A 10,500 Year Paleoecological Record of the Interior Rainforest of Eastern British Columbia

Although there have been multiple investigations into the coast range and island ecosystems of British Columbia, the climate and forest history of the interior is less well studied. The interior of British Columbia houses one of the largest temperate rain forests in North America due to its location along the wet westernmost portion of the Rocky Mountains. In our investigation, we posit that this biome has shifted in location in accordance with changes to the climate system through the centuries. Morkill Lake, British Columbia, is located at the northern terminus of the inland wet belt zone in the Fraser River valley. The ecotone in which the lake is located represents the very edge of this unusual biome at the place where the rainforest gives way to drier and colder boreal forest. We present a pollen record from Morkill Lake which extends back 10,500 years BCE and illustrates the biological dynamism and basic climatological characteristics of this area through millennia of transition.