Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 15 July 1983:
Vol. 221. no. 4607, pp. 261 - 263
DOI: 10.1126/science.221.4607.261
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Holocene Timberline Fluctuations in Jasper National Park, Alberta

M. S. KEARNEY 1 and B. H. LUCKMAN 2

1 Department of Geography, University of Maryland, College Park 20742
2 Department of Geography, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5C2, Canada

Pollen, fossil logs, and macrofossils from three high-elevation sites in the Maligne Range, Jasper National Park, Alberta, provide the first detailed record of timberline fluctuations in the Canadian Rockies during the last 8700 years. Timberlines were much higher than at present between 8700 to 5200 years ago but oscillated significantly in elevation, with a major episode of timberline recession punctuating two periods of high timberline between about 6700 to 5900 and about 8700 to 7000 years ago. Since 5200 years ago, regional timberlines have generally receded with perhaps brief reversals, reaching their lowest recorded positions sometime after 500 years ago.

Submitted on December 12, 1982
Revised on March 17, 1983


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Holocene treeline dynamics in the mountains of northeastern British Columbia, Canada, inferred from fossil pollen and stomata.
M. F. J. Pisaric, M. F. J. Pisaric, C. Holt, J. M. Szeicz, T. Karst, and J. P. Smol (2003)
The Holocene 13, 161-173
   Abstract »    PDF »
Evaluation of proposed early-Holocene advances of alpine glaciers in the North Cascade Range, Washington State, USA: constraints provided by palaeoenvironmental reconstructions.
M. A. Reasoner, M. A. Reasoner, P. T. Davis, and G. Osborn (2001)
The Holocene 11, 607-611
   Abstract »    PDF »
The suitability of montane ecotones as indicators of global climatic change.
J. A. Kupfer, J. A. Kupfer, and D. M. Cairns (1996)
Progress in Physical Geography 20, 253-272
   Abstract »    PDF »
Shifting Dominance Within a Montane Vegetation Community: Results of a Climate-Warming Experiment.
J. Harte and R. Shaw (1995)
Science 267, 876-880
   Abstract »    PDF »
Changes in sub-alpine tree distribution in western North America: a review of climatic and other causal factors.
R. M. Rochefort, R. M. Rochefort, R. L. Little, A. Woodward, and D. L. Peterson (1994)
The Holocene 4, 89-100
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)