Using Picea/Pinus Ratios from the Wilcox Pass Core, Jasper National Park, Alberta, to Investigate Holocene Timberline Fluctuations

Beaudoin, Alwynne B.

doi:10.7202/032634ar

Cited by 25 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Pollen ratios have been used to interpret changes in treeline throughout sites in the Canadian Cordillera (Beaudoin, 1986;Luckman and Kearney, 1986;Pellatt et al, 1998). In the last 700 cal yr. BP of zone ML-6a, pollen ratios of Pseudotsuga-Larix + Poaceae divided by Picea + Abies at Dog Lake decrease, indicating a return to the wet-closed conditions of the MS zone at the onset of the Neoglacial (Hallett and Hills, 2006).…”

Section: Marion and Dog Lake Comparisonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In topographically complex regions such as the North American Cordillera it is important to look at more than one study site using multiple proxies to understand the local to regional variation in ecosystem response to climate, fire, and other land uses that are likely not represented by single study sites meant to represent broad geographic regions (Davis et al, 2020;Trant et al, 2020;Collison, 2021). This study examines two study sites in the adjacent Kootenay and Columbia Valleys in order to understand the temporal and spatial variation that climate and disturbance had in the southeast Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada. Previous Holocene paleoecological research in southeastern British Columbia and the northwestern United States focused on vegetation dynamics and paleolimnological responses to climate changes occurring at the treeline at alpine sites (Beaudoin, 1986;Luckman and Kearney, 1986;Pellatt et al, 1998;Smith et al, 1998;Pellatt et al, 2000;Heinrichs et al, 2002;Davis et al, 2018;Peteet et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2020) and forest cover changes at mid and lower elevations (Mack et al, 1983;Hebda, 1995;Hallett and Walker, 2000). All of these studies propose an approximation of the following climate history.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Paleoecological Investigation of Vegetation, Climate and Fire History in, and Adjacent to, Kootenay National Park, Southeastern British Columbia, Canada

2022

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Paleoecological investigation of two montane lakes in the Kootenay region of southeast British Columbia, Canada, reveal changes in vegetation in response to climate and fire throughout the Holocene. Pollen, charcoal, and lake sediment carbon accumulation rate analyses show seven distinct zones at Marion Lake, presently in the subalpine Engelmann Spruce-Subalpine Fir (ESSF) biogeoclimatic (BEC) zone of Kootenay Valley, British Columbia. Comparison of these records to nearby Dog Lake of Kootenay National Park of Canada in the Montane Spruce (MS) BEC zone of Kootenay Valley, British Columbia reveals unique responses of ecosystems in topographically complex regions. The two most dramatic shifts in vegetation at Marion Lake occur firstly in the early Holocene/late Pleistocene in ML Zone 3 (11,010–10,180 cal. yr. B.P.) possibly reflecting Younger Dryas Chronozone cooling followed by early Holocene xerothermic warming noted by the increased presence of the dry adapted conifer, Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and increasing fire frequency. The second most prominent change occurred at the transition from ML Zone 5 through 6a (∼2,500 cal. yr. B.P.). This zone transitions from a warmer to a cooler/wetter climate as indicated by the increase in western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) and subsequent drop in fire frequency. The overall cooling trend and reduction in fire frequency appears to have occurred ∼700 years later than at Dog Lake (∼43 km to the south and 80 m lower in elevation), resulting in a closed montane spruce forest, whereas Marion Lake developed into a subalpine ecosystem. The temporal and ecological differences between the two study sites likely reflects the particular climate threshold needed to move these ecosystems from developed forests to subalpine conditions, as well as local site climate and fire conditions. These paleoecological records indicate future warming may result in the MS transitioning into an Interior Douglas Fir (IDF) dominated landscape, while the ESSF may become more forested, similar to the modern MS, or develop into a grassland-like landscape dependent on fire frequency. These results indicate that climate and disturbance over a regional area can dictate very different localized vegetative states. Local management implications of these dynamic landscapes will need to understand how ecosystems respond to climate and disturbance at the local or ecosystem/habitat scale.

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Section: Marion and Dog Lake Comparisonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paleoecological Investigation of Vegetation, Climate and Fire History in, and Adjacent to, Kootenay National Park, Southeastern British Columbia, Canada

2022

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Neoglacial Glacier Fluctuations in the Canadian Rockies

Holdsworth²,

1993

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The Little Ice Age was the most extensive Neoglacial glacier advance in the Canadian Rockies. Evidence of earlier, less-extensive Neoglacial glacier advances is based on wood recovered from several glacier forefields. Wood flushed out of Athabasca Glacier (7550-8230 yr B.P., three dates) and Dome Glacier (6120-6380 yr B.P., two dates) indicates that forests occurred upvalley of present glacier termini during the Hypsithermal. Detrital logs from Peyto (14 dates), Saskatchewan (3 dates), Robson (3 dates), and Yoho (1 date) Glaciers, plus in situ slumps at Peyto and Robson Glaciers, have yielded 14 C dates between 2490 and 3300 yr B.P. (12 dates between 2800 and 2990). This wood is derived from sources at or upvalley from present glacier termini and represents forests overridden by glaciers between ca. 3100 and 2500 yr B.P. (Treeline was higher than present immediately prior to this advance.) This advance, which did not extend beyond the Little Ice Age maximum position, is designated the Peyto Advance and correlated with the Tiedemann Advance in western British Columbia. Earliest Little Ice Age advances at Peyto and Robson Glaciers are dated ca. 800-600 yr B.P. at positions ca. 500 m upvalley from Little Ice Age limits.

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Holocene Tree Line and Climate Change on the Queen Charlotte Islands, Canada

Pellatt

Mathewes

1997

Quat. res.

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Palynological study of two subalpine ponds on the Queen Charlotte Islands reveals changes in tree line and climate during the Holocene. The findings agree with previous reconstructions, from nearby Louise Pond on the Queen Charlotte Islands, that suggest a warmer-than-present climate and higher-than-present tree lines in the early Holocene (ca. 9600–6600 14C yr B.P.). Basal ages at SC1 Pond and Shangri-La Bog indicate that the basins did not hold permanent water before 7200 14C yr B.P., consistent with a warmer and drier early Holocene previously inferred from Louise Pond. Pollen and plant macrofossils indicate the initial establishment of subalpine conditions by 6090 ± 90 14C yr B.P., similar to the 5790 ± 130 14C yr B.P. age for cooling inferred from Louise Pond. Conditions similar to present were established at SC1 Pond by 3460 ± 100 14C yr B.P., confirming the previous estimate of 3400 14C yr B.P. at Louise Pond. This 3400 14C yr B.P. vegetation shift on the Queen Charlotte Islands corresponds with the beginning of the Tiedemann glacial advance in the south-coastal mountains of British Columbia (ca. 3300 14C yr B.P.), the Peyto and Robson glacial advances between 3300 and 2800 14C yr B.P. in the Rocky Mountains, and climatic cooling inferred from palynological studies throughout southern British Columbia, northern Washington, and southeast Alaska. These findings confirm that changes in regional climate influenced changes in vegetation in coastal British Columbia.

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Using Picea/Pinus Ratios from the Wilcox Pass Core, Jasper National Park, Alberta, to Investigate Holocene Timberline Fluctuations

Cited by 25 publications

References 18 publications

Paleoecological Investigation of Vegetation, Climate and Fire History in, and Adjacent to, Kootenay National Park, Southeastern British Columbia, Canada

Paleoecological Investigation of Vegetation, Climate and Fire History in, and Adjacent to, Kootenay National Park, Southeastern British Columbia, Canada

Neoglacial Glacier Fluctuations in the Canadian Rockies

Holocene Tree Line and Climate Change on the Queen Charlotte Islands, Canada

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