HUMAN VISIBILITY IN THE MARITIME LANDSCAPES: ANTHROPOGENIC IGNITION OF HURRICANE DEBRIS

According to our findings, tree uprooting caused by hurricane-speed winds creates in the soil a specific signature (trace fossil) that enables site-specific reconstruction of past hurricanes. Trace fossil analysis of soils in three Maritime national parks : Kejimkujik (Nova Scotia), Kouchibouguac (Eastern New Brunswick), and PEI (Eastern coast of Prince Edward Island) revealed presence of several generations of hurricane-caused tree uprooting structures in each of 90 study sites. Many paleo-hurricanes were followed by fires. Timing of the hurricane events was determined by radiocarbon dating of charcoal associated with coupled hurricane-fire events. In each of the three areas, traces of 13 to 14 coupled hurricane-fire events were recorded for the time period from 300 to 10000 years ago, with the average frequency of the events peaking in the last millennium (every 200 years).

Some of the events occurred simultaneously in all three areas, whereas the others occurred simultaneously in two of the three areas. Simultaneous events occurred in the New Brunswick and PEI lowlands approximately 5000 BC and 2300 BC, in eastern PEI and south-eastern Nova Scotia ~AD 920 and AD 1350. Finally, all three areas were affected by large-scale fires in approximately 2000 BC, AD 1100, AD 1550, and late 1700-s. Such co-occurrence probably indicates that all areas were affected by windstorms shortly prior to the fire events. In case of coupled windstorm/fire events, the radiocarbon dates would reflect the timing of windstorm even if the fire occurred several decades later. Therefore, synchronized dates reflect the synchroneity of the debris accumulation prior to the fires. However, windstorms were not always followed by fires: prolonged breaks in fires were documented in Kejimkujik and PEI NP areas (e.g., between 2000BC and BC300, and 300BC and AD500), whereas in Kouchibouguac the fire occurrence was more regular. The breaks were mainly asynchronuous for the three areas which could be attributed to the absence of camp sites/open hearths during the breaks. In contrast, the synchronuous ignition of the debris in the areas distanced for hudrends of kilometers most likely reflects the colonization/exploration of the area by newcomers.