CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Blinnikov, M.S.; Jensen, B.J.L.; and Froese, D.G.
Date : 2010.
Title : Eastern Beringia during the middle Pleistocene: a phytolith perspective.
Publication : 2010 Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting. April 14-18, 2010. Washington, DC.
Issue :
Page(s) :
Abstract
Eastern Beringia, usually defined as Alaska and Yukon Territory, is a promising region holding keys to many long-standing questions concerning the Quaternary. Research currently focuses on the interpretation of long-term records of loessal deposits from the continental interior that span multiple glacial-interglacial cycles. This paper attempts to interpret some of the newly available paleosols from the region by using silica phytolith analysis. First attempted for Alaskan lake studies in the early 1980s, the method have not yet been systematically applied to depositional settings in which it should prove most useful, namely analysis of long, but well-dated, terrestrial sequences of paleosols. Our modern analog dataset of selected samples of soils from Interior Alaska and Canada collected in 2008 allows some preliminary paleovegetation interpretations of Chester Bluff and Birch Lake sites near the Yukon River, previously analyzed for tephras, pollen, and other paleoenvironmental indicators. Samples of middle to late Pleistocene phytoliths are dominated by C3 Festucoid grasses (cf. Poa, Festuca), however, other non-grass taxa are also detectable. Additional interpretations will be possible as the limited dataset will be expanded to include Russian Western Beringia and Interior Canada.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology