Data for: A Revised Sea Level History for the Northern Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, Canada

Counts of diatom species from terrestrial and marine sediment basins. The table documents counts of diatom species identified from sediment cores recovered from Quadra and Read islands, British Columbia, Canada. From Quaternary Science Review submission: Observed diatom floras were compared to those identified in Campeau et al. (1999), Cumming et al. (1995), Falu et al. (2000), Foged (1981), Hein (1990), Kelly et al. (2005), Pienitz et al. (2003) and Spaulding et al. (2010). Following Hustedt (1953), diatoms were assigned to five salinity classes: 1 - halophobian (fresh, salt intolerant), 2 - oligohalobous indifferent (freshwater), 3 - oligohalobous halophilous (freshwater species tolerant of salinity to 0.2 ppt), 4 - mesohalobous (brackish water species with optimal salinity between 0.2 and 30 ppt) and 5 - polyhalobous (marine water species with optimal salinity greater than 30 ppt).The salinity tolerance of identified floras was determined using the latter diatom flora references and data from Denys (1992), Guiry and Guiry (2017), Hustedt (1953), Marohasy and Abbot (2007), Wilson et al. (1996) and Zong and Sawai (2015

Archaeological Survey of Dynamic Coastal Landscapes and Paleoshorelines: Locating Early Holocene Sites in the Prince Rupert Harbour Area, British Columbia, Canada

We present and test a predictive archaeological survey model that targets early Holocene paleoshorelines in the Prince Rupert Harbour area using LiDAR bare earth digital terrain models and a 15,000-year reconstructed history of relative sea level change. Despite a century of archaeological research in the study area, no sites dating earlier than 6000 cal b.p. had been identified prior to our research. Our field survey identified three early Holocene sites associated with paleoshorelines 7–10 m above current sea level (masl). These locations demonstrate repeated use through the Holocene even as shoreline position changes. We discuss these new data in relation to the early Holocene archaeological record from the rest of the northern Northwest Coast and suggest that the region was ubiquitously occupied by this time and that the lack of recorded early Holocene sites in some areas is likely a result of survey and preservation bias, rather than historical reality

Lions and brown bears colonized North America in multiple synchronous waves of dispersal across the Bering Land Bridge

The Bering Land Bridge connecting North America and Eurasia was periodically exposed and inundated by oscillating sea levels during the Pleistocene glacial cycles. This land connection allowed the intermittent dispersal of animals, including humans, between Western Beringia (far northeast Asia) and Eastern Beringia (northwest North America), changing the faunal community composition of both continents. The Pleistocene glacial cycles also had profound impacts on temperature, precipitation and vegetation, impacting faunal community structure and demography. While these palaeoenvironmental impacts have been studied in many large herbivores from Beringia (e.g., bison, mammoths, horses), the Pleistocene population dynamics of the diverse guild of carnivorans present in the region are less well understood, due to their lower abundances. In this study, we analyse mitochondrial genome data from ancient brown bears (Ursus arctos; n = 103) and lions (Panthera spp.; n = 39), two megafaunal carnivorans that dispersed into North America during the Pleistocene. Our results reveal striking synchronicity in the population dynamics of Beringian lions and brown bears, with multiple waves of dispersal across the Bering Land Bridge coinciding with glacial periods of low sea levels, as well as synchronous local extinctions in Eastern Beringia during Marine Isotope Stage 3. The evolutionary histories of these two taxa underline the crucial biogeographical role of the Bering Land Bridge in the distribution, turnover and maintenance of megafaunal populations in North America