Late-glacial, fine-resolution pollen and sediment analyses of Little Dyke Lake sediments, Central Nova Scotia

A detailed analyses of Little Dyke Lake basal sediments revealed two environmental disturbances occurred during the late-glacial. These disturbances were correlated to the previously reported Killarney and Younger Dryas climatic oscillations of the Maritimes. Organic accumulation commenced at about 11 500 yrs BP. Macrofossil and pollen evidence indicate that a forest-tundra including abundant juniper and spruce krummholz had developed 300-600 years after deglaciation. Changes in the vegetation composition were followed by an increased inwash of coarser, siltier sediment. With climate amelioration, a spruce woodland grew during the time when paleo-Indians occupied the nearby Debert site. The deposition of clayey and organic rich sediments are associated with the spruce woodland. Plants found in the understory, especially herbs and grasses, and those most apt to grow under cooler, drier and disturbed conditions then became more important in the landscape. This shift in the vegetation cover is accompanied with the sudden replacement of dark clayey sediment by a reddish coarse silt. The termination of the Killarney cooling is reflected by an increase abundance of coarse mineral sediment. However, high Juniperus pollen percentages accompany a shrub Betula maxima when maximum erosion of sands arrives to the lake basin. Changes in the character of the sediment appear to coincide with pollen changes resulting from climatic cooling. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...