Paleoecology and prehistory : fossil pollen at Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary

Two sediment cores from Grays Reef National Marine Sanctuary, Georgia, were examined for pollen in order to obtain a chronostratigraphic pollen record. This record assists in paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Georgia Bight when it was sub-aerially exposed sometime between 18,000 BP and 8,000 BP and contributes additional lines of evidence for the prediction of submerged, prehistoric, human occupation sites on the continental shelf. Although no material capable of producing a radiometric date was found, a possible, relative biostratigraphic pollen assemblage was discovered that may indicate a Younger Dryas (12,500-11,400 BP) sea level still stand. Both cores produced biostratigraphic pollen zones with similar taxa, representing a cooler, and perhaps wetter, time period inferred to be the Younger Dryas. These zones have no modern analog.