Richard Hebda

Royal BC Museum · Natural History

Holocene climate, vegetation, and fire history were reconstructed using pollen, molluscs, and charcoal from two lake sediment records (Scum and Norma lakes) collected from the Chilcotin Plateau, British Columbia, Canada. In the late-glacial period, cold steppe prevailed and fire was limited. Artemisia steppe expanded in the earliest Holocene as cli...

Inventories of natural assemblages of plant species are critical when planning ecological restoration of bogs. However, little is known about the regional variation in plant communities at the margins (laggs) of bogs, even though they are an integral element of raised bog ecosystems. Therefore, we investigated the regional patterns in the plant com...

Lithostratigraphic,14C, and palynologic analyses of peat and silty peat at three nearby sites reveal a 25 000 year vegetation and climate history of the Olympia Interstade for the Fraser Lowland, British Columbia, 300 km within the southern limit of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. At Lynn Valley, Polypodiaceae fern spores and nonarboreal pollen dominate...

Premise of the study: Many arctic-alpine species have vast geographic ranges, but these may encompass substantial gaps whose origins are poorly understood. Here we address the phylogeographic history of Silene acaulis, a perennial cushion plant with a circumpolar distribution except for a large gap in Siberia. Methods: We assessed genetic variat...

AimMany plants, especially at high latitudes, have both widespread and highly discontinuous geographical distributions. To increase understanding of how such patterns originate, we examine genetic patterns in the arctic–alpine plant Sibbaldia procumbens. We evaluate the contributions of refugia and the role of long-distance dispersal in shaping the...

Morphotypes of plant macrofossil assemblages of the basal unit of the Upper Cretaceous (Turonian?–Santonian) Comox Formation, Nanaimo Group, Vancouver Island, were investigated to provide insight into the character of the macroflora, environment of deposition, and paleogeography of Vancouver Island. Three floristic assemblages were documented: one...

Diatom analyses of sediments from a high elevation lake situated in an Engelmann Spruce - Subalpine Fir (ESSF) forest of south-central British Columbia, Canada, reveal long-term climate and water chemistry change. During the transition from the late-glacial / Pleistocene to the xerothermic early Holocene, small, benthic Fragilaria diatoms species t...

Aim: We investigated genetic variation in Bistorta vivipara, a widespread Northern Hemisphere tundra species, to infer patterns of migration and where it may have survived during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Location: Samples came primarily from western North America, with a few from the Arctic and Eurasia. Methods: We sequenced two chloroplast...

Paleoecological analyses and historical information were used to characterize pre‐disturbance conditions in Swan Lake wetland of suburban Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, to provide a reference for restoration and management. Highly invasive reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea) dominates Swan Lake wetlands and inhibits restoration....

The distribution of northern British Columbia alpine plants is poorly documented. To improve our understanding of the flora of this vast, remote region, we collected more than 11 000 specimens from 65 mountains during 2002–2011. Most of these locations had not been visited by botanists. Of the more than 400 species we have collected, two are new to...

The ranges of arctic-alpine species have shifted extensively with Pleistocene climate changes and glaciations. Using sequence data from the trnH-psbA and trnT-trnL chloroplast DNA spacer regions, we investigated the phylogeography of the widespread, ancient (>3 million years) arctic-alpine plant Oxyria digyna (Polygonaceae). We identified 45 haplot...

The taxonomically difficult and ecologically and phytogeographically important genus, Calamagrostis, was examined for British Columbia (BC). Morphological characters were analyzed by Principal Components Analysis (PCA) to characterize taxa and to aid in the development of a new key. Eight native species (Calamagrostis canadensis, C. lapponica, C. m...

Between 2002 and 2011, we collected vascular plants from alpine areas of northern British Columbia (B.C.). We have found one species that has not previously been collected in the province: Phippsia algida. Collections of an additional three species represent significant range extensions of species already known to occur in the province: Aphragmus e...

Radial growth of trees in mountainous areas is subject to conditions associated with changes in elevation. We present ring-width chronologies for Douglas-fir trees (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco var. menziesii) at nine sites spanning low to high elevations in the Bella Coola area of the central coast of British Columbia, near the northern li...

The vegetation and natural disturbance history of the Mount Kobau area, in the Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii Parry ex Engelm.) – subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa (Hook.) Nutt.) (ESSF) forest of southern British Columbia, was reconstructed using pollen, plant macrofossils, and microscopic charcoal. Late-glacial vegetation, occurring from about...

Pollen and charcoal from East Sooke Fen, Pixie Lake, and Whyac Lake were used to reconstruct the post glacial vegetation, climate, and fire-disturbance history across a precipitation gradient on southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. An open Pinus woodland covered the landscape in the early late-glacial interval. Fires were absent under a coo...

The sea-level history of mainland British Columbia and eastern Vancouver Island is very different from that of the Queen Charlotte Islands and western Vancouver Island. This is attributed to complex isostatic response to downwasting and retreat of the late Wisconsin Cordilleran Ice Sheet, to transfers of water from melting ice sheets to oceans, and...

In 1975 and 1976, excavations along Victoria Road in Guelph, Ontario exposed a paleosol and overlying fossiliferous sediments between tills. The site records a glacial advance and retreat with associated glaciofluvial outwash (early Wisconsinan or older), a long period of weathering, deposition of organic pond sediments (dated as >45 000 years) con...

The Fraser River delta, which is about 1000 km2 in area above low tide level, has been built into the Strait of Georgia in southwestern British Columbia during the Holocene. Present-day sedimentary environments, including foreslope, tidal flat, river channel, floodplain, and bog, also existed earlier during the delta's development. Borehole data re...

Seven samples of peat or wood were collected from four small sedimentary basins on Anthony Island. Elevations of these sites range between 31.1 and 2.5 m above mean sea level. Radiocarbon dates from these indicate that sea level has not exceeded 31.1 m since 12 300 years ago. Furthermore, sea level has been less than 12.7 m above mean sea level sin...

Analyses of surface samples of 84 sites from southern Vancouver Island were used to characterize pollen and spore spectra of modern vegetation types. Xeric Quercus garryana Dougl. and grassland associations can be identified by Quercus pollen and abundant nonarboreal pollen, respectively. Coastal Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii (M...

Morphology and geographic variation of pollen grains of three genera of the Rosaceae (Dryas, Fragaria, Holodiscus) of western Canada were studied using the light microscope and scanning electron microscope. Dryas spp. pollen is tricolporate with a weakly developed fusiform aperture in the colpus, which upon expansion of the grain becomes a large re...

Pollen grains of 12 species of western Canadian rosaceous genera, Luetkea, Oemleria, Physocarpus, and Prunus, were studied in the light microscope and scanning electron microscope. All pollen grains are produced as isopolar, radially symmetrical, usually tricolporate monads. Grains are predominantly spheroidal with a circular to triangular amb. Mos...

Sixty-four moss and organic litter samples were collected from five biogeoclimatic zones distributed from sea level on the central coast of British Columbia onto the western edge of the Interior Plateau at 1000 – 1900 m and analyzed for pollen and spores. Four of the five biogeoclimatic zones produced characteristic pollen and spore spectra. The co...

At 13 630 ± 310 BP (WAT-721) Port Hardy is the earliest area known to have been deglaciated at the end of the Fraser Glaciation on Vancouver Island. Pollen and macrofossil analyses of two cores from a basin–blanket bog show that about 14 000 years ago Pinus contorta, Alnus, and Pteridium aquilinum formed pioneering vegetation typical of post-ice en...

The occurrence of Oxalis oregana Nutt. in British Columbia is documented for five localities on the west coast of Vancouver Island and one locality in the Queen Charlotte Islands. The Oxalis populations grow in alluvial Tsuga heterophylla – Picea sitchensis – Thuja plicata – Polystichum munitum forest communities. Rhizomatous reproduction was recor...

The pollen morphology of the four Canadian taxa of Ligusticum (L. calderi, L. canbyi, L. scothicum ssp. scothicum, and L. scothicum ssp. hultenii) was studied under the light microscope and compared with that of other Apiaceae common on the Pacific coast of British Columbia and adjacent Alaska. Ligusticum calderi and L. canbyi compose one pollen ty...

At least 175 food plants and 52 beverage plants were gathered by Native Peoples in eastern Canada. Iroquoian agriculturalists of southern Ontario cultivated corn, beans, squash, tobacco, and sunflowers, and gathered the greatest variety of food plants. Southern and eastern Algonkian hunters and gatherers ate a wide variety of wild plant foods inclu...

Measurements of pollen tetrad diameters of eight ericad species from Burns Bog, Delta, B.C., showed that although diameters range continuously from 22 to 53 μm, groups of species can be recognized. These groups are ecologically significant with (i) small tetrads indicating dry habitats, (ii) intermediate tetrads indicating intermediate to dry sites...

Meiotic chromosome counts for Elliottia paniculata (Siebold & Zuccarini) Hooker, Elliottia bracteata (Maximowicz) Hooker, and Elliottia pyroliflora (Bongard) Brim and P. F. Stevens (Cladothamneae, Ericaceae) are reported for the first time. In all these species it was determined that n = 11, the same as in Elliottia racemosa Muhlenberg. These resul...

Natural bogs are generally surrounded by a zone of hydrologic, hydrochemical, and ecological gradients called a lagg. In laggs, large changes over short lateral distances result in distinctive ecological gradients and vegetation patterns. Part of the restoration planning challenge for Burns Bog involves recreating such water and chemistry gradients...

Large-scale peat harvesting operations alter hydrology of raised bogs so that natural regeneration may not occur without altering the water table. This paper describes efforts to restore key hydrologic and ecologic processes in a southwest BC raised bog (Burns Bog) highly disturbed by decades of peat extraction, drainage, filling, and conversion to...

We used PCA of morphological characters to confirm the presence of an undescribed Calamagrostis species in Washington and Oregon that has historically been attributed to Calamagrostis vaseyi. We propose to name this grass Calamagrostis tacomensis. It is most similar to C. foliosa although it has often been confused with C. purpurascens and C. sesqu...

We investigated late Holocene vegetation and fire changes on southeast Vancouver Island, British Columbia, through high-resolution analysis of pollen, spores and charcoal contained within a forest soil. Located in the Mystic Vale Endowment lands, University of Victoria campus, the site occurs adjacent to Garry oak (Quercus garryana) meadows within...

Surface samples from Vancouver Island, Canada, were used to assess the relationship between discrete seasonal temperate rainforest (STR) plant communities and their corresponding pollen signatures. Pollen from ten sediment cores was further used to evaluate the postglacial development of these communities. Principal components analysis (PCA) of the...

Aim  Late Pleistocene ice sheets are thought to have covered most of western Canada, including all of British Columbia (BC). We examine patterns of genetic variation in an Arctic–alpine plant to evaluate the possibility of full glacial refugia within the area covered by the Cordilleran ice sheet (CIS) and to uncover post-glacial migration routes.Lo...

Dissected colluvial sediments on a Peace River terrace at Bear Flat, northeast British Columbia enclosed a late Pleistocene micromammalian faunule. The fossil remains, including a few loosely articulated skulls and mandibles, were dominated by taiga voles (Microtus xanthognathus). The Bear Flat site constitutes the second fossil occurrence in the r...

Pollen and plant macrofossil analyses of lake sediments from Anthony Island in the southern Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii), British Columbia, reveal 1800 yr of relatively stable temperate rainforest vegetation. Cupressaceae (cedar) pollen percentages and accumulation rates decline about 1000 cal yr BP, coincident with occupation of the islan...

Pollen data from 69 surface samples from Vancouver Island, Canada, were used to develop a ratio index of precipitation, DWHI (Douglas fir-western hemlock index). DWHI ratios were combined with interpolated estimates of mean annual precipitation to develop pollen-based precipitation transfer functions. The optimal regression model, with a predictive...

Pollen data from 69 surface samples from Vancouver Island, Canada, were used to develop a ratio index of precipitation, Douglas fir-western hemlock index (DWHI). DWHI ratios were combined with interpolated estimates of mean annual precipitation to develop pollen-based precipitation transfer functions. The optimal regression model, with a predictive...

No standardized, objective methodology exists for optimizing seeding rates when establishing herbaceous plant cover for pastures, hay fields, ecological restoration, or other revegetation activities. Seeding densities, fertilizer use, season of seeding, and the interaction of these treatments were tested using native plants on degraded sites in nor...

Sediments of Port Eliza Cave provide a record of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) on Vancouver Island that has important implications for human migration along the debated coastal migration route. Lithofacies changes from nonglacial diamict to glacial laminated silt and clay and till, then a return to nonglacial conditions with oxidized clay, colluvi...

1] The identification of past climatic extremes and norms is important for a better understanding of the climate systems and the way they change. Here we present an almost continuous tree-ring and climate record from Vancouver Island, Canada for the last four millennia from Douglas-fir trees (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco var. menziesii) tha...

The classic disjunct distribution of living magnolias between southeast Asia and the Americas has been a puzzle for more than a century and a half. We propose a scheme for the origin and history of magnolias to explain this distribution by integrating paleogeographic, paleoclimatic, paleobotanical, and phytogeographic data. Our scheme is based on p...

We report on scientific analyses of the only well-preserved ancient human body ever recovered from a North American glacier. The body was found high in the mountains of northwest British Columbia at about 80 km from the nearest point of the strongly indented coast of southern Alaska. The geographical location suggests that the young man, aged about...

Extant magnolias have a classic disjunct distribution in southeast Asia and in the Americas between Canada and Brazil, and nowhere in between. Of the 17 sections (about 210 species) in two subgenera, only two, Tulipastrum and Rhytidospermum, are truly disjunct. Molecular analyses reveal that several North American species are basal forms suggesting...

We report core stratigraphy and chronology that explains the diachronic history of the surface in a prehispanic wetland agricultural complex of planting platforms and canals at Mandinga, central Veracruz, Mexico. Using recognizable stratigraphic horizons, elevations of prehistoric surfaces were measured for the wetland prior to the construction of...

Environmental sensitivity to temperature change was established by comparing pollen, plant macrofossils, macroscopic charcoal, and sediment yield data from Lake of the Woods, Cathedral Provincial Park in the Cascade Mountains of southern British Columbia, Canada, to an independent record of midge-inferred paleo-temperature. Steppe vegetation with s...

Analyses of pollen, macrofossils and charcoal from subalpine lakes provide insight into past climatic changes as well as local factors affecting the sites, especially since steep precipitation and temperature gradients typify mountainous regions. Lake and bog cores collected from three sites on southern and central Vancouver Island (Porphyry and Wa...

The post-glacial vegetation and fire history of high-elevation regions on southern Vancouver Island is described using palynological and charcoal records from Porphyry and Walker lakes. A zone consisting mainly of Artemisia, Poaceae, and ferns occurs in the basal clay at Porphyry Lake and may represent a non-arboreal ecosystem in a late-Wisconsin g...

Two anomalous, gray, silty clay beds are present in ODP cores collected from Saanich Inlet, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The beds, which date to about 10,500 14C yr BP (11,000 calendar years BP), contain Tertiary pollen derived from sedimentary rocks found only in the Fraser Lowland, on the mainland of British Columbia and Washington...

Pollen, charcoal, and plant macrofossil analyses reveal five postglacial vegetation periods at Crater Lake, Crater Mountain, British Columbia. The first period, beginning ca. 11 400 14C yr BP was characterized by Artemisia steppe-tundra. At 9700 14C yr BP, Pinus parkland developed, and by 6700 14C yr BP was replaced by fire-successional Pinus-domin...

Abies lasiocarpa is a major element of high elevation forests and parkland of British Columbia, Canada, and adjacent regions, yet its history, especially in the late-glacial, is poorly understood. We present four new pollen and macrofossil records, summarize modern surface spectra and review previous studies to understand the role of A. lasiocarpa...

Charcoal records were examined from seven sediment cores and two stratigraphic sections on southern Vancouver Island, Canada. Charcoal influx and climate trend regressions were established using high order polynomial functions. During the late-glacial (ca. 13,000–10,000 ybp), variations in the charcoal record suggest that fires likely responded to...

Much has been learned from the basin of the Candelaria River, Campeche, Mexico: the fabric of a densely settled pre-Historic landscape, including impressive ceremonial centers; the logistics of an ancient entrepôt; the process of exploitation of dyewood and chicle in historic times; as well as the doubtful results of the mid-twentieth-century...

Much has been learned from the basin of the Candelaria River, Campeche, Mexico: the fabric of a densely settled pre-Historic landscape, including impressive ceremonial centers; the logistics of an ancient entrepôt; the process of exploitation of dyewood and chicle in historic times; as well as the doubtful results of the mid-twentieth-century colon...

The vegetation and natural disturbance history of the Mount Kobau area, in the Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii Parry ex Engelm.) - subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa (Hook.) Nutt.) (ESSF) forest of southern British Columbia, was reconstructed using pollen, plant macrofossils, and microscopic charcoal. Late-glacial vegetation, occurring from about...

High-resolution pollen analysis of laminated marine sediments from ODP Hole 1034B in Saanich Inlet, British Columbia reveals changes in vegetation and inferred climate during the Holocene. Four main pollen zones are discerned using constrained cluster analysis. Although the timing of major vegetation changes at the Saanich Inlet is similar to other...

High-resolution pollen analysis of laminated marine sediments from ODP Hole 1034B in Saanich Inlet, British Columbia reveals changes in vegetation and inferred climate during the Holocene. Four main pollen zones are discerned using constrained cluster analysis. Although the timing of major vegetation changes at the Saanich Inlet is similar to other...

Modeling the nonlinear and complex relationships between climate and tree-ring growth is of significance in dendroclimatic studies, but difficult to implement using traditional linear regression approaches. To overcome this difficulty, the technique of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was employed in this study to develop the growth response models...

Dendroecological techniques were used in this study to compare the radial growth patterns of different conifer species and to identify regional climatic anomalies and spruce beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis Kirby) outbreaks for the past four centuries in the McGregor Model Forest, central British Columbia, Canada. Tree-ring chronologies of Douglas-f...

Analyses of surface samples of 84 sites from southern Vancouver Island were used to characterize pollen and spore spectra of modern vegetation types. Xeric Quercus garryana Dougl. and grassland associations can be identified by Quercus pollen and abundant nonarboreal pollen, respectively. Coastal Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii (M...

, 1999, vol. 53, n° 2, 5 fig., 53(2), 1999M. L. HEINRICHS et al. ABSTRACT Salinity fluctuations in lakes of semi-arid regions have been recognised as indicators of paleoclimatic change and have provided a valuable line of evidence in paleo- climatic reconstruction. However, factors other than climate, including sedimentologic events, may also affec...

Predicted atmospheric change, mainly climate change, will have profound effects on the biodiversity of Canadian forests. Predictions derived from forest models, responses of species and ecosystems related to modern ecological characteristics and paleoecological studies suggest large-scale, wide-ranging changes from the biome to physiological levels...

Sediments from Tugulnuit Lake in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada, were examined for chironomid assemblages. The chironomid stratigraphy obtained encompasses the last 4000 to 5000 years and suggests a warm and fairly stable climate typical for a temperate lake at low- to mid-elevation. This is indicated by the even distribution of wa...

The genetic structure and morphological variability of species are influenced by both life-history traits and historical factors. We studied morphological and genetic variability in 12 populations of the avalanche lily, Erythronium montanum, representing the four disjunct regions of its geographic range in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia....

The genetic structure and morphological variability of species are influenced by both life-history traits and historical factors. We studied morphological and genetic variability in 12 populations of the avalanche lily, Erythronium montanum, representing the four disjunct regions of its geographic range in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia....

British Columbia Holocene vegetation and climate is reconstructed from pollen records. A coastal Pinus contorta paleobiome developed after glacier retreat under cool and probably dry climate. Cool moist forests involving Picea, Abies, Tsuga spp., and Pinus followed until the early Holocene. Pseudotsuga menziesii arrived and spread in the south 10 0...

Light and scanning electron microscope studies of pollen representing genera from all tribes of the Rosaceae reveal a variety of form and sculpturing. All genera examined produce radially symmetric isopolar monads. Most genera in subfamilies Maloideae, Prunoideae, and Spiraeoideae produce tricolporate striate grains with large perforations in valle...