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Harvard Forest Data Archive

HF188

Lake Sediment Pollen from Little Pond in Bolton MA from 3000 BP to Present

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Data

Overview

  • Lead: Wyatt Oswald, David Foster
  • Investigators:
  • Contact: Information Manager
  • Start date: -1000
  • End date: 2010
  • Status: complete
  • Location: Little Pond (Bolton MA)
  • Latitude: +42.42234 degrees
  • Longitude: -71.587738 degrees
  • Elevation: 99 meter
  • Datum: WGS84
  • Taxa: Betula spp. (birch), Castanea spp. (chestnut), Fagus spp. (beech), Picea spp. (spruce), Pinus spp. (pine), Quercus spp. (oak), Tsuga spp. (hemlock)
  • Release date: 2023
  • Language: English
  • EML file: knb-lter-hfr.188.8
  • DOI: digital object identifier
  • EDI: data package
  • DataONE: data package
  • Related links:
  • Study type: paleological
  • Research topic: historical and retrospective studies
  • LTER core area: disturbance patterns, population studies
  • Keywords: climate, lakes, paleoecology, pollen, sediments, vegetation dynamics
  • Abstract:

    Analyses of a sediment core from Little Pond, located in the town of Bolton, Massachusetts, provide new insights into the history of environmental and ecological changes in southern New England during the late Holocene. Declines in organic content and peaks in the abundance of Isoetes spores indicate reduced water depth at 2900-2600, 2200-1800, and 1200-800 calibrated years before present (cal yr BP), generally consistent with the timing of dry conditions in records from elsewhere in the northeastern United States. The Little Pond pollen record features little change over the last 3000 yr, indicating that the surrounding vegetation was relatively insensitive to these periods of drought. The 1200-800 cal yr BP dry interval, however, coincides with increased abundance of Castanea pollen, suggesting that the expansion of Castanea in southern New England may have been influenced by late-Holocene climatic variability.

  • Methods:

    For detailed methods, please see: Oswald, W. W., Foster, D. R. 2011. A record of late-Holocene environmental change from southern New England, USA. Quaternary Research 76: 314-318.

  • Organization: Harvard Forest. 324 North Main Street, Petersham, MA 01366, USA. Phone (978) 724-3302. Fax (978) 724-3595.

  • Project: 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. (ROR).

  • Funding: National Science Foundation LTER grants: DEB-8811764, DEB-9411975, DEB-0080592, DEB-0620443, DEB-1237491, DEB-1832210.

  • Use: 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.

  • License: Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal (CC0-1.0)

  • Citation: Oswald W, Foster D. 2023. Lake Sediment Pollen from Little Pond in Bolton MA from 3000 BP to Present. Harvard Forest Data Archive: HF188 (v.8). Environmental Data Initiative: https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/fd58ed97057fbb50531f6921295fd76e.

Detailed Metadata

hf188-01: pollen

  1. cal.age.bp: calibrated age before present in years (unit: number / missing value: NA)
  2. depth: depth in sediment column (unit: centimeter / missing value: NA)
  3. taxa: name of taxa
  4. count: number of pollen grains or spores of individual taxa (unit: number / missing value: NA)

hf188-02: age

  1. depth: depth in sediment column (unit: centimeter / missing value: NA)
  2. cal.age.bp: calibrated age before present (years; present=1950 AD) (unit: number / missing value: NA)
  3. notes: notes and methods of age determination; 210Pb=lead-210 dating; 14C=radiocarbon dating; Euro settlement=determined by rise in abundance of weedy and agricultural taxa
  4. c14: un-calibrated radiocarbon years (unit: number / missing value: NA)
  5. error: analytical error for 14C dates in years (unit: number / missing value: NA)

hf188-03: LOI

  1. depth: depth in sediment column (unit: centimeter / missing value: NA)
  2. loi: estimate of organic content via percent weight loss-on-ignition (%) (unit: dimensionless / missing value: NA)
  3. cal.age.bp: calibrated age before present (years; present=1950 AD) (unit: number / missing value: NA)

hf188-04: microchar

  1. depth: depth in sediment column (unit: centimeter / missing value: NA)
  2. char.area: area of charcoal pieces greater than 10 and less than 180 microns in length (unit: squareMillimeters / missing value: NA)
  3. exotic.char: number of exotic marker grains encountered during charcoal analysis (unit: number / missing value: NA)
  4. pollen.sum: number of pollen grains and spores of upland taxa encountered during pollen analysis (unit: number / missing value: NA)
  5. exotic.pollen: number of exotic maker grains encountered during pollen analysis (unit: number / missing value: NA)
  6. exotic.added: total number of exotic marker grains added to sample (unit: numberPerCentimeterCubed / missing value: NA)
  7. sed.vol: volume of the sediment (unit: centimeterCubed / missing value: NA)