Elevenses Lake

The average fire return interval between charcoal peaks at Elevenses Lake is 79 - 93 years, due to the sandier and excessively well-drained soils at this lake that may have prevented competitive exclusion by more shade-tolerant trees. Elevenses is also dominated by flat topography with few fire breaks. The pre-European vegetation was dominated by jack pine (Pinus banksiana). High-frequency charcoal records occurred at Elevenses Lake before 780 cal yr BP while charcoal records with high grass influx occurred in the most recent portion of the records from Elevenses Lake before 3400 cal yr BP. High values of grass CHAR values were also found in the cores from Elevenses Lake.

At Elevenses, the charcoal signature changed at approximately 750 cal yr BP. Fewer charcoal records extend to before 1500 cal yr BP, but there are roughly contemporaneous changes in charcoal signature types at Elevenses approximately 3500 cal yr BP.