Postglacial Vegetational History of the Eastern Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland, and Holocene Climatic Change Along the Eastern Canadian Seaboard

Abstract

Two radiocarbon-dated pollen profiles from the eastern Avalon Peninsula suggest late déglaciation (probably no earlier than 9700 BP at the coast), followed by a brief period of tundra vegetation. After 9300 BP a rich shrub tundra at lower elevations was invaded by spruce, balsam fir and tree birch until at ca 8400 BP the vegetation was an open woodland. The forest remained open for the next 3000 years; evidence of fire and the continuous presence of Populus suggest drier and warmer conditions than at present. The period of maximum warmth, ca 5400-3200 BP, saw the closing of the forest cover, a rise in the level of the tree limit in the interior upland and an increase in precipitation. After 3200 BP decreasing temperatures resulted in a lowering of the tree limit. The climatic changes inferred for the Avalon Peninsula are compared with those inferred from palaeo-environmental studies along the eastern North American seaboard from Baffin Island to New England. A sequence of changing controls on the regional atmospheric circulation during the Holocene is suggested.

Late‐glacial and early Holocene environments at Pine Hill Pond, Newfoundland, Canada: evidence from pollen and diatoms

“…This agrees with conditions inferred from other sites in easter Newfoundland (e.g. Sugarloaf Pond, Macpherson 1982Macpherson , 1985 : strong summer warming, to conditions similar to the present, by 8.5 ka BP.…”

Holocene climate history of the Nunatsiavut (northern Labrador, Canada) established from pollen and dinoflagellate cyst assemblages covering the past 7000 years

“…The climate history of the Holocene has been well documented in the Arctic, Sub-Arctic, west and south Greenland, and Newfoundland (Carlson et al, 2007; Kaplan and Wolfe, 2006; Kaufman et al, 2004; Kerwin et al, 2004; Macpherson, 1982; Marcott et al, 2013; Renssen et al, 2009; Ritchie, 1987). Labrador is the continental part of the province known as ‘Newfoundland and Labrador’ on the northeastern Atlantic coast of Canada.…”

“…In Newfoundland (South of Labrador), the deglaciation began around 10,000 BP and palynological records reveal that vegetation re-colonized the area after 9300 BP (Bell et al, 2005b; Macpherson, 1982; Ritchie, 1987; Shaw et al, 2002, 2006), allowing first human occupations around the same period (Bell et al, 2005a; Bell and Renouf, 2003). A paleolimnological study of lakes from Nova Scotia and Newfoundland recorded the maximum of this warming period between ~6300 and 4200 BP (McCarthy et al, 1995).…”

The signal of climate changes over the last two millennia in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, eastern Canada

“…8, 9, 10, 17). On the Avalon Peninsula, southeastern Newfoundland, pollen assemblages are dominated by Betula (50%), while Picea is relatively abundant (20%) and Pinus very rare (<5%) (Macpherson, 1982; Fig. 1, no.…”