Pollen Profiles from Prince William Sound and Southeastern Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

Abstract

Two earlier papers discussed the pollen and peat stratigraphy of southeastern Alaska muskegs and its relation to postglacial phytogeography, climate, glacier variation, land-sea level fluctuation, and vulcanism (Heusser 1952, 1954). In an effort to extend these studies to the northwest along the border of the Gulf of Alaska, five peat sections were taken from muskegs in coastal southern Alaska, on southeastern Kenai Peninsula, and on eastern Prince William Sound. The localities at which muskegs have been sampled are shown by number on the accompanying sketch map (Fig. 1). One of the objectives of this paper is to trace the postglacial dispersal of the trees of the Coast Forest Formation in this district. Furthermore, since the district is at present part of an ecotone or transition between tundra and the coast forest (Cooper 1942), another objective is to show the postglacial relation of these two formations. The study region is also of interest in that it represents the northern terminus for two members of the coast forest. Western hemlock (Tsuga heteroPhvllal), which comprises almost 75 per cent of this forest in the Alexander Archipelago (Taylor 1932), 500 to 800 rniles southeastward, and Alaska yellow cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis) extend as far as western Prince Williamn Sound. Recent palynological investigations by Livingstone (1953), Hansen (1953), and the Alaska Terrain and Permafrost Section of the U. S. Geological Survey (William S. Benninghoff, personal communication) and those made earlier by Bowman (1934) and Knox (Judson 1946) are gradually unfolding the postglacial and earlier Pleistocene events in the Territory. Geologists, in addition, are making a concerted effort to map the Pleistocene glaciations and construct a chronology (Pewe, et al. 1953). It is the purpose of this paper to add to this evolving store of information and at the same time to augment our knowledge of the postglacial development of the Coast Forest Formation as we know it today. Field work connected with this study was supported by a Sigma Xi-Resa Grant-in-Aid and a grant from the Glacier Study Project of the American Geographical Society. Travel to the Territory was afforded by the Juneau Ice Field ResearclhL Project which is administered by the 'Nomenclature follows Hulten (1941-1950) ; in some cases plant names given in references cited in the text have been changed to follow Hulte'n.