Changing and Perplexing Role of Fire
Item Information
- Title:
- Changing and Perplexing Role of Fire
- Description:
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Long-standing interpretations of the coastal region have suggested that fire played an important role in prehistory and was responsible for maintaining the abundance of oaks and pitch pine versus other species. However, the paleoecological records of pollen and charcoal from the Vineyard and surrounding sites provide a contrasting, more complicated picture. Fire activity, represented by charcoal deposited in the bottom of the ponds, is low on the western moraine for the past eight thousand years and shows little relationship to the abundance of pitch pine. Around Duarte Pond on the Great Plain, charcoal is two to three times greater than at other sites and generally parallels the abundance of oak. Notably, however, charcoal falls sharply and stays low during the more recent time of pitch pine abundance, when the Native American populations also increased. At all sites, charcoal rises with European settlement and the clearing of forests for agriculture.
- Name on Item:
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Brian R. Hall [Compiler]
- Date:
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February 26, 2016
- Format:
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Objects/Artifacts
- Genre:
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Book illustrations
- Location:
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Harvard University
Harvard Forest Archives - Collection (local):
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Harvard Forest Martha's Vineyard Collection
- Subjects:
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Coastal
Regional Studies
Historic and Retrospective Studies
Paleoecology
- Places:
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MassachusettsBarnstable (county)Falmouth
MassachusettsDukes (county)Martha's Vineyard (island)
MassachusettsBarnstable (county)Cape Cod (area)
- Permalink:
- https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/vh53xt16b
- Terms of Use:
-
Copyright (c) Brian R. Hall
This work is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND).
