Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T11:56:14.636Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Holocene Insect Fossils from Two Sites at Ennadai Lake, Keewatin, Northwest Territories, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Scott A. Elias
Scott A. Elias*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Ennadai Lake, in the forest-tundra ecotonal region of Keewatin, Northwest Territories, Canada, has been the subject of several paleoecological investigations (palynology, plant macrofossils, fossil soils). This study concerns Holocene insect fossils at Ennadai, a new approach in a region shown to be sensitive to climatic change. The Ennadai I site yielded 53 taxa, representing 13 families of Coleoptera and 7 families of other insects and arachnids, including abundant ants. These fossils range in age from about 6300 to 630 yr B.P. The Ennadai II site produced fossils of 58 taxa, including 13 beetle families and 15 families of other arthropods, ranging in age from 4700 to 870 yr B.P. The insect evidence suggests the presence of trees in the Ennadai region from 6000 to 2200 yr B.P. A conifer pollen decline from 4800 to 4500 yr B.P. at Ennadai has previously been interpreted as an opening up or retreat of forest in response to climatic cooling, but the insect fossils reveal the continued presence of trees during this interval. Both insect assemblages suggest trends of forest retreat and tundra expansion between about 2200 and 1500 yr B.P., presumably due to climatic cooling, with a return of woodland by about 1000 yr B.P.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , May 1982 , pp. 371 - 390
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arnett, R.H. (1973). The Beetles of the United States. Amer. Entomol. Inst. Ann Arbor, Mich.Google Scholar
Atmospheric Environmental Service, . 1970. Temperature and Precipitation, 1941–1970; The North-Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories. Atmospheric Environment Service, Department of the Environment. Canada, Downsview, Ontario.Google Scholar
Behan, V.M. (1978). Diversity, Distribution and Feeding Habits of North American Soil Acari. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. McGill University.Google Scholar
Blatchley, W.S. (1910). An Illustrated Descriptive Catalogue of the Coleoptera or Beetles Known to Occur in Indiana. Nature Publ. Indianapolis.Google Scholar
Blatchley, W.S. Leng, C.W. (1916). Rhynchophora or Weevils of North Eastern North America. Nature Publ. Indianapolis.Google Scholar
Borror, D.J. DeLong, D.M. (1971). An Introduction to the Study of Insects. Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. New York.Google Scholar
Bright, D.E. (1976). The Insects and Arachnids of CanadaPart 2, “The Bark Beetles of Canada and Alaska” Canada Department of Agriculture Publ. No. 1576, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Brooks, A.R. (1966). Adult Elateridae of southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba (Coleoptera). Canadian Entomologist 92 Suppl. 20.Google Scholar
Brown, W.L. (1949). A few ants from the Mackenzie River delta. Entomological News 60, 99.Google Scholar
Brown, W.L. (1955). The ant Leptothorax muscorum (Nylander) in North America. Entomological News 66, 43–50.Google Scholar
Bryson, R.A. (1966). Air masses, streamlines, and the boreal forest. Geographic Bulletin 8, 228–269.Google Scholar
Bryson, R.A. Irving, W.N. Larsen, J.A. (1965). Radiocarbon and soils evidence of former forest in southern Canadian tundra. Science 147, 46–48.Google Scholar
Buchanan, L.L. (1946). Notes on American Rhyncholus with description of new species (Coleoptera, Curculionidae). Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 4, 129–237.Google Scholar
Campbell, J.M. (1978). A revision of the North American Omaliinae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae), parts 1 and 2. Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada No. 106.Google Scholar
Campbell, J.M. (1979). A revision of the genus Tachyporus Gravenhorst (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) of North and Central America. Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada No. 109.Google Scholar
Coope, G.R. (1968). An insect fauna from mid-Weichselian deposits at Brandon, Warwickshire. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B 254, 425–456.Google Scholar
Coope, G.R. (1970). Interpretations of Quaternary insect fossils. Annual Review of Entomology 15, 97–120.Google Scholar
Creighton, W.S. (1950). The ants of North America. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 104, 1–584.Google Scholar
Davis, M.B. Spear, R.W. Shane, L.C. (1980). Holocene climate of New England. Quaternary Research 14, 240–250.Google Scholar
Davis, R.B. (1980). A new parameter for paleoecological reconstruction: Head capsules of forest-tree-defoliator microlepidopterans in lake sediment Abstracts and Program, American Quaternary Association Sixth Biennial Meeting 62.Google Scholar
Elias, S.A. (1980). Paleoenvironmental Interpretations of Holocene Insect Fossil Assemblages from Three Sites in Arctic Canada. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation. University of Colorado.Google Scholar
Elliott, D.L. (1979). The Stability of the Northern Canadian Tree Limit: Current Regenerative Capacity. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of Colorado.Google Scholar
Falconer, G. Ives, J.D. Loken, O.H. Andrews, J.T. (1965). Major end moraines in eastern and central arctic Canada. Geographical Bulletin 7, 137–153.Google Scholar
Francoeur, A. (1973). Révision taxonomique des espèces néarctiques du group fusca, genre Formica (Formicidae, Hymenoptera). Mémoirs de Société Entomologique de Québec No. 3.Google Scholar
Francoeur, A. (1974). Nouvelles données et remarques sur la répartition nordiques de quelques Formicides (Hyménoptères) Néarctiques. Le Naturaliste Canadien 101, 935–936.Google Scholar
Gara, R.I. Holsten, E.H. (1975). Preliminary studies on arctic bark beetles (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) of the Noatak River drainage. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Entomologie 78, 248–254.Google Scholar
Gregg, R.E. (1963). The Ants of Colorado with Reference to Their Ecology, Taxonomy, and Geographic Distribution. Univ. of Colorado Press. Boulder.Google Scholar
Gregg, R.E. (1972). The northward distribution of ants in North America. Canadian Entomologist 104, 1073–1091.Google Scholar
Hammer, M. (1952). Investigations on the microfauna of northern Canada. Part I: Oribatidae. Acta Arctica 4, 1–108.Google Scholar
Larochelle, A. (1975). Les Carabidae du Quebec et du Labrador. Département de Biologie du Collège Bourget, Rigaud, Bulletin 1, 1–255.Google Scholar
Larsen, J.A. (1965). The vegetation of the Ennadai Lake area, NWT: Studies in subarctic and arctic bioclimatology. Ecological Monographs 35, 37–59.Google Scholar
Lee, H.A. (1959). Surficial geology of the southern district of Keewatin and the Keewatin ice divide, Northwest Territories. Geological Society of America Bulletin 51, 1–42.Google Scholar
Lindroth, C.H. (1961). The ground-beetles of Canada and Alaska, part 2. Opuscula Entomologica, Supplementum 20.Google Scholar
Lindroth, C.H. (1966). The ground-beetles of Canada and Alaska, part 4. Opuscula Entomologica, Supplementum 29.Google Scholar
Lindroth, C.H. (1968). The ground-beetles of Canada and Alaska, part 5. Opuscula Entomologica, Supplementum 33.Google Scholar
Matthews, J.V. (1979). Tertiary and Quaternary environments: Historical background for an analysis of the Canadian insect fauna Canada and Its Insect Fauna. Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada Danks, H.V. 31–86No. 108.Google Scholar
Morgan, A.V. Elias, S.A. Morgan, A. (1981). Paleoenvironmental implications of a late-glacial insect assemblage from south-east Michigan. Geological Association of Canada Annual Meeting, Calgary, Programme with Abstracts Vol. 6, 40.Google Scholar
Morgan, A.V. Elias, S.A. Morgan, A. (1982). Insect fossils from a Late-Glacial site at Longswamp, Pennsylvania Geological Society of America, North-Central MeetingsLafayetteProgram with Abstracts.Google Scholar
Morgan, A.V. Morgan, A. (1979). The fossil Coleoptera of the Two Creeks forest bed, Wisconsin. Quaternary Research 12, 226–240.Google Scholar
Morgan, A.V. Morgan, A. (1980). Faunal assemblages and distributional shifts of Coleoptera during the late Pleistocene in Canada and the northern United States. Canadian Entomologist 112, 1105–1128.Google Scholar
Nichols, H. 1967a. The postglacial history of vegetation and climate at Ennadai Lake, Keewatin, and Lynn Lake, Manitoba. Eiszeitalter und Gegenwart 18, 176–197.Google Scholar
Nichols, H. 1967b. Pollen diagrams from sub-arctic central Canada. Science 155, 1665–1668.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nichols, H. (1975). Palynological and Paleoclimatic Study of the Late Quaternary Displacement of the Boreal Forest-Tundra Ecotone in Keewatin and Mackenzie, N.W.T., Canada. University of Colorado 87Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research Occasional Paper No. 15.Google Scholar
Rudinsky, J.A. (1962). The ecology of the Scolytidae. Annual Review of Entomology 7, 327–348.Google Scholar
Scheerpeltz, O. (1929). Monographie der gattung Olophrum Er. (Col. Staphylinidae). Verhandlungen der Zoologisch-Botanischen Gesellschaft (Wien) 79, 1–245.Google Scholar
Smetana, A. (1971). Revision of the tribe Quediini of America north of Mexico (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae). Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada No. 79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sorenson, C.J. Knox, J.C. Larsen, J.A. Bryson, R.A. (1971). Paleosols and the forest border in Keewatin, N.W.T.. Quaternary Research 1, 468–473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watts, W.A. (1979). Late Quaternary vegetation of central Appalachia and the New Jersey coastal plain. Ecological Monographs 49, 427–469.Google Scholar