A Multiproxy Investigation of Late-Glacial Climate and Vegetation Change at Pine Ridge Pond, Southwest New Brunswick, Canada

Abstract

Pollen, plant macrofossil, chironomid, and lithological analyses of late-glacial sediment from Pine Ridge Pond all indicate that the warming following deglaciation was punctuated on two separate occasions by a return to colder climes; initially by a brief and moderate cold episode (the Killarney Oscillation), followed shortly by the Younger Dryas. The Killarney Oscillation, AMS ¹⁴C dated at between 11,290 and 10,960 yr B.P., is characterized by abrupt and simultaneous increases in Betula (birch) pollen and Betula glandulosa (dwarf birch) macrofossils and a decline in tree pollen. The Younger Dryas is distinguished by the reversion of a short-lived closed Picea (spruce) forest to a prolonged forest-tundra stage (ca. 10, 820 to 9500(?) yr B.P.), during which macrofossils of arctic/alpine plants such as Salix herbaces, Cassiope hypnoides, Armeria maritima, and Thalictrum alpinum make their sole late-glacial appearance. Chironomid-inferred summer surface-water temperatures indicate a cooling of approximately 8 and 12°C during the Killarney Oscillation and Younger Dryas, respectively, and coarse-sand analysis indicates increased erosion on the landscape during these same intervals.