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Changes in Late Quaternary Vegetation and Insect Communities in Southwestern Ontario

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Donald P. Schwert ,
Thane W. Anderson ,
Anne Morgan ,
Alan V. Morgan  and
Paul F. Karrow
Donald P. Schwert
Affiliation:
Geology Department, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota 58105, USA
Thane W. Anderson
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of Canada, 601 Booth Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0E8 Canada
Anne Morgan
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
Alan V. Morgan
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
Paul F. Karrow
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
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Abstract

The Gage Street site in Kitchener, Ontario, is a peat/marl sequence representing continuous lacustrine sedimentation from the time of deglaciation (ca. 13,000 yr B.P.) through 6900 yr B.P. Insect, pollen, and plant macrofossil remains isolated from the sediments indicate that from ca. 13,000 to 12,500 yr B.P. the region was characterized by parkland-tundra vegetation existing within thermal conditions more analogous to those today of the midboreal forest. The transition from parkland to coniferous forest at ca. 12,500 yr B.P. occurred within a climate that was only gradually warming. By the time of the spruce/pine transition at 10,500 yr B.P., an insect fauna had become established that is typical of southwestern Ontario today. The replacement of this fauna at ca. 8400 yr B.P. by one characteristic of the lowlands of the east-central United States represents the beginning of Hypsithermal conditions in southern Ontario. Vegetation and insects indicate that the climate continued to gradually warm through the mid-Holocene.

Information

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , March 1985 , pp. 205 - 226
Copyright
University of Washington

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