Paleoecology of interstadial and late-glacial plant fossils

Description: This research produces information on plant occurrence and environments during ice-free periods between glacial advances and retreats and during the last deglacial cycle in eastern North America. Individual studies yield unique information that helps explain the distribution patterns of the contemporary flora (and associated animals) and what these patterns mean historically. The results are insights into management strategies that can be used to maintain rare and endangered species and information about the origin of land forms and landscapes and surficial glacial deposits and their correlation.

Principal Investigator: Norton G. Miller

Collaborators:
· Allan Ashworth (North Dakota State University)
· Jack C. Ridge (Tufts University)
· Victor E. Schmidt (State University College at Brockport)
· Ray W. Spear (State University College of Arts and Science, Geneseo)

Project Year: 1992-ongoing

Project Products (last five years):

Miller, N. G. Snapshot paleobotanical analyses of late-glacial sediments in the Connecticut River Valley, northern Vermont to central Connecticut. (Abstr.) Geol. Soc. Amer. Abstr. Prog. Northeast. Sect. 27(1): 69. 1995.

Miller, N. G. Age and paleoecology of an interstadial plant bed, Tompkins County, south-central New York. (Abstr.) Geol. Soc. Amer. Abstr. Prog. Northeast. Sect. 28(3): 82. 1996.

Ashworth, A. C., N. G. Miller, V. E. Schmidt, & J. Willenbring. The Sixmile Creek site, Ithaca, New York, and potential problems with mid-Wisconsinan regional pollen climatic interpretations. (Abstr.) Geol. Soc. Amer. Abstr. Prog. 29(7): A-37. 1997.

Maher, L. J., Jr., N. G. Miller, R. G. Baker, B. B. Curry, & D. M. Mickelson. Paleobiology of the sand beneath Valders Till at Valders, Wisconsin. Quat. Res. 49: 208-221. 1998.

Miller, N. G., & R. W. Spear. Late-Quaternary history of the alpine flora of the New Hampshire White Mountains. Géographie physique et Quaternaire. (In press.)

Miller, N. G. Pleurocladula albescens in the late-Pleistocene of Vermont, U.S.A., and on the rarity of Hepaticae in glacial sediments. Haussknechtia. (In press.)

Geographic Extent: New York State (Tompkins, Genesee, Saratoga cos.), Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Wisconsin

Category: late-glacial plant fossils, ice age, paleoecology, arctic-alpine plants, migration, extirpation