Late-Glacial and Early Holocene Vegetational History at the Kolarik Mastodon Site, Northwestern Indiana

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Abstract
Analyses of pollen and plant macrofossils from the Kolarik Mastodon Site provide important refinements of the late-glacial and early Holocene vegetational record for northwestern Indiana. The record spans the period from > 12,000 to .apprx. 9500 years B.P. Regional vegetation from > 12,000 to at least 11,000 years B.P. consisted of open, spruce-dominated forest or woodland. Both black and white spruce were present locally, along with aspen, fir and tamarack. The mastodon recovered from the site was associated with this vegetation. Vegetation of the region between 11,000 and 9500 years B.P. consisted of pine, spruce and hardwoods (oak, ash, hickory, hornbeam). Macrofossils indicate local presence of jack pine, white pine, tamarack, spruce, fir, alder and birch (probably paper birch). A radiocarbon date from a wood sample indicates that the upper boundary of the spruce-herb pollen zone in the region may be as young as 10,800 years B.P., .apprx. 1000 years younger than suggested by previous studies in northern Indiana. The age discrepancy may result from carbonate contamination of bulk lake sediments.