A window to the past: macrofossil remains from an 18,000 year-old buried surface, Seward Peninsula, Alaska

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2001Macrofossil remains and pollen from an 18,000 year old buried surface from the northern Seward Peninsula enable a reconstruction of the full-glacial environment of an upland portion of the Bering Land Bridge. The buried surface represents a dry meadow and herb-rich tundra. Prostrate shrubs were rare on the landscape, but abundant locally. A large and diverse insect fauna populated the surface, preying on the plants and each other. Small mammals and their predators lived on the surface. Large mammals, such as caribou and bison, were present as well. The productivity of the surface was maintained by a continual influx of loess, which replenished the nutrients of the soil. Study of the buried surface provides an important addition to knowledge about the vegetation mosaic of full-glacial Beringia