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Harvard Forest Data Archive

HF189

Lake Sediment Pollen from Wildwood Lake in Long Island NY from 4500 BP to Present

Related Publications

Data

Overview

  • Lead: Wyatt Oswald, David Foster
  • Investigators: Elaine Doughty, Dana MacDonald
  • Contact: Information Manager
  • Start date: -2500
  • End date: 2010
  • Status: complete
  • Location: Wildwood Lake (Long Island NY)
  • Latitude: +40.892 degrees
  • Longitude: -72.6733 degrees
  • Elevation: 6 meter
  • Datum: WGS84
  • Taxa: Betula spp. (birch), Carya spp. (hickory), 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.189.7
  • 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: charcoal, fires, lakes, paleoecology, pollen, sediments, vegetation dynamics
  • Abstract:

    Analyses of pollen, charcoal, and organic content in a lake-sediment core from Wildwood Lake, Long Island, New York, provide insights into the ecological and environmental history of this region. The early-Holocene interval of the record (~9800-8800 cal. a BP) indicates the presence of Pinus rigida-Quercus ilicifolia woodlands with high fire activity. A layer of sandy sediment dating to 9200 cal. a BP may reflect a brief period of reduced water depth, consistent with widespread evidence for cold, dry conditions at that time. Two other sandy layers, bracketed by 14C dates, represent a sedimentary hiatus from ~8800 to 4500 cal. a BP. This discontinuity may reflect the removal of some sediment during brief periods of reduced water depth at 5300 and 4600 cal. a BP. In the upper portion of the record (before 4500 cal. a BP), subtle changes at ~3000 cal. a BP indicate declining prevalence of Quercus-Fagus-Carya forests and increasing abundance of Pinus rigida, perhaps due to reduced summer precipitation. Elevated percentages of herbaceous taxa in the uppermost sediments represent European agricultural activities. However, unlike charcoal records from southern New England, fire activity does not increase dramatically with European settlement. These findings indicate that present-day Pinus rigida-Quercus ilicifolia woodlands on eastern Long Island are not a legacy of recent, anthropogenic disturbances.

  • Methods:

    For detailed methods, please see: Oswald, W. W., Foster, D. R., Doughty, E., MacDonald, D. 2010. A record of Holocene environmental and ecological changes from Wildwood Lake, Long Island, New York. Journal of Quaternary Science 25: 967-974.

  • 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 Wildwood Lake in Long Island NY from 4500 BP to Present. Harvard Forest Data Archive: HF189 (v.7). Environmental Data Initiative: https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/237d51507c585c12b0ed336935d0adc9.

Detailed Metadata

hf189-01: 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)

hf189-02: 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)

hf189-03: macrochar

  1. depth: depth in sediment column (unit: centimeter / missing value: NA)
  2. pieces.cc: number of macroscopic (greater than 180 microns) per cubic centimeter (unit: numberPerCentimeterCubed / missing value: NA)

hf189-04: 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 samples (unit: centimeterCubed / missing value: NA)