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LONG-TERM VEGETATIONAL CHANGE IN A NEW YORK CITY FRESHWATER WETLAND

LONG-TERM VEGETATIONAL CHANGE IN A NEW YORK CITY FRESHWATER WETLAND Argie Miller, Dorothy Peteet, David Cruz. Services of Wetlands. Carbon storage pools in the global carbon cycle Preserve water quality and water supply Protection against flooding and erosion

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LONG-TERM VEGETATIONAL CHANGE IN A NEW YORK CITY FRESHWATER WETLAND

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  1. LONG-TERM VEGETATIONAL CHANGE IN A NEW YORK CITY FRESHWATER WETLAND Argie Miller, Dorothy Peteet, David Cruz

  2. Services of Wetlands • Carbon storage pools in the • global carbon cycle • Preserve water quality • and water supply • Protection against flooding • and erosion • Essential habitat for fish • and wildlife • Archives for paleoecology

  3. Alley Pond Park (40o45’21.55”N; 73o45’38”W) Queens, NY • Three Kettle Ponds • Lilly, Decodon, and Turtle Ponds • 15,000 years old • Glacial-age remnant

  4. Kettle Pond • Ice sheet melted, dropped huge chunks of ice • Ice became buried in the outwash. • Depressions filled with water and sediment.

  5. Research Team: • I.C.C Model • Independence • Critical Thinking • Communication • Coring with Livingston • Piston corer • Stratigraphic • examination • 200 cm deep • sediment core Methods

  6. Paleoecological Changes • EXAMINED: • Preserved fossil • seed/needle remains • Charcoal particles • Sand and silt

  7. Loss on Ignition (LOI)

  8. Macrofossils

  9. Macrofossils 1 UPPER SAMPLES (Aquatics and emergent) Potamogeton Brasenia Najas Zannichellia

  10. Macrofossils 2 CYPERUS STRIGOSUS LOWER SAMPLE Viola Carex Pica (spruce) Needle CyperusStrigosus Sparganium Daphnia egg case SPARGANIUM CAREX SPP

  11. Macrofossils 3 • Charcoal Fragments • suggest a large increase • in fire near the pond above 20cm • At lower depths, a steady • low pattern of accumulation • Sand • Sand abundance was variable • highest at 160-140 cm depth.

  12. Results • Increasing organic matter in upper sediments, suggesting wetter environment, possibly wetter climate. • Questions • Why is deposition rate so low, if kettle? • why not 10 meters deep, like nearby Alpine Swamp in New Jersey or Moravian Swamp, Staten I? • How old is spruce needle at bottom? Does it represent boreal forest after ice melt, or Little Ice Age more recently? • Spruce does not occur naturally in NYC today

  13. Conclusions • Records of climate change in New York City region are sparse. • Research needed to document rates of change and human impact • Compare natural frequencies of fire to human-induced fire activity.

  14. Acknowledgements Dorothy Peteet, PhD Principal Investigator David Cruz Student

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