Abstract

We are currently investigating whether the Little Ice Age (LIA) had a significant impact on landscapes of central Saskatchewan. Cooler temperatures and higher precipitation may have affected the composition and extent of vegetation types and the frequency and intensity of landscape-level processes, such as fire. By extension, changes in the characteristics of the landscape may have influenced the subsistence strategies of people living in these regions. Climate signals are available from proxy palaeoenvironmental indicators, phenological indicators, and documentary sources, especially Hudson's Bay Company journals, for the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries, the interval that encompasses the height of the Little Ice Age. Most palaeoenvironmental records rarely yield data on the temporal scale (at least sub-decadal) relevant to human activities. In contrast, documentary sources yield a plethora of observational information related to climate, such as timing of break-up and freeze-up on major waterways. With judicious interpretation, these data can be compared to modern data for the same events. The comparison and integration of data from such different sources highlights interesting perceptual and interpretational issues.