Bering Land Bridge: Evidence of Spruce in Late-Wisconsin Times

Abstract

A 14-meter core from a crater lake on Saint Paul Island in the Pribilofs has been examined by pollen analysis. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the core spans more than 10,000 years and probably more than 18,000 years. A sprutce-pollen maximum about 10,000 years ago suggests that spruce advanced to the flanks of the southern coast of the Bering land bridge toward the close of the land-bridge period. The forests of Alaska and Siberia did not merge, however, and the environment of the southern coast of the land bridge remained cold.