Palynology of six sections of Late Quaternary sediments from the Old Crow River, Yukon Territory

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Botany
• Main Author: Lichti-Federovich, Sigrid
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1973
• Subjects: Plant Science; Arctic; Yukon; Canada; Crow River; Old Crow River; Old Crow; Tundra
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/b73-066; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/b73-066

The Old Crow Plain, northern Yukon Territory, Canada, is a large flat lowland consisting of basin-fill sediments of Late Quaternary age. The modern Arctic treeline passes across the northern tip of the lowland, and much of the vegetation consists of tundra and shrub tundra, with scattered groves of spruce mainly on alluvial deposits. Steep scarps have been exposed by the downcutting of the Old Crow River in these basin-fill sediments, and good exposures of Late Quaternary sediments are available for investigation. Samples from six of these exposures were analyzed for pollen. Although many parts of the sections were barren, it has been possible to derive pollen diagrams with discrete pollen zones for the six sections, and four pollen assemblage types have been identified. Their occurrence in the stratigraphie sequence suggests the following pattern of pollen stratigraphy: the lowermost sedimentary units, probably deposited early in the interstadial following an Early Wisconsin glaciation, are of pollen assemblage types III (Glumiflorae–herb) or IV (Betula–herb), both indicative of tundra vegetation; the middle levels of the sediment show, consistently, pollen spectra of type II (Picea–Betula–Glumiflorae–herb), indicating forest groves with tundra, quite similar to the modern vegetation. The sediment underlying the Upper Glaciolacustrine Unit (correlative, according to Hughes (1969), with the Classical Wisconsin Stadial) yields pollen assemblage type III (Glumiflorae–herb), which is interpreted as indicating a rich and varied tundra. These vegetation reconstructions are consonant with a tentative palaeoclimatic interpretation in terms of a tripartite interstadial climate showing severe tundra climate – milder forest or forest–tundra climate – severe tundra climate. Two of the sections have incomplete pollen stratigraphy for the uppermost postglacial silts and peats. They suggest that vegetation similar to the present day became established in the Old Crow Plain in mid-postglacial time.