Parallel climate and vegetation responses to the early Holocene collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet.
Bryan Shuman, Patrick Bartlein, Nathaniel Logara, Paige Newby, Thompson Webb III (2002).
Quaternary Science Reviews 21: 1793–1805.

Abstract: Parallel changes in lake-level and pollen data show that the rapid decline of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) between 10,000 and 8000-and-nbsp;cal-and-nbsp;yr BP triggered a step-like change in North American climates: from an ice-sheet-and-insolation-dominated climate to a climate primarily controlled by insolation. Maps of the lake-level data from across eastern North America show a reorganization of climate patterns that the pollen data independently match. Raised lake-levels and expanded populations of moist-tolerant southern pines (Pinus) document that summer monsoons intensified in the southeastern United States between 9000 and 8000-and-nbsp;cal-and-nbsp;yr BP. Simultaneously, low lake-levels and an eastward expansion of the prairie illustrate an increase in mid-continental aridity. After the Hudson Bay ice dome collapsed around 8200-and-nbsp;cal-and-nbsp;yr BP, lake-levels rose in New England, as populations of mesic plant taxa, such as beech (Fagus) and hemlock (Tsuga), replaced those of dry-tolerant northern pines (Pinus). Available moisture increased there after a related century-scale period of colder-than-previous conditions around 8200-and-nbsp;cal-and-nbsp;yr BP, which is also recorded in the pollen data. The comparison between pollen and lake-level data confirms that vegetations dynamics reflect climatic patterns on the millennial-scale.