Links:
Late Pleistocene palaeoenvironments, possible glacial refugiums, sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA), Geoarchaeology
Brooks Peninsula_an Ice Age refugium on Vancouver Island_1997
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Nunataks and Nootka_The Brooks Peninsula_Vancouver Island glacier refugia
Paper authored by Jim Pojar (February of 1981, British Columbia Forest Service).
Late Pleistocene palaeoenvironments and a possible glacial refugium on northern Vancouver Island, Canada: Evidence for the viability of early human settlement on the northwest coast of North America
In summary, based on radiocarbon dating, stratigraphy, and sedimentology, the outer coast of northern Vancouver Island near Topknot Lake was ice-free several millennia before other parts of the island (including Little Woss Lake) and earlier than most of coastal BC and Alaska. This ice-free interval occurred while glaciers widely covered other parts of the island and the adjacent mainland. Whether or not there was a local or regional glacial refugium around Topknot Lake such as that on Brooks Peninsula (Hebda et al., 1997) or on Haida Gwaii (Mathewes and Clague, 2017) remains to be confirmed.
See: 5.3. Implications for late Pleistocene human settlement on the northwest coast of North America
Conclusions excerpt:
This study demonstrates the importance of continued, widespread multi-disciplinary research on late Pleistocene palaeoenvironments in western North America. The successful use of sedaDNA in this study illustrates that new analytical methods can reveal substantial complementary information about the ecological history of the Pacific coast, especially concerning the interval relevant to early human settlement during and after the LGM.
Steppe-tundra composition and deglacial floristic turnover in interior Alaska revealed by sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA)
Diverse plant and animal DNA from Holocene and Pleistocene sedimentary records
Eske Willerslev_
University of Copenhagen 2003
Postglacial relative sea level histories of northern Vancouver Island, Canada
The Northeast Pacific Ocean and Northwest Coast of North America within the global climate system, 29,000 to 11,700 years ago
A revised sea level history for the northern Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, Canada
Identifying Sites of High Geoarchaeological Potential Using Aerial LIDAR and GIS on Quadra Island, Canada.
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LiDAR – Abbreviation for Light Detection and Ranging. Uses laser technology to map surfaces. Airborne LiDAR sends multiple beams of light towards the ground and measures how long it takes for the beams to bounce back to a sensor. The data is combined with GPS data to generate geospatial measurements that can be used to create digital elevation models, contour maps, etc.
Compiled by Jeff Schlingloff ©2025 email: [email protected]
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