Haida Gwaii (formerly Queen Charlotte Islands) is an archipelago on the outer central coast of British Columbia. Drizzle Bog on Graham Island is a Sphagnum-dominated peatland selected for a multiproxy palaeoecological analysis using pollen, spores and other microfossils to see whether climatic changes such as the ‘Mediaeval Climate Anomaly’ (MCA), ‘Little Ice Age’ (LIA) and post-LIA warming could be detected in this hypermaritime region. A 90-cm-long Wardenaar peat core was sliced into 1-cm-thick subsamples and dated using 210Pb back to ad 1892, and four accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates back to 1800 cal. yr BP. Low pollen accumulation rates between ~ad 1600 and 1875 support cool growing seasons during the LIA. At 34 cm (~1875), total pollen and spore accumulation rates increased dramatically, coinciding with the end of the LIA based on evidence from glacier recession in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia. We suggest that the increased pollen production is likely a reflection of climatic warming and increased vegetation productivity following the LIA. Direct human impact is only apparent above 12 cm depth (~1958) correlated with road building across the southwestern edge of the wetland.
AikenSGDallwitzMJConsaulLL. (2007) Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Ottawa: NRC Research Press, National Research Council of Canada. Available at: http://nature.ca/aaflora/data (accessed 2 April 2012).
2.
AinsworthEALongSP (2005) What have we learned from 15 years of free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE)? A meta-analytic review of the responses of photosynthesis, canopy properties and plant production to rising CO2. New Phytologist165: 351–371.
3.
AndersonDE (1998) A reconstruction of Holocene climatic changes from peat bogs in north-west Scotland. Boreas27: 208–224.
4.
ApplebyPGOldfieldF (1978) The calculation of lead-210 dates assuming a constant rate of supply of unsupported 210Pb to the sediment. Catena5: 1–8.
5.
ApplebyPGShotykWFankhauserA (1997) Lead-210 age dating of three peat cores in the Jura Mountains, Switzerland. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution100: 223–231.
6.
BarnekowLBragéePHammarlundD. (2008) Boreal forest dynamics in north-eastern Sweden during the last 10,000 years based on pollen analysis. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany17: 687–700.
7.
BC Parks (1992) Naikoon Park master plan background document (draft). Prepared for BC Parks, Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks, Canada, March, 82 pp.
8.
BeaubienEGFreelandHJ (2000) Spring phenology trends in Alberta: Links to ocean temperature. International Journal of Biometeorology44: 53–59.
9.
BennettKDHicksS (2005) Numerical analysis of surface and fossil pollen spectra from northern Fennoscandia. Journal of Biogeography32: 407–423.
10.
BenninghoffWS (1962) Calculation of pollen and spores density. Pollen et Spores4: 332–333.
11.
BirksHJBBirksHH (1980) Quaternary Palaeoecology. London: Edward Arnold, 289 pp.
12.
BlaauwM (2010) Methods and code for ‘classical’ age-modelling of radiocarbon sequences. Quaternary Geochronology5: 512–518.
13.
BlackfordJ (2000) Palaeoclimatic records from peat bogs. Trends in Ecology & Evolution15(5): 193–198.
14.
BradleyRS (1990) Holocene paleoclimatology of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Canadian High Arctic. Quaternary Science Reviews9: 365–384.
15.
BradleyRSHughesMKDiazHF (2003) Climate in medieval time. Science302: 404–405.
16.
Bronk RamseyC (2008) Deposition models for chronological records. Quaternary Science Reviews27: 42–60.
17.
CalderJATaylorRL (1968) Flora of the Queen Charlotte Islands: Part 1. Ottawa: Queen’s Printer and Controller of Stationary, 659 pp.
ChambersFMCharmanDJ (2004) Holocene environmental change: Contributions from the peatland archive. The Holocene14: 1–6.
20.
ChambersFMBeilmanDWYuZ (2011) Methods for determining peat humification and for quantifying peat bulk density, organic matter and carbon content for palaeostudies of climate and peatland carbon dynamics. Mires & Peat7: 1–10.
21.
ClagueJJMathewesRW (1996) Neoglaciation, glacier-dammed lakes, and vegetation change in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. Arctic Antarctic and Alpine Research28(1): 10–24.
22.
ClagueJJWohlfarthBAyotteJ. (2004) Late Holocene environmental change at treeline in the northern Coast Mountains, British Columbia, Canada. Quaternary Science Reviews23(23–24): 2413–2431.
23.
DalzellKE (1968) The Queen Charlotte Islands 1774–1966. Terrace: C.M. Adam, 340 pp.
24.
DaviNKJacobyGCWilesGC (2003) Boreal temperature variability inferred from maximum latewood density and tree-ring width data, Wrangell Mountain region, Alaska. Quaternary Research60: 252–262.
25.
DeslogesJRRyderJM (1990) Neoglacial history of the Coast Mountains near Bella Coola, British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences27: 281–290.
26.
DespratSSánchez GoñiMFLoutreM-F (2003) Revealing climatic variability of the last three millennia in northwestern Iberia using pollen influx data. Earth and Planetary Science Letters213: 63–78.
27.
DouglasMSVSmolJPBlakeWJr (1994) Marked post-18th century environmental change in high-arctic ecosystems. Science266: 416–419.
28.
EdwardsAWFCavalli-SforzaLL (1964) Reconstruction of evolutionary trees. In: HeywoodVHMcNeillJ (eds) Phenetic and Phylogenetic Classification. London: The Systematics Association, pp. 67–76.
29.
EmberlinJDetandtMGehrigR. (2002) Responses in the start of Betula (birch) pollen seasons to recent changes in spring temperatures across Europe. International Journal of Biometeorology46: 159–170.
FaegriKKalandPEKrzywinskiK (1989) Textbook of Pollen Analysis. London: Alden Press, 328 pp.
32.
FisherDAKoernerRMPatersonWSB. (1983) Effect of wind scouring on climatic records from ice-core oxygen-isotope profiles. Nature301: 205–209.
33.
FritzSC (2003) Lacustrine perspectives on Holocene climate. In: MackayABattarbeeRBirksJ. (eds) Global Change in the Holocene. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 227–241.
34.
GastonAJGolumbiaTEMartinJL. (2008) Lessons from the Islands: Introduced species and what they tell us about how ecosystems work. Proceedings from the Research Group on Introduced Species 2002 Symposium, Queen Charlotte City, Canada, 1–5 October 2002. Ottawa: Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada, 192 pp.
35.
GignacLD (2001) Bryophytes as indicators of climate change. The Bryologist104(3): 410–420.
36.
GiveletNLe RouxGCheburkinA. (2004) Suggested protocol for collecting, handling and preparing peat cores and peat samples for physical, chemical, mineralogical and isotopic analyses. Journal of Environmental Monitoring6: 481–492.
37.
GreenRNKlinkaK (1994) Land Management Handbook 28: A Field Guide for Site Identification and Interpretation for the Vancouver Forest Region. Victoria: Crown Publications, Inc., 285 pp.
38.
GrimmEC (1987) CONISS: A FORTRAN 77 program for stratigraphically constrained cluster analysis by the method of incremental sum of squares. Computers & Geosciences13: 13–35.
39.
GrimmEC (2011) TILIA v1.7. Springfield, IL: Illinois State Museum, Research and Collections Centre.
40.
GroveJM (1988) The Little Ice Age. New York: Methuen & Co, 498 pp.
41.
HebdaRJ (1979) Size, productivity, and paleoecological implications of ericaceous pollen from Burns Bog, southern Fraser River Delta, British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Botany57: 1712–1717.
42.
HebdaRJ (1997) Late Quaternary paleoecology of Brooks Peninsula. In: HebdaRJHaggartyJC (eds) Brooks Peninsula: An Ice Age Refugium on Vancouver Island (Occasional Paper No. 5). Victoria: BC Parks, pp. 9.1–9.48.
43.
HerweijerCSeagerRCookER. (2007) North American droughts of the last millennium from a gridded network of tree-ring data. Journal of Climate20: 1353–1376.
44.
HicksSGoslarTvan der BorgK (2004) A near annual record of recent tree-line dynamics from northern Finland. Acta Palaeobotanica44(2): 299–316.
45.
HuuskoAHicksS (2009) Conifer pollen abundance provides a proxy for summer temperature: Evidence from the latitudinal forest limit in Finland. Journal of Quaternary Science24(5): 522–528.
46.
IPCC (2007) Climate change 2007: Synthesis report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Core Writing Team, eds PachauriRKReisingerA), IPCC, Switzerland, 104 pp.
47.
JablonskiLMWangXCurtisPS (2002) Plant reproduction under elevated CO2 conditions: A meta-analysis of reports on 79 crop and wild species. New Phytologist156: 9–26.
48.
JalkanenRHicksSAaltoT. (2008) Past pollen production reconstructed from needle production in Pinus sylvestris at the northern timberline: A tool for evaluating palaeoclimate reconstructions. Silva Fennica42(4): 499–513.
49.
JonesPDNewMParkerDE. (1999) Surface air temperature and its changes over the past 150 years. Reviews of Geophysics37(2): 173–199.
50.
KappRODavisOKKingJE (2000) Pollen and Spores. College Station, TX: The American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists, 279 pp.
51.
KörnerCAsshoffRBignucoloO. (2005) Carbon flux and growth in mature deciduous forest trees exposed to elevated CO2. Science309: 1360–1362.
52.
KuoppamaaMGoslarTHicksS (2009) Pollen accumulation rates as a tool for detecting land-use changes in a sparsely settled boreal forest. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany18: 205–217.
53.
LadeauSLClarkJS (2006) Pollen production by Pinus taeda growing in elevated atmospheric CO2. Functional Ecology20: 541–547.
54.
LearyD (1982) More road building on Graham Island. In: SimpsonSL (ed.) Tales from the Queen Charlotte Islands Book 2. Masset: Senior Citizens of the Queen Charlotte Islands, pp. 55–58.
55.
McAndrewsJHBertiAANorrisG (1973) Key to the Quaternary Pollen and Spores of the Great Lakes Region. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, 64 pp.
56.
MacKenzieWHMoranJR (2004) Wetlands of British Columbia: A Guide to Identification (Land Management Handbook). Victoria: Province of British Columbia, 287 pp.
57.
MannME (2002) The value of multiple proxies. Science297: 1481–1482.
58.
MannMEJonesPD (2003) Global surface temperatures over the past two millennia. Geophysical Research Letters30(15): 15–18.
59.
MenzelA (2000) Trends in phenological phases in Europe between 1951 and 1996. International Journal of Biometeorology44: 76–81.
60.
MoorePDBellamyDJ (1974) Peatlands. London: Elek Science, 221 pp.
NowakRSEllsworthDSSmithSD (2004) Functional responses of plants to elevated atmospheric CO2 – Do photosynthetic and productivity data from FACE experiments support early predictions?New Phytologist162(2): 253–280.
63.
OgdenCGHedleyRH (1980) An Atlas of Freshwater Testate Amoebae. New York: Oxford University Press, 222 pp.
64.
PayneRJLamentowiczMvan der KnaapWO. (2012) Testate amoebae in pollen slides. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology173: 68–79.
65.
QuickfallGS (1987) Paludification and climate on the Queen Charlotte Islands during the past 8000 years. MSc Thesis, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Canada, 99 pp.
66.
R Development Core Team (2011) R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.
67.
ReimerPJBaillieMGLBardE. (2009) IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon51(4): 1111–1150.
68.
SparksTHMenzelA (2002) Observed changes in seasons: An overview. International Journal of Climatology22: 1715–1725.
69.
SundbergS (2002) Sporophyte production and spore dispersal phenology in Sphagnum: The importance of summer moisture and patch characteristics. Canadian Journal of Botany80: 543–556.
70.
WaltherG-RPostEConveyP. (2002) Ecological responses to recent climate change. Nature416: 389–395.
71.
WardenaarECP (1987) A new hand tool for cutting peat profiles. Canadian Journal of Botany65: 1772–1773.
72.
WilesGCBarclayDJCalkinPE (1999) Tree-ring-dated Little Ice Age histories of maritime glaciers from western Prince William Sound, Alaska. The Holocene2: 163–173.
73.
WilesGCD’ArrigoRDJacobyGC (1996) Temperature changes along the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest coast modeled from coastal tree rings. Canadian Journal of Forest Research26: 474–481.
74.
WilsonRWilesGD’ArrigoR. (2006) Cycles and shifts: 1,300 years of multi-decadal temperature variability in the Gulf of Alaska. Climate Dynamics28(4): 425–440.
75.
Van GeelB (1976) A Paleoecological Study of Holocene Peat Bog Sections, Based on the Analysis of Pollen, Spores and Macro- and Microscopic Remains of Fungi, Algae, Cormophytes and Animals. Amsterdam: Hugo de Vries Laboratorium Universiteit, 75 pp.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
