Compilation of Results from Excavation of Tertiary Fossil Forests of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

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Palaeobotanical, palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental data and findings resulting from the 1991-1992 field research in Axl Heiberg Island and Ellesmere Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago and supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture Grant-in-Aid for International Scientific Research program were compiled in a report.The collection from the field work and compiled and analyzed in the present work include materials primarily consisting of fossil plants, geological and geographical data consisting of stratigraphy and topographic surveying and such biological data as measurements of stump size, location etc. First of all in this work, such micro fossils as leaves and corns as well as such mega fossils as tree trunks and stumps were identified to reconstruct species composition of the fossil forests. Secondly, the biological data were analyzed and compiled into such forest stand characteristics as stem density, tree size distribution, stand biomass etc., which make a comparison of the fossils forests with the present-day counterpart possible, which in turn lead to palaeoclimatic inferences. Lastly the results from the topographic surveying were compiled into several maps with geological interpretation. These results in three differentcategories were further integrated into the reconstruction of the warm and moist palaeoclimate of Tertiary and the sedimental environment of the time in which these fossil forests grew, buried and preserved. The most significant results from this work was that these fossil forests provide superb natural analogue to the impending global warming in which the globe would be as warm as Tertiary.