Postglacial vegetational history of the eastern Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland, and Holocene climatic change along the eastern Canadian seaboard.

Abstract

Two radiocarbon-dated pollen profiles from the eastern Avalon Peninsula suggest late deglaciation (probably no earlier than 9700 BP at the coast), followed by a brief period of tundra vegetation. After 9300 BP a rich shrub tundra at lower elevations was invaded by spruce balsam fir and tree birch until at c.8400 BP the vegetation was an open woodland. The period of maximum warmth, c.5400-3200 BP, saw the closing of the forest cover, a rise in the level of the tree limit in the interior upland and an increase in precipitation. After 3200 BP decreasing temperatures resulted in a lowering of the tree limit.-from Author