Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Human disturbance of North American forests and grasslands: The fossil pollen record

  • Chapter
Vegetation history

Part of the book series: Handbook of vegetation science ((HAVS,volume 7))

Abstract

The population of North America, now about 360 million, has grown from 30 million in the 15th century immediately prior to European contact (Driver, 1969). During this population expansion, much of the natural vegetation was destroyed or modified. Mature forests were logged and replaced by early-successional species, farmland and settlements. Grasslands were destroyed by plowing or modified by cattle grazing (Curtis, 1956). Weeds, both native and exotic, flourished. Cultivated plants, both native and introduced, became increasingly important as food, fiber and timber and for their aesthetic value. Introduced pathogenic fungi also decimated native Castanea and Ulmus populations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 259.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Archibold, O. W. and M. R. Wilson, 1980. The natural vegetation of Saskatchewan prior to agricultural settlement. Canadian Journal of Botany 58: 2031–2042.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Betancourt, J. L., A. Long, D. J. Donahue, A. J. T. Ml, and T. H. Zabel, 1984. Pre-Columbian age for North American Coriospermum L. (Chenopodiaceae) confirmed by accelerator radiocarbon dating. Nature 311: 653–655.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Birks, H. H., M. C. Whiteside, D. M. Stark, and R. C. Bright, 1976. Recent paleolimnology of three lakes in northwestern Minnesota. Quaternary Research 6: 249–272.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Birks, H. J. B. and H. H. Birks, 1980. Quaternary Palaeoecology. Edward Arnold, London. 289 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blanton, R. E., S. A. Kowalewski, G. Feinman, and J. Appel, 1981. Ancient Mesoamerica. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyko-Diakonow, M., 1979. The laminated sediments of Crawford Lake, southern Ontario. In: C. Schluchter (ed.), Moraines and Varves. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp. 303–307.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradury, J. P., 1971. Paleolimnology of Lake Texcoco, Mexico. Evidence from diatoms. Limnology and Oceanography 16: 180–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bradbury, J. P. and J. C. B. Waddington, 1973. The impact of European settlement on Shagawa Lake, northeastern Minnesota, U.S.A. In: H. J. B. Birks and R. G. West (eds.), Quaternary Plant Ecology. Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 289–317.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, R. B., 1985. A summary of Late-Quaternary pollen records from Mexico west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. In: V. M. Bryant, Jr. and R. G. Holloway (eds.), Pollen Records of Late Quaternary North American Sediments. American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists, Dallas, pp. 71–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brugam, R. B., 1978. Pollen indiators of land-use change in southern Connecticut. Quaternary Research 9: 349–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brugam, R. B. and B. J. Speziale, 1983. Human disturbance and paleolimnological record of change in the zooplankton community of Lake Harriet, Minnesota. Ecology 64: 578–591.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brush, G. S., E. A. Martin, R. S. de Fries, and C. A. Rice, 1982. Comparisons of 210Pb and pollen methods for determining rates of estuarine sediment accumulation. Quaternary Research 18: 196–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burden, E. T., J. H. McAndrews, and G. Norris, 1985. Palynology of Indian and European forest clearance and farming in lake sediment cores from Awenda Provincial Park, Ontario. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 23: 43–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Byrne, A. R. and J. H. McAndrews, 1975. Pre-Columbian purslane {Portulaca oleracea L.) in the New World. Nature 253: 726–727.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J. S. and W. A. Patterson III, 1984. Pollen, Pb-210, and opaque spherules: an integrated approach to dating in an intertidal environment. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 54: 1249–1263.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J. S., J. T. Overpeck, T. Webb III, and W. A. Patterson III, 1986. Pollen stratigraphic correlation and dating of barrier-beach peat sections. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 47: 145–168.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clisby, K. H. and P. B. Sears, 1955. Palynology in southern North America. Part 3. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 66: 511–520.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Curtis, J. T., 1956. The modification of mid-latitude grasslands and forests by man. In: W.L. Thomas, Jr. (ed.), Man’s Role in Changing the Face of the Earth. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 721–736.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, M. B., 1973. Pollen evidence for changing land use around the shores of Lake Washington. Northwest Science 47: 133–148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, M. B., 1985. History of the vegetation on the Mirror Lake watershed. In: G. Likens (ed.). An Ecosystem Approach to Aquatic Ecology: Mirror Lake and its Environment. Springer Verlag, New York, pp. 53–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, O. K., D. A. Kolva, and P. J. Mehringer, Jr., 1977. Pollen analysis of Wildcat Lake, Whitman County, Washington: the last 1000 years. Northwest Science 51: 13–30.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dean, J. S., R. C. Euler, G. J. Gumerman, F. Plog, R. H. Hevly, and T. N. V. Karlstrom, 1985. Human behavior, demography, and paleoenvironment on the Colorado Plateaus. American Antiquity 50: 537–554.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deevey, E. S., D. S. Rice, P. M. Rice, H. H. Vaughan, M. Brenner, and M. S. Flannery, 1979. Mayan urbanism: impact on a tropical karst environment. Science 206: 298–306.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Delcourt, H. A., 1987. The impact of prehistoric agriculture and land occupation on natural vegetation. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 2: 39–44.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Delcourt, P. A., H. R. Delcourt, P. A. Cridlebaugh, and J. Chapman, 1986. Holocene ethnobotanical and paleoecological record of human impact on vegetation in the Little Tennessee River Valley, Tennessee. Quaternary Research 25: 330–349.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dewey, L. H., 1894. The Russian thistle. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Botany Bulletin 15. Driver, H. E., 1969. Indians of North America. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 632 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Euler, R. C, G. J. Gumerman, T. N. V. Karlstrom, J. S. Dean, and R. H. Hevly, 1979. The Colorado Plateaus: cultural dynamics and paleoenvironment. Science 205: 1089–1101.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fagan, B. M. 1984. The Aztecs. Freeman, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fecteau, R. D., 1985. The introduction and diffusion of cultigens in southern Ontario. M.A. Thesis, York University, Toronto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford, R. I., 1985. Patterns of prehistoric food production in North America. In: R. I. Ford (ed.), Prehistoric Food Production in North America. Anthropological Papers, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan No. 75, pp. 341–364.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gajewski, K., M. G. Winkler, and A. M. Swain, 1985. Vegetation and fire history from three lakes with varved sediments in northwestern Wisconsin (U.S.A.). Review of Paleobotany and Palynology 44: 277–292.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffin, J. J. and E. D. Goldberg, 1981. Sphericity as a characteristic of solids from fossil fuel burning in a Lake Michigan sediment. Acta Geochimica, Cosmo-chimica 45: 763 — 769.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Grimm, E. C, 1983. Chronology and dynamics of vegetation change in the prairie-woodland region of southern Minnesota, U.S.A. New Phytologist 93: 311–350.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, B. S. C, 1986. Pollen stratigraphy of Laguna de Cocos. In: M. Pohl (ed.), Ancient Maya Wetland Cultivation on Albion Island, Northern Belize. University of Minnesota Publication in Anthropology 2 (in press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jennings, J., 1974. Prehistory of North America. 2nd edition. McGraw-Hill. New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, C. L. and R. O. Kapp, 1972. Relationship of Bay County Michigan presettlement forest patterns to Indian cultures. Michigan Academician 5: 17–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krober, A. L., 1939. Cultural and natural areas of native North America. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kutzbach, J. E. and F. A. Street-Perrot, 1985. Milankovitch forcing of fluctuations in the level of tropical lakes from 18 to OkyrB.P. Nature 317: 130–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leyden, B. W., 1984. Guatemalan forest synthesis after Pleistocene aridity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science U.S.A. 81: 4856–4859.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Maher, L. J., Jr., 1977. Palynological studies in the western arm of Lake Superior. Quaternary Research 7: 14–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, P. S. and W. Byers, 1965. Pollen and archaeology at Wetherill Mesa. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology 19: 122–135.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matthewes, R. W. and J. M. D’Auria, 1982. Historic changes in an urban watershed determined by pollen and geochemical analyses of lake sediment. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 19: 2114–2125.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McAndrews, J. H., 1968. Pollen evidence for the prehistoric development of the “Big Woods” in Minnesota, U.S.A. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 7: 201–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McAndrews, J. H., 1969. Paleobotany of a wild rice lake in Minnesota. Canadian Journal of Botany 47: 1671–1679.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McAndrews, J. H. and M. Boyko-Diakonow, 1987. Pollen analysis of varved sediment at Crawford Lake, Ontario: evidence of Indian and European farming. In: R. J. Fulton and J. A. Heginbottom (eds.), Quaternary Geology of Canada and Greenland. Geological Survey of Canada, (in press)

    Google Scholar 

  • McAndrews, J. H., A. A. Berti, and G. Norris, 1973. Key to the Quaternary pollen of the Great Lakes region. Royal Ontario Museum Miscellaneous Publications. 61 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKee, P. M., W. J. Snodgrass, D. R. Hart, J. H. McAndrews, and W. Keller, 1987. Sedimentation rates and sediment core profiles of 238U and 232Th decay chain radionuclides in a lake affected by uranium mining and milling. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 44: 390–398.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Meggars, B., 1979. Prehistoric America: An Ecological Perspective. 2nd edition. Aldine Publishing Co., New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mudie, P. J. and R. Byrne, 1980. Pollen evidence for historic sedimentation rates in California coastal marshes. Estuarine and Coastal Marine Science 10: 305–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Rourke, M. K., 1983. Pollen from adobe brick. Journal of Ethnobiology 3: 39–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Puleston, D., 1978. Terracing, raised fields and tree cropping in the Maya Lowlands: a new perspective in the geography of power. In: P. D. Harrison and B. L. Turner II (eds.), Prehistoric Maya Agriculture. University of New Mexico Press, pp. 225–245.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rostlund, E., 1957. The myth of a natural prairie belt in Alabama: an interpretation of historical records. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 47: 392–411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rue, D. J., 1987. Early agriculture and early Postclassic Maya occupation in western Honduras. Nature 326: 185–286.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strong, W. L., 1977. Pre- and Postsettlement palynology of southern Alberta. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 23: 373–387.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swain, A. M., 1983. A history of fire and vegetation in northeastern Minnesota as recorded in lake sediments. Quaternary Research 3: 383–396.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Times Atlas of the World. 1981, Comprehensive Edition. Plate 6. World Mankind: distribution and density of population. Times Books. London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsukada, M., 1966. The pollen sequence. Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 17: 63–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, B. L. II and P. D. Harrison, 1978. Implications from agriculture for Maya prehistory. In: P. D. Harrison and B. L. Turner II (eds.), Prehistoric Maya Agriculture. University of New Mexico Press, pp. 337–378.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, B. L. II and P. D. Harrison, (eds.), 1983. Pulltrowser Swamp: ancient Maya habitat, agriculture, and settlement in northern Belize. University of Texas Press. Austin. 294 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Zant, K. L., T. Webb, III, G. M. Peterson, and R. G. Baker, 1979. Increased Cannabis/ Humulus pollen, an indicator of European agriculture in Iowa. Palynology 3: 227–233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vaughan, H. H., E. S. Deevey, Jr., and S. E. Garrett-Jones, 1985. Pollen stratigraphy of two cores from the Peten Lake district, with an appendix on two deep-water cores. In: M. Pohl (ed.), Prehistoric Lowland Maya Environment and Subsistence. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 77: 73–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waddington, J. C. B., 1969. A stratigraphic record of the pollen influx to a lake in the Big Woods of Minnesota. Geological Society of America Special Paper 124: 263–282.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watts, W. A., 1980. The Late Quaternary vegetation history of southeastern United States. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 11: 387–409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watts, W. A. and J. P. Bradbury, 1982. Paleoecological studies at Lake Patzcuaro on the west-central Mexican Plateau and at Chalco in the Basin of Mexico. Quaternary Research 17: 56–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Webb, T., III, 1973. A comparison of modern and presettlement pollen from southern Michigan (U.S.A.). Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 16: 137–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whitehead, D. R. and M. C. Sheehan, 1985. Holocene vegetational changes in the Tom- bigbee River valley, eastern Mississippi. American Midland Naturalist 113: 122–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whitehead, D. R., 1965. Prehistoric maize in southeastern Virginia. Science 150: 881–883.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wiseman, F. M., 1978. Agricultural and historical ecology of the Maya lowlands. In: P. D. Harrison and B. L. Turner II (eds.), Prehistoric Maya agriculture. University of New Mexico Press, pp. 63–115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wodehouse, R. P., 1971. Hayfever Plants. 2nd edition. Hafner Publishing Co., N.Y. 280 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zoltai, S. C, 1975. Southern limit of coniferous trees on the Canadian prairies. Canadian Forestry Service Information Report NOR-X-128,12 pp.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. John H. Mcandrews
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botony, Science Laboratories, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, England

    B. Huntley

  2. Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, 02912-1846, USA

    T. Webb III

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1988 Kluwer Academic Publishers

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Mcandrews, J.H. (1988). Human disturbance of North American forests and grasslands: The fossil pollen record. In: Huntley, B., Webb, T. (eds) Vegetation history. Handbook of vegetation science, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3081-0_18

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3081-0_18

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7884-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-3081-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation