The Tuscany habitation site (EgPn-377) located in northwest Calgary was excavated between 1995 and 1997. The site stratigraphy of the large depression contained a series of buried paleosols situated between Mazama tephra above, dating to 6730 +- 40 14C years BP, and Glacial Lake Calgary sands below, dating to approximately 13,900 calendar years ago. These paleosols comprised the focus of this volume. One of the research objectives was to examine the site for spatial information via the processing of bulk sediment samples. Such samples had the potential to yield information on the distribution of small-scale archaeological remains throughout the site. Sediment samples representing 1% volumes were collected from each excavated level of each unit in the site grid. Through flotation processing an inventory of bone, lithics, insects, fungal spores, mollusks and charred macrobotanical remains were recovered. The charred macrobotanical remains were the focus of this research. Though the inventory is small, it provides a representative sample of the remains of plants that grew locally in the depression through the early Holocene. The charred botanical remains were compared with pollen and soil studies along with modern vegetation and climate records to develop a model for open parkland in the area for the early Holocene. The reconstructed landscape appears to have provided a habitat for a broad spectrum of fauna along with a diverse inventory of potentially useful plants for early Holocene peoples to exploit.

Cold-water corals occur worldwide from high latitudes to tropical areas, in various settings from the deep-sea to shallow marine environments near the coast. The topic of this thesis is the establishment and extension of knowledge about environmental conditions controlling cold-water coral (CWC) mound development. From literature it is known that glacial-interglacial cycles drive development and geographic distribution of CWC mounds on a large scale. On the other hand, knowledge about the influence of small scale climatic and oceanographic changes during the Holocene is scarce. Thus, this thesis focuses on the investigation of the limited Holocene climatic and oceanographic changes and their effect on the process of mound genesis. For this purpose, a Holocene CWC mound setting in a sound in the Altafjord in northern Norway (70 N) -- the Stjernsund -- was chosen and the local benthic ecosystem was extensively analysed. Von den sub-arktischen hohen Breiten bis in warme tropische Zonen besiedeln Kaltwasserkorallen unseren Planeten. Sie haben sich verschiedenste Lebensraume erschlossen --- Von der Tiefsee bis zu marinen Flachwassergebieten an der Kuste kann ihr Vorkommen beobachtet werden. Sie bilden faszinierende Okosysteme die erst in den letzten Jahrzehnten intensiver erforscht wurden. Diese Arbeit widmet sich der tieferen Erforschung dieser Lebensraume. Im Fokus stehen dabei Umweltbedingungen, die die Entwicklung der Kaltwasserkorallenvorkommen kontrollieren. Umfangreiche fruhere Untersuchungen haben bereits gezeigt, dass ihr Wachstum, als auch ihre geographische Verbreitung im Wesentlichen von Glazial-Interglazial-Zyklen gesteuert werden. Die kurzzeitlichen klimatischen und ozeanographischen Steuerungsfaktoren sind im Vergleich dazu jedoch nahezu unbekannt. Daher konzentriert sich diese Arbeit auf die Erforschung von kurzeitigen klimatischen und ozeanographischen Veranderungen, die insbesondere im Holozan zu beobachten sind, sowie deren mogliche Auswirkungen auf