Abstract
Patterns in modern vegetation can be viewed from a paleoecological perspective as patterns on the upper surface of a box whose horizontal axes are longitude and latitude and whose vertical axis is time (Fig. 1 in Grimm, this volume). Paleoecological studies based on pollen data allow ecologists to peer beneath this surface and see how the changing location, abundance, and association of the individual taxa have produced different plant assemblages and influenced the development of the modern vegetation patterns. During the past 18,000 years, some taxa have always grown abundantly over wide areas; the histories of these taxa can be traced by the changing location of constant-abundance surfaces that stretch continuously from the top to the bottom of the box. Other taxa appear to emerge from almost nothing and expand suddenly to become abundant over wide areas. Some of these taxa may later decrease in abundance and extent only to reappear abundantly elsewhere at a later date. The three-dimensional patterns of taxon distributions represent the history of individual taxa and Illustrate how they have changed in abundance and location through time.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bartlein, P. J. (this volume). Climate variations.
Bartlein, P. J., I. C. Prentice, and T. Webb III, 1986. Climatic response surfaces based on pollen from some eastern North American taxa. Journal of Biogeography 13: 35–57.
Bartlein, P. J., I. C. Prentice, and T. Webb III (in prep.). A test of the equilibrium hypothesis.
Bartlein, P. J., T. Webb III, and E. C. Fieri, 1984. Holocene climatic change in the northern Midwest: pollen-derived estimates. Quaternary Research 22: 361–374.
Bennett, K. D., 1986. The rate of spread and population increase of forest trees during the postglacial. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London B 314: 523–531.
Bernabo, J. C, 1981. Quantitative estimates of temperature changes over the last 2700 years in Michigan based on pollen data. Quaternary Research 15:143–159.
Bernabo, J. C. and T. Webb III, 1977. Changing patterns in the Holocene pollen record from northeastern North America: a mapped summary. Quaternary Research 8: 64–96.
Birks, H. J. B., 1976. Late Wisconsin vegetational history at Wolf Creek, central Minnesota. Ecological Monographs 46: 395–428.
Birks, H. J. B., 1981a. Late Wisconsin vegetational and climatic history at Kylen Lake, northeastern Minnesota. Quaternary Research 16: 322–355.
Birks, H. J. B., 1981b. The use of pollen analysis in the reconstruction of past climates: a review. In: T. M. L. Wigley, M. J. Ingram, and G. Farmer (eds.), Climate and History, pp 111–138, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Bradshaw, R. H. W. and T. Webb III, 1985. Relationships between contemporary pollen and vegetation data from Wisconsin and Michigan, USA. Ecology 66:121–131.
Bryant, V. M., Jr., 1977. A 16,000 year pollen record of vegetational change in central Texas. Palynology 1:143–156.
Bryson, R. A., 1966. Air masses, streamline, and the boreal forest. Geographical Bulletin 8: 228–269.
Bryson, R. A. and F. K. Hare, 1974. The climates of North America. In: R. A. Bryson and F. K. Hare (eds.), Climates of North America, pp. 1–47, Elsevier Sci. Publ. Co., Amsterdam.
Bryson, R. A. and W. M. Wendland, 1967. Tentative climatic patterns for some late glacial and postglacial episodes in central North America. In: W. J. Meyer-Oakes (ed.), Life, Land and Water, pp. 271–289, University of Manitoba Press, Winnipeg.
CLIMAP Project Members, 1981. Seasonal reconstructions of the Earth’s surface at the Last Glacial Maximum. Geological Society of America Map and Chart Series 36.
Colinvaux, P. A., 1987. The changing forests: ephemeral communities, climate and refugia. Quaterly Review of Archaeology 8: 1–7.
Curtis, J. T., 1959. The Vegetation of Wisconsin. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.
Davis, M. B., 1976. Pleistocene biogeography of temperate forests. Geoscience and Man 8: 13–26.
Davis, M. B., 1978. Climatic interpretation of pollen in Quaternary sediments. In: D. Walker and J. D. Guppy (eds.), Biology and Quaternary Environments, pp. 35–51, Australian Academy of Sciences, Canberra.
Davis, M. B., 1981a. Quaternary history and the stability of forest communities. In: D. C. West, H. H. Shugart, and D. B. Botkin (eds.), Forest Succession Concepts and Application, pp. 132–153, Springer-Verlag, New York.
Davis, M. B., 1981b. Outbreaks of forest pathogens in Quaternary history. Proceedings of the 4th International Palyncological Conference, Lucknow, India 3: 216–227.
Davis, M. B., 1983a. Quaternary history of deciduous forests of eastern North America and Europe. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 70: 550–563.
Davis, M. B., 1983b. Holocene vegetational history of the eastern United States. In: H. E. Wright, Jr. (ed.), Late Quaternary Environments of the United States. Vol. 2. The Holocene, pp. 166–181, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.
Davis, M. B. and D. B. Botkin, 1985. Sensitivity of the fossil pollen record to sudden climatic change. Quaternary Research 23: 327–340.
Davis, M. B., K. D. Woods, S. L. Webb, and R. B. Futyma, 1986. Dispersal versus climate: expansion of Fagus and Tsuga into the upper Great Lakes region. Vegetatio 69: 93–103.
Davis, R. B. and T. Webb III, 1975. The contemporary distribution of pollen in Eastern North America: a comparison with the vegetation. Quaternary Research 5: 395–434.
Davis, R. B. and G. L. Jacobson, Jr., 1985. Late-Glacial and early Holocene landscapes in northern New England and adjacent areas. Quaternary Research 23: 341–368.
Delcourt, P. A., 1980. Goshen Springs: Late Quaternary vegetation record for southern Alabama. Ecology 61: 371–386.
Delcourt, H. R. and P. A. Delcourt, 1984. Late-Quaternary history of the spruce fire cosystem in the Southern Appalachian Mountain region. In: P. S. White (ed.), The Southern Appalachian Spruce-Fir Ecosystem: Its Biology and Threats, U. S. National Park Service Research Resource Management Report Ser-71: 22–35.
Delcourt, H. R. and P. A. Delcourt, 1987. Long-term Forest Dynamics of the Temperate Zone, with Particular Reference to Late-Quaternary Forest History in Eastern North America. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Delcourt, P. A. and H. R. Delcourt, 1981. Vegetation maps for eastern North America: 40,000 yr B.P. to the present. In: R. C. Romans (ed.), Geobotany II, pp. 123–165, Plenum Press, New York.
Delcourt, P. A., H. R. Delcourt, and T. Webb III, 1984. Atlas of mapped distributions of dominance and modern pollen percentages for important tree taxa of eastern North America. Contribution Series 14: pp. 1–131. American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists Foundation, Dallas, TX.
Denton, G. H. and T. J. Hughes, 1981. The Last Great Ice Sheets. J. Wiley and Sons, New York.
Dexter, F., H. T. Banks, and T. Webb III, 1987. Modeling Holocene changes in the location and abundance of beech populations in eastern North America. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 50: 273–292.
Fries, M., 1962. Pollen profiles of Late Pleistocene and recent sediments at Weber Lake, northeastern Minnesota. Ecology 43: 295–308.
Gammon, R. H., E. T. Sundquist, and P. J. Fraser, 1985. History of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere. In: J. R. Trabalka (ed.), Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and the Global Carbon Cycle, pp. 25–62, DOE/ER-0239, Department of Energy, Washington, D.C. (available N.T.I.S., Springfield, VA).
Gaudreau, D. C, 1986. Late-Quaternary vegetational history of the Northeast: paleoecological implications of topographic patterns in pollen distributions. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Yale University.
Gaudreau, D. C, 1988. Postglacial population dynamics of spruce and birch in northeastern North America. Bulletin of the Buffalo Science Museum (in press).
Gaudreau, D. C. and T. Webb III, 1985. Late-Quaternary pollen stratigraphy and isochrone maps for the northeastern United States. In: V. M. Bryant and R. G. Holloway (eds.), Pollen Records of Late-Quaternary North America Sediments, pp. 247–280, American Association Stratigraphy Palynology Foundation, Dallas, TX.
Givens, C. R. and F. M. Givens, 1987. Age and significance of fossil white spruce (Picea gianca), Tunica Hills, Louisiana-Mississippi. Quaternary Research 27: 283–296.
Gleason, H. A., 1926. The individualistic concept of the plant association. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 57: 7–26.
Grimm, E. C, 1983. Chronology and dynamics of vegetation change in the prairie-wood land region of southern Minnesota, U.S.A. New Phytologist 93: 311–350.
Grimm, E. C. (this volume) Data analysis and display.
Harrison, S. P. and S. E. Metcalfe, 1985. Variations in lake levels during the Holocene in North America: an indicator of changes in atmospheric circulation patterns. Geographie physique et Quaternaire 39:141–150.
Jackson, S. T., 1988. Vegetational history along an elevational gradient in the Adirondack Mountains (New York): a macrofossil study. New York State Museum and Science Service Bulletin (in press).
Jacobson, G. L., Jr., (this volume). Sampling Methods.
Jacobson, G. L., Jr., T. Webb III, and E. C. Grimm, 1987. Patterns and rates of vegetation change during the deglaciation of eastern North America. In: W. F. Ruddiman and H. E. Wright, Jr. (eds.), North America and Adjacent Oceans during the Last Deglaciation, The Geology of North America, v. K-3, pp. 277–288, Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado.
Kutzbach, J. E. and P. J. Guetter, 1986. The influence of changing orbital parameters and surface boundary conditions on the climate simulations for the past 18,000 years. Journal of Atmospheric Sciences 43:1726–1759.
Kutzbach, J. E. and H. E. Wright, Jr., 1985. Simulation of the climate of 18,000 yr B.P.: results for North American/North Atlantic/European sector and comparison with the geologic record. Quaternary Science Reviews 4:147–187.
Manabe, S. and A. J. Broccoli, 1985. The influence of continental ice sheets on the climate of an ice age. Journal of Geophysical Research 90: 2161–2190.
Maxwell, J. A. and M. B. Davis, 1972. Pollen evidence of Pleistocene and Holocene vegetation on the Allegheny Plateau, Maryland. Quaternary Research 2: 506–530.
McAndrews, J. H., 1966. Postglacial history of prairie, savanna, and forest in north western Minnesota. Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club 22: 1–72.
McAndrews, J. H., (this volume). Human disturbance of North American forests and grasslands: the fossil pollen record.
Mott, R. J., 1978. Populus in Late-Pleistocene pollen spectra. Canadian Journal of Botany 56:1021–1031.
Prentice, I. C, 1986. Vegetation responses to past climatic variation: mechanisms and rates. Vegetatio 67:131–141.
Prentice, I. C, (this volume). Principles of vegetation sensing by pollen analysis.
Prentice, I. C. and T. Webb III, 1986. Pollen percentages, tree abundances and the Fagerlind effect. Journal of Quaternary Science 1: 35–43.
Richard, P. J. H., 1981. Paleoclimatic significance of the late-Pleistocene and Holocene pollen record in south central Quebec. In: W. Mahaney (ed.), Quaternary Paleoclimates, pp. 335–360, Geo. Abstracts, Norwich, U.K.
Ritchie, J. C, 1976. The Late-Quaternary vegetational history of the western interior of Canada. Canadian Journal of Botany 54:1793–1818.
Ritchie, J. C, 1984. Past and present Vegetation for the Far Northwest of Canada. Univ. Toronto Press, Toronto, Ontario.
Rucker, R., 1984. The Fourth Dimension. Houghton-Mifflin Co., Boston, MA.
Saarnisto, M., (this volume). Time-scales and dating.
Smith, E. N., Jr., 1985. Paleovegetation zonation and tree-species migrations in southeastern Missouri: 17,110 yr B.P. to the present. Palynology 9: 253.
Swain, A. M., 1978. Environmental changes during the last 2000 years in north-central Wisconsin: analysis of pollen, charcoal, and seeds from varved lake sediments. Quaternary Research 10: 55–68.
Tucker, D. J., I. Y. Fung, C. D. Keeling, and R. H. Gammon, 1986. Relationship between atmospheric C02 variations and a satellite-derived vegetation index. Nature 319: 195–199.
Van Zant, K., 1979. Late-glacial and postglacial pollen and plant macrofossils from Lake West Okoboji, northwestern Iowa. Quaternary Research 12: 358–380.
Van Zant, K. L., T. Webb III, G. M. Peterson, and R. G. Baker, 1979. Increased Cannabis/ Humulus pollen, an indicator of European agriculture in Iowa. Palynology 3: 229–233.
Watts, W. A., 1973. Rates of change and stability in vegetation in the perspective of long periods of time. In: H. J. B. Birks and R. G. West (eds.), Quaternary Plant Ecology, pp. 195–206, Blackwell Scientific Publ, Oxford.
Watts, W. A., 1979. Late Quaternary vegetation of central Appalachia and the New Jersey coastal plain. Ecological Monographs 49: 427–469.
Watts, W. A., 1983. Vegetational history of the eastern United States 25,000 to 10,000 years ago. In: S. C. Porter (ed.), Late-Quaternary Environments of the United States. Vol. 1. The Late Pleistocene, pp. 294–310, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.
Watts, W. A. and R. C. Bright, 1968. Pollen, seed, and mollusk analysis of a sediment core from Pickerel Lake, northeastern South Dakota. Geological Society of America Bulletin 79:855–876.
Watts, W. A. and M. Stuiver, 1980. Late Wisconsin climate of northern Florida and the origin of species-rich deciduous forest. Science 210: 325–327.
Webb, T. III, 1981. The past 11,000 years of vegetational change in eastern North America. Bioscience31:501–506.
Webb, T. III, 1982. Temporal resolution in Holocene pollen data. Third North American Paleontological Convention, Proceedings 2: 569–572.
Webb, T. III, 1984. Discussion of “Late-Quaternary vegetational dynamics and community stability reconsidered.” Quaternary Research 22: 262.
Webb, T. III, 1985. A Global Paleoclimatic Data Base for 6000 yr B.P. U.S. Department of Energy Report TR-018. Department of Energy, Washington, DC.
Webb, T. III, 1986. Is vegetation in equilibrium with climate? How to interpret Late-Quaternary pollen data. Vegetatio 67: 75–91.
Webb, T. III, 1987. The appearance and disappearance of major vegetational assemblages: long term vegetational dynamics in eastern North America. Vegetatio 69: 177–187.
Webb, T. III and J. C. Bernabo, 1977. The contemporary distribution and Holocene stratigraphy of pollen in eastern North America. In: W. C. Elsik (ed.), Contributions of Stratigraphic Palynology. Vol. 1. Cenozoic Palynology, pp. 130–146, American Association Stratigraphy Palynology, Contr. Ser. No. 5A, AASP Foundation, Dallas, TX.
Webb, T. III, E. J. Cushing, and H. E. Wright, Jr., 1983a. Holocene changes in the vegetation of the Midwest. In: H. E. Wright, Jr. (ed.), Late-Quaternary Environments of the United States, Vol. 2, The Holocene, pp. 142–165, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.
Webb, T. III, P. J. H. Richard, and R. J. Mott, 1983b. A mapped history of Holocene vegetation in southern Quebec. Syllogeus 49: 273–336.
Webb, T. III, P. J. Bartlein, and J. E. Kutzbach, 1987. Climatic change in eastern North America during the past 18,000 years: comparisons of pollen data with model results. In: W. F. Ruddiman and H. E. Wright, Jr. (eds.), North America and Adjacent Oceans during the Last Deglaciation, The Geology of North America v. K-3, pp. 447–462, Geological Society of America, Boulder, Co.
Webb, T. III, S. E. Howe, R. H. W. Bradshaw, and K. M. Heide, 1981. Estimating plant abundances from pollen percentages: the use of regression analysis. Review of Paleobotany and Palynology 34: 269–300.
West, R. G., 1964. Inter-relations of ecology and Quaternary paleobotany. Journal of Ecology 52 (Supplement): 47–57.
Whitehead, D. R., 1972. Development and environmental history of the Dismal Swamp. Ecological Monographs 42: 301–315.
Wiens, J. A., J. F. Addicott, T. J. Case, and J. Diamond, 1986. Overview: importance of spatial and temporal scale in ecological investigations. In: J. Diamond and T. J. Case (eds.), Community Ecology, pp. 145–153, Harper and Row, Publ, New York.
Winkler, M. G., A. M. Swain, and J. E. Kutzbach, 1986. Middle Holocene dry period in the northern Midwestern United States: lake levels and pollen stratigraphy. Quaternary Research 25: 235–250.
Wright, H. E., Jr., 1984. Sensitivity and response time of natural systems to climate change in the late-Quaternary. Quaternary Science Reviews 3:91–131.
Wright, H. E., Jr. and W. A. Watts, 1969. Glacial and vegetational history of northeastern Minnesota. Minnesota Geological Survey SP-11, Minneapolis, MN.
Wright, H. E., Jr., T. C. Winter, and H. L. Patten, 1963. Two pollen diagrams from southeastern Minnesota: problems in the late- and postglacial vegetational history. Geological Society of America Bulletin 74:1371–1396.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1988 Kluwer Academic Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Webb, T. (1988). Eastern North America. In: Huntley, B., Webb, T. (eds) Vegetation history. Handbook of vegetation science, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3081-0_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3081-0_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7884-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-3081-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive