uid=HFR,o=lter,dc=ecoinformatics,dc=org all public read doi:10.6073/pasta/977387bb42eccd9de48c182312736fd1 Wyatt Oswald https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6217-1831 David Foster https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1171-3762 Bryan Shuman https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8149-8925 Elaine Doughty Researcher Edward Faison Researcher Brian Hall Researcher Barbara Hansen Researcher Matts Lindbladh https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0577-0050 Researcher Adriana Marroquin Researcher Sarah Truebe Researcher 2023 English

We analyzed a dataset composed of multiple palaeoclimate and lake-sediment pollen and charcoal records from New England to explore how postglacial changes in forest composition and spatial patterns of vegetation and fire were controlled by regional-scale climate change, a subregional environmental gradient, and landscape-scale variations in soil characteristics.

The 120,000-km2 study area includes parts of Vermont and New Hampshire in the north, where sites are 150-200 km from the Atlantic Ocean, and spans the coastline from southeastern New York to Cape Cod and the adjacent islands, including Block Island, the Elizabeth Islands, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard.

Boreal forest featuring Picea and Pinus banksiana was present across the region when conditions were cool and dry 14,000-12,000 calibrated 14C yrs before present (ybp). Pinus strobus became regionally dominant as temperatures increased between 12,000 and 10,000 ybp. The composition of forests in inland and coastal areas diverged in response to further warming after 10,000 ybp, when Quercus and Pinus rigida expanded across southern New England, while conditions remained cool enough in inland areas to maintain Pinus strobus. Fire severity was high during 10,000-8000 ybp. Increasing precipitation allowed Tsuga canadensis, Fagus grandifolia, and Betula to replace Pinus strobus in inland areas during 9000-8000 ybp, and also led to the expansion of Carya across the coastal part of the region beginning at 7000-6000 ybp. Abrupt cooling at 5500-5000 ybp caused sharp declines in Tsuga in inland areas and Quercus at some coastal sites, and the populations of those taxa remained low until they recovered around 3000 ybp in response to rising precipitation. Throughout most of the Holocene, sites underlain by sandy glacial deposits were occupied by Pinus rigida and Quercus.

Postglacial changes in the composition and spatial pattern of New England forests were controlled by long-term trends and abrupt shifts in temperature and precipitation, as well as by the environmental gradient between coastal and inland parts of the region. Substrate and soil moisture shaped landscape-scale variations in forest composition. Climate and fuels largely controlled fire severity in New England during the postglacial interval.

charcoal fires lakes paleoecology paleolimnology pollen region sediments vegetation dynamics LTER controlled vocabulary populations disturbance LTER core area Harvard Forest HFR LTER USA HFR default

This dataset is released to the public under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 (No Rights Reserved). Please keep the dataset creators informed of any plans to use the dataset. Consultation with the original investigators is strongly encouraged. Publications and data products that make use of the dataset should include proper acknowledgement.

Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal https://spdx.org/licenses/CC0-1.0.html CC0-1.0 https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/exist/apps/datasets/showData.html?id=hf403 Ware Pond (Marblehead MA). Coordinates based on WGS84 datum. -70.8825 -70.8825 +42.4825 +42.4825 4 4 meter -11218 2021 family Poaceae genus Ambrosia species spp. genus Betula species spp. birch genus Carya species spp. hickory genus Castanea species spp. chestnut genus Fagus species spp. beech genus Picea species spp. spruce genus Pinus species spp. pine genus Quercus species spp. oak genus Rumex species spp. genus Tsuga species spp. hemlock complete Information Manager Harvard Forest

324 North Main Street Petersham MA 01366 USA

(978) 724-3302 hf-im@lists.fas.harvard.edu Harvard Forest

324 North Main Street Petersham MA 01366 USA

(978) 724-3302 (978) 724-3595 https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu

We analyzed pollen and charcoal records from 30+ study sites, using multivariate cluster analysis of pollen data to visualize changes in the composition and spatial patterns of vegetation during the last 14,000 yrs. The pollen and charcoal data were compared with temperature and precipitation reconstructions.

Orbay-Cerrato, M. E., Oswald, W. W., Doughty, E. D., Foster, D. R., Hall, B. R. 2016. Historic grazing in southern New England, USA, recorded by fungal spores in lake sediments. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 26: 159-165. Oswald, W. W., Foster, D. R., Shuman, B. N., Doughty, E. D., Faison, E. K., Hall, B. R., Hansen, B. C. S., Lindbladh, M., Marroquin, A., Truebe, S. A. 2018. Subregional variability in the response of New England vegetation to postglacial climate change. Journal of Biogeography 45: 2375–2388. Oswald, W. W., Foster, D. R., Shuman, B. N., Chilton, E. S., Doucette, D. L., Duranleau, D. L. 2020. Conservation implications of limited Native American impacts in pre-contact New England. Nature Sustainability 3: 241-246.

Harvard Forest

324 North Main Street Petersham MA 01366 USA

(978) 724-3302 (978) 724-3595 https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu https://ror.org/059cpzx98 pointOfContact The Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program examines ecological dynamics in the New England region resulting from natural disturbances, environmental change, and human impacts. National Science Foundation LTER grants: DEB-8811764, DEB-9411975, DEB-0080592, DEB-0620443, DEB-1237491, DEB-1832210. hf403-01-ware-age-data.csv age data hf403-01-ware-age-data.csv 751 902b6a01d9ed82f3108b49c5eefd05e9 1 \r\n column , https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/data/p40/hf403/hf403-01-ware-age-data.csv site study site study site depth depth range of sample in sediment core (cm) depth type type of age data/material radiocarbon dated; Euro = depth and age of European settlement type lab.no 14C laboratory lab.no 14C.age radiocarbon date dimensionless 1 whole NA missing value 14C.error analytical error for radiocarbon date dimensionless 1 whole NA missing value d13C d13C value for radiocarbon sample dimensionless 0.01 real NA missing value Bchron.50 median calibrated age for radiocarbon date; determined with Bchron dimensionless 1 whole NA missing value Bchron.2.5 lower uncertainty range for calibrated age dimensionless 1 whole NA missing value Bchron.97.5 upper uncertainty range for calibrated age dimensionless 1 whole NA missing value 11 hf403-02-ware-age-model.csv age based on Bchron model hf403-02-ware-age-model.csv 28106 9dabea25b585b269734f91836b4f1b63 1 \r\n column , https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/data/p40/hf403/hf403-02-ware-age-model.csv depth depth of sample in sediment core centimeter 1 whole NA missing value Bchron.2.5 calibrated age assignment for each sample based on Bchron model dimensionless 1e-06 real NA missing value Bchron.50 calibrated age assignment for each sample based on Bchron model dimensionless 1e-05 real NA missing value Bchron.97.5 calibrated age assignment for each sample based on Bchron model dimensionless 1e-05 real NA missing value 899 hf403-03-ware-counts.csv pollen counts hf403-03-ware-counts.csv 50966 f2c84637e3d8239914d909ccc76a80dd 1 \r\n column , https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/data/p40/hf403/hf403-03-ware-counts.csv depth depth of sample in sediment core centimeter 1 whole NA missing value cal.age calibrated age assignment for each sample based on Bchron model dimensionless 1e-04 real NA missing value taxon taxon name; Upland sum = sum of pollen grains and spores of upland plant taxa, used to calculate percentage values; Exotic count = number of exotic Lycopodium spores counted; Exotic spike = number of exotic Lycopodium spores added during sample preparation taxon count number of pollen grains or spores counted for each taxon dimensionless 0.1 real NA missing value 1968 hf403-04-ware-ms-data.csv pollen percentage hf403-04-ware-ms-data.csv 7204 090fdf31dd1b1bc530672d4eb7b298fe 1 \r\n column , https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/data/p40/hf403/hf403-04-ware-ms-data.csv cal.age calibrated age assignment for each sample based on Bchron model dimensionless 0.001 real NA missing value Picea pollen percentage values; these data appeared in Oswald et al. (2018) dimensionless 1e-06 real NA missing value Tsuga pollen percentage values; these data appeared in Oswald et al. (2018) dimensionless 1e-06 real NA missing value Betula pollen percentage values; these data appeared in Oswald et al. (2018) dimensionless 1e-06 real NA missing value Quercus pollen percentage values; these data appeared in Oswald et al. (2018) dimensionless 1e-06 real NA missing value Carya pollen percentage values; these data appeared in Oswald et al. (2018) dimensionless 1e-06 real NA missing value Fagus pollen percentage values; these data appeared in Oswald et al. (2018) dimensionless 1e-06 real NA missing value Castanea pollen percentage values; these data appeared in Oswald et al. (2018) dimensionless 1e-06 real NA missing value Pinus.strobus pollen percentage values; these data appeared in Oswald et al. (2018) dimensionless 1e-06 real NA missing value Pinus.banksiana pollen percentage values; these data appeared in Oswald et al. (2018) dimensionless 1e-06 real NA missing value Pinus.rigida pollen percentage values; these data appeared in Oswald et al. (2018) dimensionless 1e-06 real NA missing value Poaceae pollen percentage values; these data appeared in Oswald et al. (2018) dimensionless 1e-06 real NA missing value Ambrosia pollen percentage values; these data appeared in Oswald et al. (2018) dimensionless 1e-06 real NA missing value Rumex pollen percentage values; these data appeared in Oswald et al. (2018) dimensionless 1e-06 real NA missing value 59 hf403-05-ware-charcoal.csv charcoal hf403-05-ware-charcoal.csv 4811 142a421cb29061277bdbe98ca47ee2d4 1 \r\n column , https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/data/p40/hf403/hf403-05-ware-charcoal.csv depth depth of sample in sediment core centimeter 1 whole NA missing value cal.age calibrated age assignment for each sample based on Bchron model dimensionless 0.001 real NA missing value charcoal.conc concentrations of macroscopic charcoal numberPerCentimeterCubed 1 whole NA missing value char charcoal accumulation rates numberPerCentimeterSquaredPerYear 0.000001 real NA missing value 175 hf403-06-ware-figure.pdf Ware Pond pollen figure hf403-06-ware-figure.pdf 52455 ae44b5090a8ce4771bdc83886a3d2b00 none pdf https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/data/p40/hf403/hf403-06-ware-figure.pdf image historical paleological numberPerCentimeterCubed numberPerCentimeterSquaredPerYear