After the Ice Age: The Return of Life to Glaciated North America

by E.C. Pielou

The fascinating story of how a harsh terrain that resembled modern Antarctica has been transformed gradually into the forests, grasslands, and wetlands we know today.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, History, Geology, Natural History, Nature, Biology

376 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Evelyn Chrystalla "E.C." Pielou is a statistical ecologist. She began her career as a researcher for the Canadian Department of Forestry and the Canadian Department of Agriculture. Later she was professor of biology at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, and at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and then Oil Sands Environmental Research Professor working out of the University of Lethbridge, Alberta.

She has contributed significantly to the development of mathematical ecology, the mathematical modeling of natural systems and wrote six academic books on the subject.

She now lives in Comox, British Columbia, Canada, and writes popular books on natural history.

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book, which held up well even though it was written in 1990. It’s a remarkably clear and careful account of just what it says, a geological and biological history of the 20,000 years since the peak of the last glaciation of North America.

Here’s a good review to read first:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The author did a wonderful job of compiling every significant study on her topic. She’s a careful writer, and avoided going beyond the data, which is a common failing in popular-science books. The maps are a little rough, but you’ll be able to figure them out. The many lines of evidence she presents and explains are truly impressive.

I’m a retired geologist with a long-term interest in climate change, and in particular in the North American mass-extinctions of about 10,000 years ago. Were the ancient Clovis hunters the cause? She reviews the evidence, and concludes it’s impossible to say. None of the proposed causes can be proven — but the “overkill” hypothesis is likely to be at least partly true. Many years ago, I went to a lecture by Paul Martin, who first proposed this idea in 1966. He made a good case for it. There’s no doubt that the hunters were killing big game. Whether they could have driven species to extinction…. Well. It happened elsewhere. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Sc...
“The overkill hypothesis is far less controversial today than it was when first proposed.”
A 2024 study: https://ourworldindata.org/quaternary...
"very soon after humans arrived, most large mammals were gone. Australia lost 88%; North America lost 83%; and South America, 72%."

If you like carefully-done popular science, are interested in this topic, and don’t mind sorting through lots of detail, this is the book for you. For me, this was an easy 4+ star read. High marks.

[Michael Holm · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is very interesting reading if you wonder what North America was like when the native Americans first arrived from Mongolia and Beringia. Available evidence is carefully discussed and well presented. It is well-written, well-organized, not very technical and thus accessible for the non-professional. It is not a book written for juveniles. 'The ice age' is the Wisconsin Glacial, excluding previous glaciation. The main subject of interest is the possible routes of the migration of mammals, including humans, from Asia to the American continents. Another subject is the great extinction of many large mammals about 10,000 years ago. The author does not discuss in detail several findings that date humans in NA before 11,500 years ago, presumably because in 1990 there were regarded as suspect. The ecology of the ice-free areas of the continental United States is cursory, since the Wisconsin glaciation occurred primarily in Canada and Alaska. The discussion is cautious and frank about problems of interpretations of existing evidence, avoiding pawning off speculation as science

[Last Ranger · Rating 5 out of 5]

After the Ice Age
E. C. Pielou

There's a chill in the air!

For thousands of years huge glaciers covered a good portion of North America. What was the land like during that time? The climate? The life? What kinds of changes occurred when the ice sheets started to withdraw? Pielou's book covers it all in fine style, explaining the ecological alterations that would lead to today's world. Her writing is clear and it smoothly takes you through a number of different disciplines: geology, biology and climatology to name a few. Each section of the book addresses a different issue: Beringia and the Ice Free Corridor, the mysteries of nunataks and Refugia, the dating of pollen and volcanic ash layers. Both sides of the Prehistoric Overkill Hypothesis are covered in some detail. While Pielou wrote this for the general reader there are some parts of the book that are a bit technical but not so technical that you can't follow the narrative. If you are at all interested in Paleontology and the problems faced by plants, animals and, yes, humans in a changing world then you may find this to be a good read. I did.
This e-reader edition was read on my Kindle.
Last Ranger

[Caw Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This scientific book shows how life in North America appeared at the climax of the last ice advance, then how life returned as the glaciers retreated. Fascinating details of fossils, especially pollen, allows for the creation of prehistoric habitats. Information like the speed in which specific plant species moved north after the ice help show that there is no climax habitat in North America. Unlike most books about the ice age, this book deals in specifics, not generalizations. The maps and graphs aid in seeing how life changed over time. This book is recommended for anyone who wants to know about the last ice advance in North America.

[James Warriner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent summary of the final millenia and resulting changes caused by the latest (Wisconsinian) glaciation of North America. The author's primary expertise is in botany/ecology and the book reflects that. However, his descriptions of the physical and temporal and geomorphic occurrences are both continent-wide in scope and regional in detail. The ecological phenomena he describes are pertinent evidence for the post-glacial conditions. As a retired geologist who grew up a couple of miles from the Bemis moraine and so was influenced in career choice by the glaciation, I find this book to be the best overview of the subject I have found. And it is quite readable also.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fell in love with this book from the first page. Essentially, Pielou takes us through 20,000 years of ecological history, showing what the world would have looked like in the wake of the retreating ice sheets of the last great ice age. This was one of those books that I had to stop reading every few pages because Pielou's narrative would send my imagination spinning off on wild tangents. Highly recommended for public and college libraries, not to mention science fiction writers looking for well-informed ecological insights.

[Deb Vanasse · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up at a bookstore in the Yukon. I don't read a lot of science/natural history, but I was fascinated by the idea of learning more about the ancient roots of the flora and fauna around me, here at the edge of Beringia. Though somewhat dated, Pielou's treatment makes the topic thoroughly approachable (though not dumbed down) for non-science people like me. It added a new layer of understanding to a setting that appears in a lot of my books.

[John Branney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book if a person is interested in the flora and fauna of ten to twenty thousand years ago in North America. It is not a book that most people can read from front cover to back cover, it is much too technical with no real plot. It is just an excellent research resource for archaeology, paleobotanists, and paleobiologists.

Two thumbs up.

[David Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a fast read. This book is chock full of info that (for me at least) broadens the view of what the ice ages were, their causes and the the slow transformation to the the world we know. Worth the read for anyone interested in paleoecology.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of a textbook, very dry and clinical in parts, but containing a lot of very interesting information.

[Milo Adkison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read 30 years later sitting in my cabin in the middle of 100s of pothole lakes where a glacier melted. If you live anywhere near where the North American glaciers existed, this book will explain so much about your surroundings. One neat feature is she explains how we know what we know.

[Caleb · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit too technical for me

[Peter Dodds · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thorough, informative, and pretty boring

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A readable review of North America's climate geology after the most recent ice age. It focuses on plants and pollen evidence to infer that history.

[Mikel Bilbao · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[John Senner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pielou is not the best of science writers. Tends to plot through details that only a boreal botonist could love. But things I learned: that maximum tempuratures in the recovery from the most recent ice age were hit about 4 thousand years ago. We have been cooling since then. Last chapter, written about 1990 discusses the coming next ice age. But then there is little two page epilogue with some mention of carbon dioxide and influences of modern civilization.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I may have humped ahead a bit in my layman's interest in topics like this for this is extremely technical. This does mean, however, that it is chock full of information, drawings, maps, and everything else as well though.

[Michael]

Still reading it...find it thoughful and well written.