Pollen, vegetation, and climate relationships along the Dalton Highway, Alaska, USA: a basis for holocene paleoecological and paleoclimatic studies

Short, S K; Andrews, J T; Webber, P J

doi:10.2307/1551214

Title: Pollen, vegetation, and climate relationships along the Dalton Highway, Alaska, USA: a basis for holocene paleoecological and paleoclimatic studies

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Abstract

The Dalton Highway extends from Fairbanks, in the interior of Alaska, to Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Coastal Plain. Over this 600-km transect, July temperatures vary from 17 to 5/sup 0/C. Studies of vegetation along the Dalton Highway identified nine major zones. During the vegetation survey moss polsters were collected within the survey quadrats. Two hundred and nineteen individual moss polsters document regional variations in the modern pollen spectra along this vegetation/climate transect. Treeline is distinguished by a change from dominance by spruce and shrub (especially alder) pollen to the south to herb and shrub (especially willow) pollen dominance to the north; a shift from high modern pollen concentration values to very low values is also noted. Discriminant analysis indicated that the vegetation zones are also defined by different pollen assemblages, suggesting that former changes in vegetation during the Holocene, as recorded in peat deposits, could be interpreted from pollen diagrams. Transfer functions were developed to examine the statistical association between the modern pollen rain and several climatic parameters. The correlation between pollen taxa and mean July temperature was r = 0.84. The most important taxa in the equation are Picea, Alnus, Pinus, Sphagnum, and Betula. 59 references, 7 figures,more » 4 tables.« less

Authors:: Short, S K; Andrews, J T; Webber, P J

Publication Date:: Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1986

Research Org.:: Univ. of Colorado, Boulder

OSTI Identifier:: 6899617

Resource Type:: Journal Article

Journal Name:: Arctic Alpine Res. (Boulder, Colo.); (United States)

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 18:1

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; ALASKA; PALEOCLIMATOLOGY; CLIMATES; BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS; ENVIRONMENT; VARIATIONS; AMBIENT TEMPERATURE; BIRCHES; EXPERIMENTAL DATA; HERBS; MOSSES; POLLEN; SHRUBS; SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION; SPRUCES; DATA; DISTRIBUTION; FEDERAL REGION X; GAMETES; GERM CELLS; INFORMATION; NORTH AMERICA; NUMERICAL DATA; PALEONTOLOGY; PLANTS; TREES; USA; 510100* - Environment, Terrestrial- Basic Studies- (-1989)

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                    Short, S K, Andrews, J T, and Webber, P J. Pollen, vegetation, and climate relationships along the Dalton Highway, Alaska, USA: a basis for holocene paleoecological and paleoclimatic studies.  United States: N. p., 1986. 
        Web.  doi:10.2307/1551214.

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                    Short, S K, Andrews, J T, & Webber, P J. Pollen, vegetation, and climate relationships along the Dalton Highway, Alaska, USA: a basis for holocene paleoecological and paleoclimatic studies.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.2307/1551214

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                    Short, S K, Andrews, J T, and Webber, P J. 1986.  
        "Pollen, vegetation, and climate relationships along the Dalton Highway, Alaska, USA: a basis for holocene paleoecological and paleoclimatic studies".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.2307/1551214.

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@article{osti_6899617,

  title        = {Pollen, vegetation, and climate relationships along the Dalton Highway, Alaska, USA: a basis for holocene paleoecological and paleoclimatic studies},

  author       = {Short, S K and Andrews, J T and Webber, P J},

  abstractNote = {The Dalton Highway extends from Fairbanks, in the interior of Alaska, to Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Coastal Plain. Over this 600-km transect, July temperatures vary from 17 to 5/sup 0/C. Studies of vegetation along the Dalton Highway identified nine major zones. During the vegetation survey moss polsters were collected within the survey quadrats. Two hundred and nineteen individual moss polsters document regional variations in the modern pollen spectra along this vegetation/climate transect. Treeline is distinguished by a change from dominance by spruce and shrub (especially alder) pollen to the south to herb and shrub (especially willow) pollen dominance to the north; a shift from high modern pollen concentration values to very low values is also noted. Discriminant analysis indicated that the vegetation zones are also defined by different pollen assemblages, suggesting that former changes in vegetation during the Holocene, as recorded in peat deposits, could be interpreted from pollen diagrams. Transfer functions were developed to examine the statistical association between the modern pollen rain and several climatic parameters. The correlation between pollen taxa and mean July temperature was r = 0.84. The most important taxa in the equation are Picea, Alnus, Pinus, Sphagnum, and Betula. 59 references, 7 figures, 4 tables.},

  doi          = {10.2307/1551214},

  url          = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6899617},
  journal      = {Arctic Alpine Res. (Boulder, Colo.); (United States)},
number       = ,

  volume       = 18:1,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1986},

  month        = {Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1986}

}

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