1. LONG-TERM VEGETATIONAL CHANGE IN A NEW YORK CITY FRESHWATER WETLAND Argie Miller, Dorothy Peteet, David Cruz

2. Carbon storage pools in the global carbon cycle Preserve water quality and water supply Protection against flooding and erosion Essential habitat for fish and wildlife Archives for paleoecology Services of Wetlands

3. Three Kettle Ponds Lilly, Decodon, and Turtle Ponds 15,000 years old Glacial-age remnant Alley Pond Park (40 o 45’21.55”N; 73 o 45’38”W) Queens, NY

4. Ice sheet melted, dropped huge chunks of ice Ice became buried in the outwash. Depressions filled with water and sediment. Kettle Pond

5. Research Team: I.C.C Model Independence Critical Thinking Communication Coring with Livingston Piston corer Stratigraphic examination 200 cm deep sediment core Methods

6. EXAMINED: Preserved fossil seed/needle remains Charcoal particles Sand and silt Paleoecological Changes

7. Loss on Ignition (LOI)

8. Macrofossils

9. UPPER SAMPLES (Aquatics and emergent) Potamogeton Brasenia Najas Zannichellia Macrofossils 1

10. CAREX SPP CYPERUS STRIGOSUS SPARGANIUM Macrofossils 2 LOWER SAMPLE Viola Carex Pica (spruce) Needle Cyperus Strigosus Sparganium Daphnia egg case

11. Macrofossils 3 Charcoal Fragments suggest a large increase in fire near the pond above 20cm At lower depths, a steady low pattern of accumulation Sand Sand abundance was variable highest at 160-140 cm depth.

12. Results Increasing organic matter in upper sediments, suggesting wetter environment, possibly wetter climate. Questions 1.Why is deposition rate so low, if kettle? why not 10 meters deep, like nearby Alpine Swamp in New Jersey or Moravian Swamp, Staten I? 2.How old is spruce needle at bottom? Does it represent boreal forest after ice melt, or Little Ice Age more recently? Spruce does not occur naturally in NYC today

13. Records of climate change in New York City region are sparse. Research needed to document rates of change and human impact Compare natural frequencies of fire to human-induced fire activity. Conclusions

14. Acknowledgements Dorothy Peteet, PhD Principal Investigator David Cruz Student