Postglacial migration history of lodgepole pine near Yakutat, Alaska
Peteet DM. 1991. Postglacial migration history of lodgepole pine near Yakutat, Alaska. Canadian Journal of Botany. 69(4):786-796
Adjacent to/nearby WRANGELL. (Adapted from author's abstract.) Pollen stratigraphy from three peat sections near Yakutat suggests that lodgepole pine only recently arrived in southeastern Alaska. In contrast with this palynological interpretation, however, are lodgepole pine macrofossils that are present throughout one entire peat core. C-14 dating by accelerator mass spectrometry confirms the establishment of lodgepole pine in this region of Alaska about 10,000 BP. The surprising disparity between the pollen and macrofossil results has important implications for paleomigration research. These results imply that the use of assigned pollen percentages to indicate the presence of a species within a region may not be valid, particularly where a species is at the edge of its geographic range.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Peteet, Dorothy
- Units
- WRST
- Keywords
- Lodgepole Pine, macrofossils, Phytogeography, Pinus contorta, Pollen records, Vegetation, Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park And Preserve, Yakutat Foreland
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Forest/Woodland Communities