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Late Quaternary Vegetational Changes on the East Side of Yellowstone Park, Wyoming1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jean C.B. Waddington  and
H.E. Wright Jr.
Jean C.B. Waddington
Affiliation:
Limnological Research Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 USA.
H.E. Wright Jr.
Affiliation:
Limnological Research Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 USA.
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Abstract

A bog pond 4 km east of Yellowstone Lake has a pollen record starting with an Artemisia spruce assemblage, implying alpine vegetation. A layer of volcanic ash, dated as 14,360 ± 400 BP (probably Glacier Peak or Mt. St. Helens J), occurs within the zone, which terminates at 11,630 ± 180 BP. The rest of the pollen sequence is dominated by lodgepole pine, with reappearance of spruce pollen in modest quantities about 4500 BP, according to dating provided by a layer of Mt. Mazama ash (6600 BP). The present vegetation of the area is marked by forests of lodgepole pine with some stands of spruce and fir. The pollen sequence suggests that the upper treeline before 11,600 y. a. was perhaps 500 m lower than today. The climate then became warmer and/or drier than today (Altithermal interval). About 4500 y. a., a slight climatic reversal took place, roughly contemporaneous with the regrowth of glaciers in the western mountains (neoglaciation).

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , June 1974 , pp. 175 - 184
Copyright
University of Washington

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Footnotes

1

Contribution No. 97, Limnological Research Center, University of Minnesota.

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