PARENT SESSION
Oral Session #10: Paleoecology. Presiding: S. Hotchkiss.
Monday, August 6, 2001. 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Hall of Ideas J.

Long-term changes in vegetation and fire on Cape Cod, Massachusetts in relation to human impact.

Parshall, Tim¹, Foster, David¹, ¹

ABSTRACT- Although most of New England was forested at the time of European settlement, over the past 350 years much of this landscape has been cleared, followed by plowing, grazing and/or reforestation. Paleoecology is the only approach available that can uncover how this unprecedented human transformation has altered vegetation and ecosystem characteristics. The present study aims to understand the landscape-scale extent of human impact within the pitch pine-oak vegetation type on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Current pressures from increasing human development and the potential importance of fire in this ecosystem call for a thorough understanding of this long-term history for management and conservation decisions. Pollen and charcoal preserved in sediments from seven lakes show that the most dramatic changes over the past two millennia have occurred within the last 3-400 years. Charcoal increased dramatically throughout most of Cape Cod at the time of European settlement, likely a result of land clearance and burning, along with a decline in oak and hardwood taxa and an increase in pine. Presettlement forest composition was largely influenced by glacial landforms with oak more common on moraines and pine more common on outwash, mirroring the pattern of fire occurrence, which was higher in pine forest on the outwash plains. Although vegetation composition is still somewhat related to landform today, variation among sites is not as great as it was before European settlement.

KEY WORDS: paleoecology, human impacts, pitch pine-oak vegetation, Cape Cod