PLANT MACROFOSSIL EVIDENCE FOR CHANGING LATE HOLOCENE ENVIRONMENTS OF CENTRAL MAINE

Previous palynological studies indicated that in Belgrade, Maine, local populations of Canadian hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) collapsed some 600 years prior to the first arrival of Europeans. This was in stark contrast to study sites located both to the east and west of the area. A 114-centimeter long peat core was originally taken from a forested site at the margin of Great Bog, on the earstern shore of Great Pond in the Belgrade Lakes (Kennebec County), Maine, in order to determine the impacts of human activity on the surrounding hemlock forest. Macrofossils from the core were analyzed so that changes in forest composition could be tracked over time. Radiocarbon dating of wood taken from the bottom of the base of the section sampled reveal that the core is about 6170 years old. Even at 35 centimeters deep, the core materials were about 3400 years old, which made it extremely difficult to pinpoint exactly when European contact in this area occurred, thus making it nearly impossible to know exactly what impact non-native humans had on the hemlocks of this area.

However, the greater age of the core made it possible to reconstruct a vegetational history of Great Bog for the past 6000 years. Analyses of the macrofossils from the peat core indicate a general transition from open grassland to coniferous forest, at least within the bog, with a significant fire event in the middle of this transition.