Fire and vegetation dynamics in a jack pine and black spruce forest reconstructed using fossil pollen and charcoal

1. Fire and vegetation dynamics in a boreal Pinus banksiana and Picea mariana forest are reconstructed using a 580 year fossil pollen and charcoal record obtained from 128 contiguous samples, each representing c. 4.55 years of sediment. 2. The general post-fire vegetation changes, as indicated by cross-correlation analyses, are an increase in ground layer taxa and shrubs, followed by an increase in coniferous trees and Betula papyrifera. The size and exact timing of the peak abundance in each taxon differs after individual fires. 3. Sixteen fires are identified using pollen and charcoal records. The mean fire interval is 34 years, similar to fire cycle estimates of 38 and 39 years from dendrochronological studies. 4. On two occasions, Picea mariana appears to replace Pinus banksiana as the local dominant, each time taking less than 70 years. 5. An unusual decline in Pinus pollen between c. AD 1816 and 1861 corresponds with a similar decline in a pollen record from 50 km WSW of this site. This may have been caused by Little Ice Age cooling.