My general interests lie in the development of vegetation since the last Ice Age in relation to climate change. How has climate changed? How quickly have plant species and communities been able to respond to changes in climate? In particular, how have arctic boreal plant communities developed in relation to climate forcing? In my lab we use the techniques of pollen, stomate, plant macrofossil, and midge fly analyses to address these questions. Current projects focus on 1) treeline movements in NE European Russia and Siberia, and 2) the late glacial period (the transition between full glacial and interglacial climates between 14,000 and 10,000 years ago) of Maritime Canada during which climate and vegetation changed remarkably quickly.

Bjorck, S., M. J. C. Walker, L. C. Cwynar, S. Johnsen, K.-L. Knudsen, J. J. Lowe, B. Wohlfarth and INTIMATE Members. 1998. An event stratigraphy for the Last Termination in the North Atlantic Region based on the Greenland ice-core record: a proposal by the INTIMATE group. J. Quaternary Science 13: 283-92. Spear, R.W. and L.C. Cwynar. 1997. Late Quaternary vegetation history of White Pass, northern British Columbia, Canada. Arctic and Alpine Research 29: 45-52. Levesque, A.J., L.C. Cwynar and I.R. Walker. 1997. Exceptionally steep north-south gradients in lake temperatures during the last deglaciation. Nature 385: 423-426. Clayden, S. L., L.C. Cwynar, G.M. MacDonald, and A.A. Velchko. 1997. Holocene pollen and stomates from a forest-tundra site on the Taimyr Peninsula, Siberia. Arctic and Alpine Research 29: 327-333. Walker, I.R., A.J. Levesque, L.C. Cwynar and A. Lotter. 1997. An expanded surface-water paleotemperature inference model for use with fossil midges from eastern Canada. J. Paleolimnology 18: 165-178. Mayle, F.E. and L.C. Cwynar. Impact of the Younger Dryas cooling event upon lowland vegetation of Maritime Canada. Ecological Monographs 65:129-154. Cwynar, L.C. and Spear, R.W. Paleovegetation and Paleoclimatic changes in the Yukon at 6KA. Geographie Physique et Quaternaire 49:29-35. Cwynar, L.C. and Levesque, A.J. Chronomid evidence for lateglacial climatic events in Maine. Quaternary Research 43:405-413.