Paleoenvironmental implications of a late glacial insect assemblage from northwestern New York

The Winter Gulf site near North Collins, New York is a 0.8-m sequence of organic detritus dated at approximately 12,700 yr B.P. A 260-kg sample produced over 500 identified individuals representing five orders of insects. Three insect zones were recognized, the lowest representing an open mire with sparse numbers of carices and other sedges; aquatic beetles were rare, and no trees were in the vicinity of the sample site. The middle zone indicated an extensive marsh or moist meadow environment with spruce nearby. The upper zone represented a mixed riparian and spruce forest insect assemblage.The results of the Winter Gulf insect analyses support published hypotheses that the site was probably a protected embayment of early lake Warren. Although the flora at the site has been previously interpreted as representing parkland tundra, temperature analyses of the fauna indicate that the thermal conditions were much warmer than parkland tundra regions of North America today. These results have important significance for the region immediately south of the Laurentide Ice Sheet during this period of the Late Wisconsinan.