽  
Relative Sea Level ◽  
Marine Transgression ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Reconnaissance Survey ◽  
Rate Of Emergence ◽  
Bella Coola

A preliminary relative sea level curve that covers the last 10 200 years is derived for the area of the islands and outer mainland centered on Bella Bella and Namu, the central coast of British Columbia. The curve shows postglacial emergence of 17 m over this period. The rate of emergence was ~0.6 m/100 year about 9000 BP, and present sea level was attained between 7000 and 8000 BP. Relative sea level continued to fall until the last few hundred to one thousand years BP when a marine transgression led to a rise of sea level and resultant erosion of many coastal Indian middens. Marine limits on the outer islands may reach 120 m asl, whereas in the middle part of the fiord country observed delta surfaces are lower (54–75 m asl). Elevations of raised deltas then attain ~150 m at fiord heads. A readvance of the ice front ≤ 12 210 ± 330 BP (GSC-1351) is suggested by the stratigraphy of one section.

The Origin of Island Mammoths and the Quaternary Land Bridge of the Northern Channel Islands, California

1978 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Lee Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Channel Islands ◽  
Santa Barbara Channel ◽  
Santa Barbara ◽  
Land Bridge ◽  
Geological Evidence ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Environmental Setting ◽  
Northern Channel Islands ◽  
New Evidence

Pygmy proboscidean remains of Mammuthus exilis occur abundantly in late Quaternary deposits on the Northern Channel Islands, California. On the assumption that ancestral elephants could not have swum to the islands and must therefore have walked out, various land bridges have been hypothesized that link the northern islands to the mainland by a peninsula. Geological evidence for a land bridge, however, is lacking, and new evidence shows that elephants are excellent swimmers and skilled at crossing watergaps. The Santa Barbara Channel was narrowed to only 6 km during glacially lowered sea levels. Modern elephants swim much further, and at speeds ranging from 0.96–2.70 km/hr. Motives for California elephants to cross Pleistocene watergaps are inferred from motives that lead modern elephants in Asia and Africa to cross watergaps. These are the visual and olfactory sensing of islands and of insular food during times of drought or fire-induced food shortage. Diminutive size of M. exilis principally reflects lack of island predators, an adaption to periodic food stress in a finite forage area affected by periodic drought and fire, and an adaptation for keeping population numbers high to maintain genetic variability and to ensure survival despite accidents. A late Quaternary scenario describes the environmental setting of the Santa Barbara Channel and the conditions that led to proboscidean dispersal to the preexistent super-island Santarosae.

scholarly journals Climate warming and humans played different roles in triggering Late Quaternary extinctions in east and west Eurasia

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1851) ◽  
pp. 20162438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinru Wan ◽  
Zhibin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Climate Warming ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Large Mammals ◽  
Predominant Factor ◽  
Late Pleistocene To Holocene

Climate change and humans are proposed as the two key drivers of total extinction of many large mammals in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene, but disentangling their relative roles remains challenging owing to a lack of quantitative evaluation of human impact and climate-driven distribution changes on the extinctions of these large mammals in a continuous temporal–spatial dimension. Here, our analyses showed that temperature change had significant effects on mammoth (genus Mammuthus ), rhinoceros (Rhinocerotidae), horse (Equidae) and deer (Cervidae). Rapid global warming was the predominant factor driving the total extinction of mammoths and rhinos in frigid zones from the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. Humans showed significant, negative effects on extirpations of the four mammalian taxa, and were the predominant factor causing the extinction or major extirpations of rhinos and horses. Deer survived both rapid climate warming and extensive human impacts. Our study indicates that both the current rates of warming and range shifts of species are much faster than those from the Late Pleistocene to Holocene. Our results provide new insight into the extinction of Late Quaternary megafauna by demonstrating taxon-, period- and region-specific differences in extinction drivers of climate change and human disturbances, and some implications about the extinction risk of animals by recent and ongoing climate warming.

scholarly journals Radiocarbon, Soil, and Artifact Chronologies for An Early Southern Oregon Coastal Site

Radiocarbon ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Hall ◽  
Loren G Davis ◽  
Samuel Willis ◽  
Matthew Fillmore
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Texture Classification ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Particle Size Analysis ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Size Analysis ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
History Of

Radiocarbon dates together with geoarchaeological, soil, and lithic analyses are presented to describe archaeological site 35-CS-9 in Bandon Ocean Wayside State Park, Oregon, northwestern USA. One of the few Oregon middle-Holocene coastal sites that includes sediments and artifacts dating to the early Holocene and possibly to the late Pleistocene, it was recorded in 1951 and surface surveyed by archaeologists in 1975, 1986, and 1991, but its depth and antiquity were not tested. In February 2002, we studied the site's stratigraphy and sediments and described 8 strata from the aeolian surface to bedrock at 350 cm depth. Soil samples taken from a cut bank for texture classification, particle size analysis, pH, carbon content, and chemical analysis suggested that the site represented a complete history of Holocene deposits. Excavation of 2 test units in August 2002 uncovered substantial lithic and charcoal remains that confirm a protracted middle-Holocene occupation and suggest that human occupation began in the early Holocene. Charcoal recovered at 235–245 cm dated to 11,000 14C BP, and the deepest lithic artifact was recovered in a level at 215–225 cm. Whether the human occupation was continuous throughout the Holocene, and whether it began in the early Holocene or in the late Pleistocene, can only be determined with further excavations.

Late Quaternary geology of eastern Graham Island, Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia

1982 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 1786-1795 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J. Clague ◽  
Rolf W. Mathewes ◽  
Barry G. Warner
Keyword(s):  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Queen Charlotte Islands ◽  
Continuous Record ◽  
Littoral Sediments ◽  
Sand And Gravel ◽  
Nearly Continuous ◽  
Surface Drift ◽  
Middle And Late Holocene

A reconnaissance study of Quaternary sediments exposed in coastal bluffs on eastern Graham Island has revealed the presence of two major till units, each of which is underlain by glaciomarine stony mud, outwash sand and gravel, and laminated to massive silt and sand of undetermined origin. Sediment units below the surface drift are older than the radiocarbon dating limit. Sediments above this drift provide a nearly continuous record of geologic events from before 16 000 years BP until the present.Stratigraphic evidence and radiocarbon dates indicate that: (1) late Wisconsin glaciation of the coastal lowlands of Graham Island was weak and of short duration; and (2) a period of low sea levels during late Pleistocene time was followed by a transgression that culminated about 7500–8000 years ago when the sea was about 15 m higher relative to the land than at present. Marine regression during middle and late Holocene time produced wave-cut scarps, wave-cut benches overlain by littoral sediments, bars, spits, and beach and dune ridges.

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