New spruce (Picea spp.) macrofossils from Yukon Territory: Implications for Late Pleistocene refugia in Eastern Beringia
Back to previous page
| Authors: | Zazula, GD; Telka, AM; Harington, CR; Schweger, CE; Mathewes, RW |
| Year: | 2006 |
| Journal: | Arctic 59: 391-400 |
| Title: | New spruce (Picea spp.) macrofossils from Yukon Territory: Implications for Late Pleistocene refugia in Eastern Beringia |
| Abstract: | New radiocarbon-dated plant macrofossils provide evidence for black spruce (Picea mariana) and white spruce (Picea glauca) within the unglaciated Yukon Territory at the onset of glacial conditions during the Marine Isotope Stage 3/2 transition, between about 26000 and 24500 C-14 yr BP. These data indicate that spruce trees were able to reproduce sexually and Grow to maturity within a glacial environment characterized by widespread steppe-tundra vegetation, loess aggradation, and ice-wedge formation. These trees may have been restricted to rare valley-bottom habitats that provided adequate shelter and moisture similar to those at the present latitudinal tree line. Previously published hypotheses suggest that low Picea frequencies in regional Beringian pollen data point to the local persistence of spruce trees through the last glaciation. Although our data provide evidence for local spruce trees at the onset of the last glaciation, the available macrofossil record is inconclusive regarding the survival of spruce through the Last Glacial Maximum in Eastern Beringia. These new plant macrofossil data require palynologists to re-examine the relationship between Picea pollen frequency and local trees and highlight the importance of integrated pollen- and macrofossil-based paleoecological reconstructions. |
Please send suggestions for improving this publication database to
sass-support@sfu.ca.
Departmental members may update their publication list.