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Harvard Forest Symposium Abstract 2006
- Title: Late-Holocene history of coastal ecosystems of New England and New York
- Primary Author: Wyatt Oswald (Emerson College)
- Additional Authors: David Foster (Harvard University)
- Abstract:
The coastal region of the northeastern United States is of great conservation interest because its grasslands, shrublands, and pitch pine-oak forests provide habitats for a range of rare plant and animal species. Previous studies on Cape Cod have demonstrated that land-use history, disturbance, and edaphic variability strongly influence the composition and distribution of coastal ecosystems. We evaluated the importance of those factors at the regional scale by examining paleoecological records from Cape Cod, the adjacent islands, Long Island, and mainland sites in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and southeastern Massachusetts. Our analyses of pollen data from 24 sites across the region show that substrate had a strong influence on pre-settlement forest composition. As was found previously for Cape Cod (Parshall et al. 2003, Ecology 84: 736-748), sites on outwash soils were dominated by pitch pine, whereas most sites on moraines had higher abundances of oak and hickory. Vegetation also appears to have varied in response to spatially heterogeneous disturbance regimes. For example, sites on the Elizabeth Islands and Martha’s Vineyard had relatively high abundances of beech prior to European settlement, perhaps because they were isolated from fire. Charcoal data indicate that pre-settlement fire patterns were variable, and that fire occurrence increased after settlement. Taken together, these records provide a long-term perspective on coastal ecosystems that informs management and conservation efforts.
- Research Category: Historical and Retrospective Studies
