ABOUT THIS BOOK

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prologue

PART ONE PRELIMINARIES

1 The Physical Setting

The Changing Climate of the Last 20,000 Years

The Ice Sheets

Ice and Sea

Ice and Fresh Water

Ice and Atmosphere

Ice-free Land: Refugia and Nunataks

Fossils

Microfossils

Pollen

Sediment Cores and Pollen Diagrams

Dating: The Radiocarbon Method

Dating by Volcanic Ash Layers

Some of the Problems

Interpreting Pollen Diagrams

Interpreting Geographical Range Maps: Animals

Interpreting Geographical Range Maps: Plants

Shifting Zones of Vegetation

The Starting Conditions

Conditions in the Newly Deglaciated Land

The Invasion by Plants

The Renewal of Vegetation

Ecological Inertia

Photoperiodism

PART TWO THE TIME OF MAXIMUM ICE

5 Eighteen Thousand Years Ago: Life South of the Ice

Large Mammals and Their Environments South of the Ice Sheets

Human Life South of the Ice

Plants South of the Ice Sheets

6 The Coasts

North America as an Extension of Asia

The South Coast of Beringia

The Western Edge of the Ice

The East Coast Plains and Islands

The East Coast Refugia

7 Beringia and the Ice-free Corridor

Beringia and Its Big Game

Human Life in Beringia

The Ice-free Corridor

Refugia Near the Ice-free Corridor

PART TIHREE THE MELTING OF THE ICE

8 The Ice Begins to Melt

South of the Ice: Tundra

South of the Ice: Forest Parkland and Muskeg

Stagnant Ice

Superglacial and Ice-walled Lakes and Their Ecology

9 The Great Proglacial Lakes

Glacial Lakes Missoula and Columbia

Migration from Beringia

Glacial Lakes Agassiz and McConnell

The Precursors of the Great Lakes and Glacial Lake Ojibway

10 The Rising Sea

The Sundering of Beringia

The Atlantic Shore

The Atlantic Coastlands

The Champlain Sea

The Tyrell Sea

PART FOUR THE PLEISTOCENE HOLOCENE TRANSITION

The End of the Pleistocene

The Changing Forest

The Prairie Grasslands

Transition in the West: The Interior

Transition in the West: The Coast

Beringia at the Turn of the Epoch

12 The Great Wave of Extinctions

Extinction Waves: When, Where, and What

The Prehistoric Overkill Hypothesis

The Arguments against Overkill

Changing Environment Theories

Extinct Birds

PART FIVE OUR PRESENT EPOCH, THE HOLOCENE

13 The Great Warmth

Some Northward Shifts of Northern Limits

The Hypsithermal at Sea

The Hypsithermal in the Mountains

Refugia from the Drought

Human Life in the Hypsithermal

14 The Neoglaciation

The Spread of Muskeg

Increased Rain in the Prairies

The Shifting Ranges of Forest Tree Species

The Neoglacial and the Northern Treeline

Refugia Reestablished

Respites in the Neoglaciation

The Little Ice Age

Epilogue

Appendix 1: Names of Species: English and Latin

Appendix 2: Names of Species: Latin and English

Notes

Index