A RECORD OF LAND-USE CHANGE AND CLIMATE FROM NORTH-WESTERN CONNECTICUT

We determine climate and vegetation change, as well as land use history in north-western Connecticut over the past 10,000 years by using a combination of palynological, sedimentological and sediment-magnetic parameters. In March 2002 we sampled 10 meters of calcareous lacustrine sediment from the deepest part (depth=10 m) of Mudge Pond in northwestern Connecticut. Preliminary radiocarbon dating shows that our sedimentary record spans most of the Holocene. Distinct changes in magnetic susceptibility, isothermal remanent magnetization (IRM), and anhysteretic remanent magnetization (ARM), characterize glacial and interglacial deposits as well as sediment deposited since the onset of European settlement. Changes in pollen percentages lag the magnetic proxies by approximately 20-30 cm, but reveal changes in forest composition from mixed hardwoods to a partially cleared landscape since the onset of European settlement. Analyses of macroscopic charcoal are used to reconstruct changes in forest fire frequency throughout the Holocene.