The stratigraphy, palynology, and climatic significance of pre-middle Wisconsin Pleistocene sediments, southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia

1986 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neville F. Alley ◽  
Stephen R. Hicock
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Vancouver Island ◽  
Fossil Pollen ◽  
Tree Line ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Modern Pollen ◽  
Pollen Zone ◽  
Head Formation ◽  
Vegetation And Climate

Palynological investigations of organic-rich sediments from the Muir Point Formation and basal Cowichan Head Formation on southernmost Vancouver Island have identified seven pollen zones. Modern pollen spectra from the extant vegetation in southwestern British Columbia aid in interpreting paleoenvironments from the fossil pollen assemblages. Six of the pollen zones (MP-1, MP-2, MP-3, MP-4, CB-3, and CB-4) are from the Muir Point Formation and are beyond the range of 14C dating. They record evidence of vegetation and climate during either the last interglacial or penultimate interglacial (or some much older interglaciation) when conditions were at first warmer and (or) drier than at present, then succeeded to cooler and (or) moister conditions. The seventh and youngest pollen zone (MP-5) provides evidence of subalpine to near tree-line vegetation growing in cool–cold conditions before 43 000 years BP, during the early Olympia nonglacial interval. These pollen zones and interpretations are in part correlative with established zones from adjacent Washington and eastern Vancouver Island.

Middle Wisconsin Stratigraphy and Climatic Reconstruction, Southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia

1979 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neville F. Alley
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Vancouver Island ◽  
Olympic Peninsula ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Modern Pollen ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Vegetation And Climate ◽  
Coastal British Columbia ◽  
Almost Continuous

Interbedded, organic-rich terrestrial and marine sediments exposed along the eastern coastal lowland of Vancouver Island contain an almost continuous record of middle Wisconsin vegetation and climate. The record has been interpreted largely from palynostratigraphic studies at three sites and supported by a study of modern pollen spectra from the three major biogeoclimatic zones of the extant vegetation. Radiocarbon dates from a variety of organic materials in the middle Wisconsin beds reveal that the fossil pollen spectra span an interval ranging from approximately 21,000 yr B.P. to more than 51,000 yr B.P. The spectra are divided into eight major pollen zones encompassing the Olympia Interglaciation and early Fraser Glaciation geologicclimate units of the Pacific Northwest. The Olympia Interglaciation extended from before 51,000 yr B.P. to ca. 29,000 yr B.P. and was characterized by a climate similar to present. During the early Fraser Glaciation, from 29,000 years ago to approximately 21,000 yr B.P., climate deteriorated until tundra like conditions prevailed. These pollen sequences are correlative with those of coastal British Columbia and partly with those from Olympic Peninsula, but apparently are not comparable with events in the Puget Lowland.

Late Quaternary Vegetation and Climate of Southern Tierra del Fuego

1989 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 396-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Calvin J. Heusser
Keyword(s):  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Pollen Dispersal ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Tierra Del Fuego ◽  
Fossil Pollen ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Modern Pollen ◽  
Open Woodland ◽  
Glacial Time ◽  
Vegetation And Climate

AbstractVegetation and climate over approximately the past 13,000 yr are reconstructed from fossil pollen in a 9.4-m mire section at Caleta Róbalo on Beagle Channel, Isla Navarino (54°56′S, 67°38′W), southern Tierra del Fuego. Fifty surface samples reflecting modern pollen dispersal serve to interpret the record. Chronologically controlled by nine radiocarbon dates, fossil pollen assemblages are: Empetrum-Gramineae-Gunnera-Tubuliflorae (zone 3b, 13,000–11,850 yr B.P.), Gramineae-Empetrum-assorted minor taxa (zone 3a, 11,850-10,000 yr B.P.), Nothofagus-Gramineae-Tubuliflorae-Polypodiaceae (zone 2, 10,000–5000 yr B.P.), Nothofagus-Empetrum (zone 1b, 5000-3000 yr B.P.), and Empetrum-Nothofagus (zone 1a, 3000-0 yr B.P.). Assemblages show tundra under a cold, dry climate (zone 3), followed by open woodland (zone 2), as conditions became warmer and less dry, and later, with greater humidity and lower temperatures, by closed forest and the spread of mires (zone 1). Comparisons drawn with records from Antarctica, New Zealand, Tasmania, and the subantarctic islands demonstrate broadly uniform conditions in the circumpolar Southern Hemisphere. The influences of continental and maritime antarctic air masses were apparently considerable in Tierra del Fuego during cold late-glacial time, whereas Holocene climate was largely regulated by interplay between maritime polar and maritime tropical air.

scholarly journals Last Interglacial Muir Point Formation, Vancouver Island, British Columbia

2007 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Hicock
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Alluvial Fan ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Modern Pollen ◽  
Pollen Rain ◽  
Stratigraphic Position ◽  
Normal Polarity ◽  
Tidal Stream ◽  
Exposed Part ◽  
Study Sites

ABSTRACT The Muir Point Formation probably represents the last interglacial and climatic maximum of the Late Pleistocene in southwest British Columbia. It comprises estuarine, floodplain, fluvial, alluvial fan, and debris flow lithofacies. The lower exposed part of the formation is normally magnetized and probably formed during the Brunhes Normal Polarity Chron (<790 ka BP). On the basis of similar polarity, palynology, lithologies, and stratigraphic position, the Muir Point Formation is correlated with the Whidbey Formation of northwest Washington State. It probably also correlates with the Highbury Formation under the Fraser Lowland of mainland British Columbia.These formations may be remnants of shallow marine or subaerial sediment shelves which once rimmed ancestral Strait of Georgia and Puget basins over 100 ka, but were mostly removed by later glaciations. During this time sea level may have been 10 m higher than today. The middle floodplain unit contains five pollen zones whose differences can be explained mainly by shifts in a meandering tidal stream. Throughout most of this record Douglas fir pollen is more abundant than in modern pollen rain around the study sites which indicates that paleoclimate was at least as warm and dry as present.

The plainfin midshipman’s soundscape at two sites around Vancouver Island, British Columbia

2018 ◽  
Vol 603 ◽  
pp. 189-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
WD Halliday ◽  
MK Pine ◽  
APH Bose ◽  
S Balshine ◽  
F Juanes
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Vancouver Island

scholarly journals A rare genotype of Cryptococcus gattii caused the cryptococcosis outbreak on Vancouver Island (British Columbia, Canada)

2004 ◽  
Vol 101 (49) ◽  
pp. 17258-17263 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. E. Kidd ◽  
F. Hagen ◽  
R. L. Tscharke ◽  
M. Huynh ◽  
K. H. Bartlett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Vancouver Island ◽  
Cryptococcus Gattii

Eutardigrada from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, including a description of Platicrista cheleusis n.sp.

1990 ◽  
Vol 68 (9) ◽  
pp. 1880-1895 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Deedee Kathman
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Vancouver Island

Thirty-one species of eutardigrades were collected on five mountains on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, during July 1986 and July 1987. Three of the species found were new to science, including 1 species, Platicrista cheleusis n.sp., described herein and 2 species described elsewhere, and 21 others are new to British Columbia; 13 of these are also new to Canada.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document