ABSTRACT
SUMMARY: In the St Lawrence River valley the 10,000-year period following the Wisconsinian glaciation was marked by major geographic and climatic changes which influenced the development of plant communities. In this paper the Holocene environments in the Québec City region have been reconstructed on the basis of palaeogeographic and palaeoecological data. Fluctuations in relative sea level, particularly in recent millennia, are of particular interest in light of Québec’s situation as a marine gateway on the St Lawrence. Changes in plant cover since Euro-American settlement some 400 years ago are principally due to forest clearing for agriculture and more recently to urban development.
