LATE QUATERNARY VEGETATION HISTORY OF THE EASTERN HIGHLAND RIM AND ADJACENT CUMBERLAND PLATEAU OF TENNESSEE

Vegetation change during the past 25 000 years in and near the present Mixed Mesophytic Forest Region is inferred from pollen and plant macrofossil analyses of sediment cores from two sites on the eastern Highland Rim of Middle Tennesse, USA. Beginning about 16 500 yr BP, boreal-like coniferous forest was replaced in midlatitudes (34o to 37oN) by cool--temperate coniferous-deciduous forest. In the early Holocene, between 12 500 and 8000 yr BP, cool-temperate mixed mesophytic forest prevailed between 34o and 37oN. The Mixed Mesophytic Forest Region assumed its present distribution in the mid-Holocene. -from Author