MULTIPLE PALEOECOLOGICAL RECORDS NEAR THE CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER DISPLAY DIFFERENCES IN HISTORIC AND PRE-HISTORIC LAND USE, VEGETATION CHANGE, AND GEOMORPHIC PROCESSES

Multiple sediment cores near the Chattahoochee River in Alabama from fluvial environments and Pleistocene terrace wetlands provide differing evidence for aboriginal agriculture, fire and post-contact sediment influx and land clearing. Multiple sediment cores were collected as part of the Apalachicola Ecosystems Project, a NSF-funded interdisciplinary project integrating archaeological, historical, and palynological data to investigate how Native American populations adapted to, and, simultaneously affected, their biophysical and social environment. The research area, in Eastern Alabama along the Chattahoochee River, includes an extensive archaeological record from Archaic through historic Creek, including the sequence of ‘towns’ of Apalachicola (occupied from 1715 through 1836) for which the current archaeological research has been conducted.

Cores were collected from wetlands on the older T2 (presumably late Pleistocene) terrace as well as on the late Holocene T1 and active T0 terraces. Sediment records obtained differ in degree of preservation, rate of sedimentation, and stratigraphy reflecting hydrologic, geomorphic and anthropogenic influences. Paleoecological records analyzed provide evidence of aboriginal cultigens, land-use intensity, fire and sediment influx over multiple temporal periods that reflect the proximity to and density of aboriginal settlement, historic land use and factors related to sediment deposition and preservation.