The influence of Native Americans on late-Holocene forests of North America remains a contentious issue, as it is unclear whether vegetation transitions inferred from pollen records are a product of prehistoric human disturbance. In southern Ontario, the adoption of maize agriculture coincides with neoglacial cooling, so distinguishing the relative roles of prehistoric people and climatic change in shaping forest composition requires that pollen records be interpreted in a regional context. In this study, we objectively identify pollen records from the southern Ontario region which exhibit periods of significant pre-European anthropogenic disturbance in the context of the archeological record. This enables a comparison of pollen records shaped primarily by climatic cooling with those disturbed by prehistoric human forest clearance. Our results suggest that regional-scale late-Holocene cooling resulted in a gradual and synchronous shift from deciduous to boreal taxa. However, forest clearance by Native Americans resulted in a secondary succession characterized by the replacement of late-successional beech-maple forest with ruderal species, grasses and poplar, followed by mid-successional oak and white pine. This transition consistently coincides in space and time with an increase in archeological records of human occupation. The method we have developed here to distinguish significant prehistoric human impacts could be applied to pollen records in other regions, or on a continental scale.
Aaby B. ( 1986) Trees and anthropogenic indicators in regional pollen diagrams from eastern Denmark. In: Behr KE (ed.) Anthropogenic Indicators in Pollen Diagrams. Balkema, 73-93.
2.
Aber JD, Melillo JM ( 1991) Terrestrial Ecosystems. Saunders College Publishing.
3.
Abrams MD ( 1992) Fire and development of oak forests. Bioscience42(5): 346-353.
4.
Abrams MD ( 1998) The red maple paradox: What explains the widespread expansion of red maple in eastern forests? BioScience48(5): 355-364.
5.
Abrams MD ( 2003) Where has all the white oak gone? Bioscience53(1): 927-939.
6.
Abrams MD, Nowacki GJ ( 2008) Native Americans as active and passive promoters of mast and fruit trees in the eastern USA. The Holocene18(7): 1123-1137.
7.
Bard GE ( 1952) Secondary succession on the Piedmont of New Jersey . Ecological Monographs22: 195-215.
8.
Bazzaz FA ( 1968) Succession on abandoned fields in the Shawnee Hills, southern Illinois. Ecology49: 924-936.
9.
Behr KE ( 1986) Anthropogenic Indicators in Pollen Diagrams. Balkema.
10.
Behr KE ( 1988) The role of man in European vegetation history . In: Huntley B, Webb T (eds) Vegetation History. Kluwer Academic , 633-672.
11.
Bell M., Walker M. ( 1992) Late Quaternary Environmental Change. Longman.
12.
Bennett KD ( 1987) Holocene history of forest trees in southern Ontario . Canadian Journal of Botany65: 1792-1801.
13.
Bennett KD ( 1993) Holocene forest dynamics with respect to southern Ontario . Review of Paleobotany and Palynology79: 69-81.
14.
Birks HH, Birks HJB , Kaland PE, and Moe D (eds) (1988) The Cultural Landscape: Past, Present and Future. Cambridge University Press.
15.
Blatt SE, Crowder A., and Harmsen R. ( 2005) Secondary succession in two south-eastern Ontario old-fields . Plant Ecology177: 25-41.
16.
Boyko-Diakonow M., and Terasmae J. ( 1975) Palynology of Holocene sediments in Perch Lake, Chalk River, Ontario. In: Barry PJ (ed.) Hydrological Studies on a Small Basin on the Canadian Shield: A Final Summary of the Perch Lake Evaporation Study 1965-1975. Energy Can. Ltd. AECL-5041/I, 189-220.
17.
Braun EL ( 1950) Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America. Hafner Publishing Co.
18.
Brubaker LB ( 1975) Postglacial forest patterns associated with till and outwash in north-central Upper Michigan. Quaternary Research5: 499-527.
19.
Buchanan B., Collard M., and Edinborough K. ( 2008) Paleoindian demography and the extraterrestrial impact hypothesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences105: 11651-11654.
20.
Burden ET, McAndrews JH, and Norris G. ( 1986) Palynology of Indian and European forest clearance and farming in lake sediment cores from Awenda Provincial Park, Ontario. Canadian Journal of Earth Science23: 43-54.
21.
Butzer KW ( 1992) The Americas before and after 1492: An introduction to current geographical research. Annals of the Association of American Geographers82(3): 345-368.
22.
Campbell ID, Campbell C. ( 1994) The impact of late woodland land use on the forest landscape of Southern Ontario. The Great Lakes Geographer1(1): 21-29.
23.
Campbell ID, McAndrews JH ( 1991) Cluster analysis of late Holocene pollen trends in Ontario . Canadian Journal of Botany69: 1719-1730.
24.
Campbell ID, McAndrews JH ( 1993) Forest disequilibrium caused by rapid Little Ice Age cooling . Nature366: 336-388.
25.
Campbell ID, McAndrews JH ( 1995) Charcoal evidence for Indian-set fires; A comment on Clark and Royall. The Holocene5: 369-370.
26.
Carcaillet C., Richard PJH ( 2000) Holocene changes in seasonal precipitation highlighted by fire incidence in eastern Canada. Climate Dynamics16(7): 549-559.
27.
Carcaillet C., Richard PJH, Asnong H., Capece L., and Bergeron Y. ( 2006) Fire and soil erosion history in East Canadian boreal and temperate forests. Quaternary Science Reviews25(13-14): 1489-1500.
28.
Chapman AG ( 1937) An ecological basis for reforestation of submarginal lands in the central hardwood region. Ecology18(1): 93-105.
29.
Clark JS ( 1995) Climate and Indian effects on southern Ontario forests: A reply to Campbell and McAndrews. The Holocene5(3): 371-379.
30.
Clark JS, Royall PD ( 1995) Transformation of a northern hardwood forest by aboriginal (Iroquois) fire: Charcoal evidence from Crawford Lake, Ontario, Canada. The Holocene5: 1-9.
31.
Clark JS, Royall PD ( 1996) Local and regional sediment charcoal evidence for fire regimes in presettlement north-eastern North America. Journal of Ecology84: 365-382.
32.
Crawford GW ( 2006) Northeast plants. In: Ubelaker DH (ed.) Handbook of North American Indians: Volume 3 Environment, Origins and Population. Smithsonian Institution Press, 412-427.
33.
Crawford GW, Smith DG ( 2003) Paleoethnobotany in the Northeast. In: Minnis PE (ed.) People and Plants in Ancient Eastern North America. Smithsonian Books, 172-257.
34.
Crawford GW, Smith DG, and Bowyer VE ( 1997) Dating the entry of corn (Zea mays) into the lower Great Lakes region. American Antiquity62: 112-119.
35.
Day GM ( 1953) The Indian as an ecological factor in the Northeastern forest. Ecology34(2): 329-346.
36.
de Champlain S. ( 1906) [1604-1616]. In: Bourne EWB (ed.) The Voyages and Explorations of Samuel de Champlain . Barnes and Co.
37.
Delcourt HR ( 1987) The impact of prehistoric agriculture and land occupation on natural vegetation. Tree2(2): 39-44.
38.
Delcourt PA, Delcourt HR ( 2004) Prehistoric Native Americans and Ecological Change . Cambridge University Press.
39.
Delcourt PA, Delcourt HR, Ison CR, Sharp WE, and Gremillion KJ ( 1998) Prehistoric human use of fire, the eastern agricultural complex, and Appalachian oak-chestnut forests: Paleoecology of Cliff Palace Pond, Kentucky. American Antiquity63(2): 263-278.
40.
Denevan WM ( 1992a) The pristine myth: The landscape of the Americas in 1492 . Annals of the Association of American Geographers82(3): 369-385.
41.
Denevan WM ( 1992b) The Native Population of the Americas in 1492 . Second edition. Unversity of Wisconsin Press.
42.
Den Uyl D. ( 1951) From field to forest - a 50-year record. Journal of Forestry49: 698-702.
43.
Dobyns HF ( 1983) Their Number Become Thinned: Native American Population Dynamics in Eastern North America. University of Tennessee Press.
44.
Doolittle WE ( 2000) Cultivated Landscapes of Native North America. Oxford University Press.
45.
Dyke AS, Moore A., and Robertson L. ( 2003) Deglaciation of North America. Thirty-two Maps at 1:70000000 Scale with Accompanying Digital Chronological Database and One Poster (in Two Sheets) with Full Map Series. Geological Survey of Canada Technical Report, Open File 1574.
46.
Edwards TWD, Fritz P. ( 1986) Assessing meteoritic water composition and relative humidity from 18O and 2H in wood cellulose: Paleoclimatic implications for southern Ontario, Canada. Applied Geochemistry1: 715-723.
47.
Edwards TWD, Fritz P. ( 1988) Stable-isotope paleoclimate records for southern Ontario, Canada: comparison of results from marl and wood. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences25: 1397-1406.
48.
Environment Canada (2009) Government of Canada National Climate Archive. Available at: http://climate.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca
49.
Fagan BM ( 2000) Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a Continent . Third edition. Thames and Hudson Inc.
50.
Finkelstein SA, Davis AM ( 2006) Paleoenvironmental records of water level and climatic changes from the middle to late Holocene at a Lake Erie coastal wetland, Ontario, Canada. Quaternary Research65: 33-43.
51.
Finkelstein SA, Peros MC, and Davis AM ( 2005) Late Holocene paleoenvironmental change in a Great Lakes coastal wetland: Integrating pollen and diatom datasets. Journal of Paleolimnology33: 1-12.
52.
Fuller JL ( 1997) Holocene forest dynamics in southern Ontario, Canada: Fine-resolution pollen data. Canadian Journal of Botany75: 1714-1727.
53.
Fuller JL ( 1998) Ecological impact of the mid-Holocene hemlock decline in southern Ontario, Canada. Ecology79(7): 2337-2351.
54.
Fuller JL, Foster DR, McLachlan JS and Drake N. ( 1998) Impact of human activity on regional forest composition and dynamics in central New England. Ecosystems1: 76-95.
55.
Fulton RJ ( 1995) Surficial Materials Maps of Canada - Map 1880A. Government of Canada, Natural resources Canada, Geological Survey of Canada, Terrain Sciences Division. Available at: http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/map/1880a/index_e.php
56.
Gajewski K. ( 1987) Climatic impacts on the vegetation of eastern North America for the past 2000 years. Vegetatio68: 179-190.
57.
Gajewski K. ( 1988) Late Holocene climate changes in eastern North America estimates from pollen data. Quaternary Research29: 255-262.
58.
Gajewski K., Swain AM, and Peterson GM ( 1987) Late Holocene pollen stratigraphy in four northeastern United States lakes. Géographic physique et Quaternaire41(3): 377-386.
59.
Gajewski K., Viau AE, Sawada M., Atkinson DE, and Fines P. ( 2006) Synchronicity in climate and vegetation transitions between Europe and North America during the Holocene. Climatic Change78: 341-361.
60.
Gamble C., Davies W., Pettitt P., and Richards M. ( 2004) Climate change and evolving human diversity in Europe during the last glacial. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B359: 243-254. Gentilcore RL (1969) Crown surveys and settlement in Upper Canada. Ontario History61: 57-73.
61.
Glaz J., Naus J., and Wallenstein S. ( 2001) Scan Statistics. Springer.
62.
Grimm EC ( 2008) Neotoma: an Ecosystem Database for the Pliocene, Pleistocene and Holocene. Illinois State Museum Scientific Papers E Series 1. Available at: http://www.neotomadb.org/
63.
Grimm EC, Jacobson GL ( 2004) Late Quaternary vegetation history of the eastern United States. In: Gillespie AR, Porter SC, and Atwater BF (eds) The Quaternary Period in the United States. Elsevier, 381-402.
64.
Heidenreich CE ( 1971) Huronia. McClelland and Stewart .
65.
Hosie RC ( 1979) Native Trees of Canada. Fitzhenry and Whiteside Ltd.
66.
Huang L., Huang L., Tiwari R., Zuo J., Kulldorff M., and Feuer E. ( 2009) Weighted normal spatial scan statistic for heterogeneous population data. Journal of the American Statistical Association104(487): 886-898.
67.
Hunter M. ( 1996) Benchmarks for managing ecosystems: Are human activities natural? Conservation Biology10(3): 695-697.
68.
Jacobson GL, Bradshaw RHW ( 1981) The selection of sites for paleovegetational studies . Quaternary Research16: 80-96.
69.
Jacquez GM ( 2008) Spatial cluster analysis. In: Fotheringham S, Wilson J (eds) The Handbook of Geographic Information Science . Blackwell Publishing, 395-416.
70.
Katzenberg MA, Schwarz HP, Knyf M., and Melbye FJ ( 1995) Stable isotope evidence for maize horticulture and paleodiet in southern Ontario, Canada. American Antiquity60: 335-350.
71.
Kay CE ( 2002) Preface. In: Kay CE (ed.) Wilderness and Political Ecology. University of Utah Press, xi-xix.
72.
Krech S. ( 1999) The Ecological Indian: Myth and History. Norton.
73.
Kulldorff M. ( 1997) A spatial scan statistic. Communications in Statistics: Theory and Methods26: 1481-1496.
74.
Kulldorff M. ( 2009) SatScan User Guide v. 8.0. Available at: http://www.satscan.org/techdoc.html
75.
Kuzmin YV, Keates SG ( 2005) Dates are not just data: Paleolithic settlement patterns in Siberia derived from radiocarbon records. American Antiquity70: 773-789.
76.
Lafitau JF ( 1977) [1724] Customs of the American Indians compared with the customs of primitive times. In: Fenton WM, Moore EL (eds) The Champlain Society.
77.
Lavoie M., Richard PJH ( 2000) Postglacial water-level changes of a small lake in southern Québec, Canada. The Holocene10(5): 621-634.
78.
Liu K.-B (1990) Holocene paleoecology of the boreal forest and Great lakes - St. Lawrence forest in northern Ontario. Ecological Monographs60: 170-212.
79.
Lorimer CG ( 1977) The presettlement forest and natural disturbance cycle of northeastern Maine. Ecology58: 139-148.
80.
Mann CC ( 2005) 1491: New revelations of the Americas before Columbus . Alfred A. Knopf Inc.
81.
Marks PL ( 1983) On the origin of the field plants of the northeastern United States. The American Naturalist122(2): 210-228.
82.
Marlon JR, Bartlein PJ, Carcaillet C., Gavin DG, Harrison SP, Higuera PE et al. (2008) Climate and human influences on global biomass burning over the past two millennia. Nature Geoscience DOI: 10.1038/ngeo313.
83.
McAndrews JH ( 1973) Pollen analysis of the sediments of the Great Lakes of North America. In: Palynology: Holocene and Marine Palynology , Proceeding of the III International Palynological Conference. Moscow: Nauka, 76-80.
84.
McAndrews JH ( 1981) Late Quaternary climate of Ontario: Temperature trends from the fossil pollen record. In: Mahaney WC (ed.) Quaternary Paleoclimate. Norwich : Geobooks, 319-333.
85.
McAndrews JH ( 1988) Human disturbance of North American forests and grasslands: The fossil pollen record. In: Huntley B, Webb T, III (eds) Vegetation History. Handbook of Vegetation Science Series. Kluwer, 673-697.
86.
McAndrews JH, Boyko-Diakonow M. ( 1989) Pollen Analysis of Varved Sediment at Crawford Lake, Ontario: Evidence of Indian andEuropean Farming. Quaternary Geology of Canada and Greenland. Geological Survey of Canada, Geology of Canada1, 528-530.
87.
McAndrews JH, Turton CL ( 2007) Canada geese transported cultigen pollen grains to Crawford Lake from 14th and 15th century Iroquoian maize fields. Palynology31: 9-18.
88.
McDonald RI, Peet RK, and Urban DL ( 2002) Environmental correlates of oak decline and red maple increase in the North Carolina piedmont. Castanea67(1): 84-95.
89.
McShea WJ, Healy WM ( 2002) Oak Forest Ecosystems: Ecology and Management for Wildlife . Johns Hopkins University Press.
90.
Millspaugh SA, Whitlock C. ( 1995) A 750-year fire history based on lake sediment records in central Yellowstone National Park, USA. The Holocene5(3): 283-292.
91.
Morlan RE ( 2005) The Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database . Available at: http://www.canadianarchaeology.ca/
92.
Mott RJ, Farley-Gill LD ( 1981) Two late Quaternary pollen profiles from Gatineau Park, Quebec. Geological Survey of Canada Paper , 80-31.
93.
Nowacki GJ, Abrams MD ( 2008) The demise of fire and ‘mesophication’ of forests in the eastern United States. Bioscience58(2): 123-138.
94.
Parker AG, Goodie AS, Anderson DE, Robinson MA, and Bonsall CA ( 2002) A review of the mid-Holocene elm decline in theBritish Isles. Progress in Physical Geography26: 1-45.
95.
Pedersen DC, Peteet DM, Kurdyla D., and Guilderson T. ( 2005) Medieval warming, Little Ice Age, and European impact on the environment during the last millennium in the lower Hudson Valley, New York, USA. Quaternary Research63: 238-249.
96.
Peros MC, Munoz SE, Gajewski K., and Viau AE ( 2010) Prehistoric demography of North America inferred from radiocarbon data. Journal of Archaeological Science37(3): 656-664.
97.
Peters ME, Higuera PE ( 2007) Quantifying the source area of macroscopic charcoal with a particle dispersal model. Quaternary Research67: 304-310.
98.
Pisaric MFJ ( 2002) Long-distance transport of terrestrial plant material by convection resulting from forest fires. Journal of Paleolimnology28: 349-354.
99.
Power MJ, Marlon J., Oritz N., Bartlein PJ, Harrison S., Mayle F. et al. (2008) Changes in fire regimes since the Last Glacial Maximum: An assessment based on a global synthesis and analysis of charcoal data. Climate Dynamics DOI: 10.1007/s00382-007-0334-x.
100.
Pyne SJ ( 1982) Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildland and Rural Fire. Princeton University Press.
101.
Rick JW ( 1987) Dates as data: An examination of the Peruvian preceramic radiocarbon record. American Antiquity52: 55-73.
102.
Ritchie JC ( 1987) Postglacial Vegetation of Canada. Cambridge University Press.
103.
Rowe JS ( 1977) Forest Regions of Canada. Canadian Forestry Service.
104.
Russell EWB ( 1983) Indian-set fires in the forests of the northeastern United States. Ecology64(1): 78-88.
105.
Sagard-Théodat G. ( 1964) [1632]. In: Wrong GM (ed.) Sagard’s Long Journey to the Country of the Hurons. The Champlain Society.
106.
Scott JD ( 1983) A Silvicultural Guide to the White Pine Working Group . Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.
107.
Shuman B., Newby P., Huang Y., and Webb T. III (2004) Evidence for the close climatic control of New England vegetation history. Ecology85(5): 1297-1310.
108.
Silverman BW ( 1986) Density Estimation for Statistics and Data Analysis . Chapman and Hall.
109.
Spence MW, Pihl RH, and Murphy C. ( 1990) Cultural complexes of the Early and Middle Woodland periods . In: Ellis CJ, Ferris N (eds) The Arcaheology of Southern Ontario to A.D. 1650Occasional Paper of the London Chapter , 5: 125-170.
110.
Stuiver M., Reimer PJ ( 1993) Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C Age calibration program. Radiocarbon35(1): 215-230.
111.
Surovell TA, Finley JB, Smith GM, Brantingham PJ, and Kelly R. ( 2009) Correcting temporal frequency distributions for taphonomic bias. Journal of Archaeological Science36: 1715-1724.
112.
Swan FR ( 1970) Post-fire response of four plant communities in south-central New York State. Ecology51(5): 1074-1082.
113.
Sykes CM ( 1980) Swidden horticulture and Iroquoian settlement. Archaeology of Eastern North America8: 45-52.
114.
Szeicz JM, MacDonald GM ( 1991) Postglacial vegetation history of oak savanna in southern Ontario. Canadian Journal of Botany69: 1507-1519.
115.
Tardiff J., Brisson J., and Bergeron Y. ( 2001) Dendroclimatic analysis of Acer saccharum, Fagus grandifolia, and Tsuga canadensis from an old-growth forest, southwestern Quebec. Canadian Journal of Forest Research31: 1491-1501.
116.
Ubelaker DH ( 2006) Population size, contact to Nadir. In: Ubelaker DH (ed.) Handbook of North American Indians Volume 3: Environment, Origins and Population. Smithsonian Institution Press, 694-701.
117.
Vale TR ( 1998) The myth of the humanized landscape: An example from Yosemite National Park. Natural Areas Journal18: 231-236.
118.
Vale TR ( 2002) The pre-European landscape of the United States: pristine or humanized? In: Vale TR (ed.) Fire, Native Peoples and the Natural Landscape. Island Press, 1-39.
119.
Verano JW, Ubelaker DH ( 1992) Disease and Demography in the Americas. Smithsonian Institution Press.
120.
Wade DD, Brock BL, Brose PH, Grace JB, Hoch GA, and Patterson WA ( 2000) Fire in eastern ecosystems. In: Brown JK, Smith JK (eds) Wildland Fire in Ecosystems: Effects of Fire on Flora. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-42-2 , 53-96.
121.
Wand MP, Jones MC ( 1995) Kernel Smoothing. Chapman and Hall .
122.
Warrick G. ( 2008) A Population History of the Hurton-Petun, A.D. 500-1600 . Cambridge University Press.
123.
Weninger JM, McAndrews JH ( 1989) Late Holocene sedimentation in the lower Humber River Valley, Ontario. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences26: 1842-1849.
124.
Williams JW, Schuman BN, Webb T. III, Bartlein PJ, and Leduc PL ( 2004) Late-Quaternary vegetation dynamics in North America: Scaling from taxa to biomes. Ecological Monographs74(2): 309-334.
125.
Williamson GB ( 1975) Pattern and seral composition in an old-growth beech-maple forest. Ecology56: 727-731.
126.
Willis KG, Birks HJB ( 2006) What is natural? The need for a long-term perspective in biodiversity conservation. Science314(5803): 1251-1265.
