Paleoenvironmental reconstruction from Cedar Point National Wildlife Refuge and Magee Marsh, northern Ohio: A multi-proxy investigation of flood events, climate, and vegetation change

Keywords: sediment, loss-on-ignition, pollen, radiocarbon dating, stratigraphy, fire, charcoal, overwash
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 16

Abstract

Powerful cyclones are capable of causing significant flooding and erosion along the margins of the Great Lakes. Unfortunately, in the scientific literature there is a dearth of paleoenvironmental records focused on climate and hydrology from these wetlands, especially those adjacent to Lake Erie. Two protected sites in NW Ohio (Cedar Point NWR, Magee Marsh) were visited for sediment core extraction, to reconstruct paleoenvironments with an emphasis on flood deposits, climate, and vegetation change. During three field seasons (2018-2020), 17 sediment cores were extracted with a Russian peat borer or vibracorer, with the longest core totaling 103 cm. Loss-on-ignition was administered to each core at 1 cm intervals, and microfossils (e.g., pollen, fungal spores, charcoal) were processed from sediment cores at both sites. Preliminary analysis indicates that numerous cores from both sites contain a sand deposit at a depth of ~60 cm, with the deposit > 10 cm thick in some cores. These sand deposits are generally the thickest near Lake Erie, and eventually disappear with increased distance from the lake. One representative core from Magee Marsh (MM19-3, 150 meters from Lake Erie) transitions from clay (90-~58 cm) to silt/sand (~58-~28 cm) and finally to peat (top 28 cm). The sand layer thickness coupled with its elevated charcoal concentration suggests that it was deposited by an extreme flood or period of frequent flooding. Current efforts are focused toward additional analyses (e.g., XRF, grain-size) in addition to better understanding vegetation response to disturbance in these vulnerable wetlands.