Holocene history of forest trees in southern Ontario

Abstract

Three new Holocene pollen percentage and accumulation rate diagrams for southern Ontario are presented. They greatly increase the available information on the history of the area's forest trees and permit a discussion of the competitive interactions that have brought about the forest pattern seen today. In the earliest Holocene, the forests were dominated by Picea, which was replaced by first Pinus banksiana–resinosa and then Pinus strobus. In extreme southern Ontario, Pinus strobus was replaced by Acer saccharum and Fagus grandifolia, but in the area east of Georgian Bay, Tsuga canadensis became the dominant, and near Mattawa, Betula (probably lutea). Late Holocene stability of forests is considered to be a function of the lack of taxa better able to compete than those already present.