INTERPRETATION OF HOLOCENE VEGETATION IN NORTHEASTERN ARKANSAS

Changes in the Holocene vegetation have not been widely studied in the
southern Midwest. Palynological studies of two locations, Big Lake and
Pemiscot Bayou in northeastern Arkansas, represent a vegetational sequence
for the past approximately 9000 years. This study was undertaken as part of
a greater examination of cultural resources and the geomorphology of Ditches
10, 12, and 29 in 11ississippi County, Arkansas. The cores from Big Lake and
Pemiscot Bayou represent vegetational changes in the northern portion of the
Southern Forest in the Mississippi Valley. Previous· studies at Big Lake,
Arkansas yielded a pollen column than encompassed only the past 180 years.
The pollen record obtained from this study of Big Lake represents at least
9000 years of vegetation change, while tllat from nearby Pemiscot Bayou
represents at least 8500 years. These records span a period beginning prior
to the mid-Holocene warm/dry interval which has been referred to as the
Hypsithermal (Deevey and Flint 1957), the altithermal (Antevs 1948), and the
xerothermic (Sears 1942), to the present.