ABSTRACT
The major features of the Late Wisconsin and Holocene vegetation and climatic history of Florida are known from palynological studies of lake sediments at several sites on the peninsula. For early inhabitants, the most important environmental change took place between 7000 and 5000 B. P., gradually at some sites, apparently more abruptly at others, but terminating by 5000 B. P. The contrast between the prairie/dry oak-forest communities before 5000 B. P. with few lakes, and the modern pine forests with numerous lakes and swamps is of great importance in understanding the environment in which human cultures developed. The evidence from Lake Louise, Mud Lake, and Little Salt Spring, together with other sites, indicates that the paleoecologist who seeks records older than 8500 B.P. in Florida must study sediments of deep lakes. The full-glacial period at Sheelar Lake is dominated by pines, with herbs and continuously low percentages of oak, hickory, and mesic trees.
