Publisher Description

The fascinating story of how a harsh terrain that resembled modern Antarctica has been transformed gradually into the forests, grasslands, and wetlands we know today.

"One of the best scientific books published in the last ten years."—Ottowa Journal

"A valuable new synthesis of facts and ideas about climate, geography, and life during the past 20,000 years. More important, the book conveys an intimate appreciation of the rich variety of nature through time."—S. David Webb,Science

Author Biography

E. C. Pielou, a former professor of mathematical ecology and Killam Professor at Dalhousie University, has been a naturalist all her life. She is the author of many books, most recently Fresh Water, A Naturalist's Guide to the Arctic, and After the Ice Age, all published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

Part One: Preliminaries 1. The Physical Setting The Changing Climate of the Last 20,000 Years The Dating Method The Ice Sheets Ice and Sea Ice and Fresh Water Ice and Atmosphere Ice-free Land: Refugia and Nunataks 2. The Fossil Evidence Fossils Microfossils Pollen Sediment Cores and Pollen Diagrams Dating: The Radiocarbon Method Dating by Volcanic Ash Layers 3. Interpreting the Evidence Some of the Problems Interpreting Pollen Diagrams Interpreting Geographical Range Maps: Animals Interpreting Geographical Range Maps: Plants 4. The Migration of Vegetation Shifting Zones of Vegetation The Starting Conditions Conditions in the Newly Deglaciated Land The Invasion by Plants The Renewal of Vegetation Ecological Inertia Photoperiodism Part Two: The Time of Maximum Ice 5. Eighteen Thousand Years Ago: Life South of the Ice Large Mammals and Their Environments South of the Ice Sheets Human Life South of the Ice Plants South of the Ice Sheets 6. The Coasts North America as an Extension of Asia The South Coast of Beringia The Western Edge of the Ice The East Coast Plains and Islands The East Coast Refugia 7. Beringia and the Ice-free Corridor Beringia and Its Big Game Human Life in Beringia The Ice-free Corridor Refugia Near the Ice-free Corridor Part Three: The Melting of the Ice 8. The Ice Begins to Melt South of the Ice: Tundra South of the Ice: Forest Parkland and Muskeg Stagnant Ice Superglacial and Ice-walled Lakes and Their Ecology 9. The Great Proglacial Lakes Glacial Lakes Missoula and Columbia Migration from Bergingia Glacial Lakes Agassiz and McConnell The Precursors of the Great Lakes and Glacial Lake Ojibway 10. The Rising Sea The Sundering of Beringia The Atlantic Shore The Atlantic Coastlands The champlain Sea The Tyrell Sea Part Four: The Pleistocene/Holocene Transition 11. The End of an Epoch The End of the Pleistocene The Changing Forest The Prairie Grasslands Transition in the West: The Interior Transition in the West: The Coast Beringia at the Turn of the Epoch 12. The Great Wave of Extinctions Extinction Waves: When, Where, and What The Prehistoric Overkill Hypothesis The Arguments against Overkill Changing Environment Theories Extinct Birds Part Five: Our Present Epoch, The Holocene 13. The Great Warmth Some Northward Shifts of Northern Limits The Hypsithermal at Sea The Hypsithermal in the Mountains Refugia from the Drought Human Life in the Hypsithermal 14. The Neoglaciation The Spread of Muskeg Increased Rain in the Prairies The Shifting Ranges of Forest Tree Species The Neoglacial and the Northern Treeline Refugia Reestablished Respites in the Neoglaciation The Little Ice Age Epilogue Appendix 1: Names of Species: English and Latin Appendix 2: Names of Species: Latin and English Notes Index

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