Vegetation Change

1

• Vegetation Change
• Environmental and Anthropogenic Controls on
  Vegetation
• Documenting Past Vegetation Changes
• A) Pollen
• B) Plant Macrofossils
• III) Paleovegetation Changes in Eastern North
  America

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I) Environmental Controls
Terrestrial Ecosystems
Aquatic Life Zones
Sunlight Temperature Precipitation Wind
Latitude Altitude Fire frequency Soil
Light penetration Water currents Dissolved
nutrient concentrations (especially N and P)
Suspended solids
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Biotic - Range of Tolerance
(c)
(c)
(a)
(a)
(b)
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Forest Composition 1800 as Interpreted from GLO
Survey Notes by MNIF
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Community
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Plant succession
climax
Southeastern USA
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I) Environmental Controls B) Disturbance
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Photos from Michigan EPIC
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Cahokia
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Cahokia
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• Vegetation Change
• Environmental and Anthropogenic Controls on
  Vegetation
• Documenting Past Vegetation Changes
• A) Pollen
• B) Plant Macrofossils
• III) Paleovegetation Changes in Eastern North
  America

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• II) Past Vegetation Changes
• Pollen (Spores) Palynology
• 1. What are pollen spores?

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II) A) Pollen (Spores) 1. What are pollen
spores?
male cone (pollen)
Gymnosperms
female cone (seeds)
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Gymnosperms naked seeds
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Angiosperms
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II) A) Pollen (Spores) 2. Pollen
Production, Dispersal Preservation
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• A)
• 2. Pollen Production, Dispersal Preservation

a) Size
Artemisia (sage( 40 µm)
Poaceae (grass) 60-100 µm
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2. Pollen Production, Dispersal Preservation
a) Morphology gt Identification

• Variations in
• pores
• furrows
• sculpture

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Epilobium (fireweed)
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Sculpturing elements
tectum
columella
footwall
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• Light Microscope

10X
Objectives 20, 40, 100X
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2. Pollen Production, Dispersal Preservation
b) Pollen Production Dispersal
Anemophilous pollen
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2. Pollen Production, Dispersal Preservation
b) Pollen Production Dispersal
(i) anemophilous wind-dispersed all conifers
Pinus (pine) Picea (spruce) Larix (tamarack)
Tsuga (hemlock) Carya (hickory) Betula
(birch) Quercus (oak) Populus (poplar)
variability in production Alnus (alder)
highest Pinus (pine) 2nd highest Fagus (beech)
least
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• (i) wind-dispersed anemophilous
• Herbs
• Poaceae (grass)
• Artemisia (sage, wormwood)
• Ambrosia-type (ragweed)

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2. Pollen Production, Dispersal Preservation
b) Pollen Production Dispersal
(ii) insect-dispersed entomophilous
Malva (mallow)
Trees Acer (maple) Tilia (basswood)
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Lilium (lily)
Epilobium (fireweed)
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2. Pollen Production, Dispersal Preservation
b) Pollen Production Dispersal

• (iii) AP/NAP
• Trees AP arboreal pollen
• Herbs NAP non-arboreal pollen

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2. Pollen Production, Dispersal Preservation
c) Pollen Rain

• dispersed by air currents
• within canopy local (lt 20 m)
• extralocal, regional
• transported by water
• select lakes without inlets

Taphonomy
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Big Stone Lake, MN
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bioturbation
Moore et al. (1989)
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2. Pollen Production, Dispersal Preservation
d) Pollen Preservation

• sporopollenin

Populus (poplar)
Picea (spruce)
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2. e) Pollen Interpretation
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Analyst Eric C. Grimm
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Coldwater Lake, ND Mid-Holocene Aridity
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• Vegetation Change
• Environmental and Anthropogenic Controls on
  Vegetation
• Documenting Past Vegetation Changes
• A) Pollen
• B) Plant Macrofossils
• III) Paleovegetation Changes in eastern North
  America

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Proxies of Paleovegetation
POLLEN
PLANT MACROFOSSILS
Picea glauca (white spruce) seed
Picea (spruce) pollen
1 cm
20 ?m
macroscopic low abundance local
vegetation identify to species level
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B) Plant Macrofossils 1. Size
500 µm
Najas flexilis Chenopodium
berlandieri
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B) Plant Macrofossils

• 2. Species Identification

Hippuris vulgaris (mares- Tail)
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B) Plant Macrofossils 3. Production, Dispersal
Preservation
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• Vegetation Change
• Environmental and Anthropogenic Controls on
  Vegetation
• Documenting Past Vegetation Changes
• A) Pollen
• B) Plant Macrofossils
• III) Paleovegetation Changes in Eastern North
  America

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Miner Lake, Allegan Co., Michigan Core
Stratigraphy
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Individualistic Plant Migration
Picea migration northwards (green is 20 or
higher amounts of spruce pollen)

• 18 15 12 9
  6 3 0
• ka (1000 yr
  B.P.)

http//www.geo.brown.edu/georesearch/esh/QE/QEHome
.html
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Non-Analog Vegetation
14 ka 13 ka 12 ka 11 ka
10 ka
Calendar years Shuman et al. (2002)
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0
Analyst Eric C. Grimm
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Refugia
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28,000 25,000 14C yr BP
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Reconstruction by R. Webb J. Overpeck for the
eastern USA.
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0
Fox River Stone Company Quarry, IL
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Dryas integrifolia (arctic dryad)
1 mm
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Floods -gt leaves other plant remains deposited
in proglacial lakes
Aktineq Glacier Bylot Island Nuvanut, Canada
Photo B. Shilts
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Illinois at 16,000 yr B.P.
http//www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/larson/envi
ronments.html
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Late-Glacial Spruce Parkland
Yansa (2006)
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13,000 14C yr BP
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Changes in climate boundary conditions since the
Last Glacial Maximum
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Adapted from Overstreet (2002)
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Schaeffer Mammoth Site (1992-93)
Drainage tile (1964)
75 of skeleton intact adult male 36 years old
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Paleobotany of the Schaefer Site Core (2004)
Sources Stuiver et al. (1995) Cross (2002)
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Forming the Great Lakes
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Reconstruction by R. Webb J. Overpeck for the
eastern USA, using pollen data.
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21,000 cal 18,000 14C yr B.P. J.W. Williams.
2004. Variations in tree cover in North America
since the last glacial maximum, Global and
Planetary Change
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12,000 cal yr 10,500 14C yr B.P. Shuman et
al. (2002)
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11,000 14C yr B.P.
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0
Analyst Eric C. Grimm
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Late Arrivals Fagus Tsuga at 7000 14C yr BP
MODIS 9/17/2003
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Fagus grandifolia (Beech)
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Tsuga canadensis (Eastern Hemlock)
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8000 14C yr B.P. maximum aridity on the Great
Plains Southern boreal forest ecotone shifted
80 km northwards
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6 ka climate Expression of maximum warmth in the
Midwest
Prairie peninsula (Transeau, 1935)
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Climate Model ComparisonsThese maps represent
the differences between Growing Degree Days (GDD)
for 6,000 years ago and today. The upper nine
maps were produced by climate simulations from
different models, while the map on the lower
right represents the same GDD difference inferred
from pollen.
http//www.geo.brown.edu/georesearch/esh/QE/QEHome
.html
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Reconstruction by R. Webb J. Overpeck for the
eastern USA.
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Medieval Warm Period AD 800-1200
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Cahokia
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Little Ice Age
Forest Composition 1800 as Interpreted from GLO
Survey Notes by MNIF
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Figure 13-8Page 286
Projected increase 1.5 6ºC Most think 2 4ºC
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Present range
Future range
Overlap
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• Pollen Personalities
• 1. Tom Webb, Dept. of Geological Sciences, Brown
  Univ.

Paige Newby
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• A)Pollen Personalities
• 2. Margaret Davis, Dept. of Ecology, Univ. of
  Minnesota

Ph.D., Harvard University, 1957
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• A) Pollen Personalities
• 3. Jonathan Overpeck
• Was at NOAA/NGDC Paleoclimatology Program, and
  INSTAAR, University of Colorado, Boulder
• Now Professor of Geosciences, U of Arizona

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• A) Pollen Personalities
• Jim Ritchie
• Father of Canadian pollen analysis
• Was at U of Toronto (advisor of Glen MacDonald,
  UCLA)
• Retired to Ireland

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• A) Pollen Personalities
• 5. Glen MacDonald
• Dept of Geography, UCLA
• Was at McMaster Univ. in Ontario

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• A) Pollen Personalities
• 6. The Delcourts
• Hazel R. Delcourt Paul A. Delcourt
• Dept. of Ecology Evol Biology,U of Tennessee

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• A) Pollen Personalities
• 7. Patrick Bartlein, Dept. of Geography, U of
  Oregon (Eugene)
• climatologist data modeler

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• A) Pollen Personalities
• 8. Jock McAndrews, Dept. of Botany, U of Toronto
• Great Lakes climate reconstruction aboriginal
  impacts

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• A) Pollen Personalities
• 8. Jock McAndrews, Dept. of Botany, U of Toronto
• Great Lakes climate reconstruction aboriginal
  impacts

Crawford Lake, Ontario Iroquoian villages corn
fields
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• A) Pollen Personalities
• 9. Herb Wright Jr., Prof. Emeritis, Dept. of
  Geology Geophysics, U of Minnesota
• Ph.D . 1943 Harvard
• University, Geology
• Synthesis papers
• 1960s-1990s
• Founder of the LRC
• Livingston corer
• Geologic history

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• A) Pollen Personalities
• 10. Ronald Kapp, Alma College, MI
• Ronald O. Kapp Memorial Prairie on the west side
  of the Coolbough Natural Areas

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• A) Pollen Personalities
• 11. Eric Grimm, Illinois State Museum
• Research in Great Plains, Illinois, Florida
• Creator of Tilia Tilia.graph pollen data
  plotting software

Eric
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• A) Pollen Personalities
• 12. Lou Maher, Dept. of Geological Sci., Univ. of
  Wisconsin-Madison