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Over the past several decades, populations of the common reed, Phragmites australis, have expanded rapidly in salt marshes of coastal North America, creating dramatic changes in community composition. Populations of Phragmites in coastal wetlands of the Great Lakes may similarly threaten the ecological integrity of these inland wetland communities. Strategies for the conservation of biodiversity in these wetlands should be informed by an understanding of both the recent trends and the historic role of Phragmites in these wetlands. A combination of paleoecological and genetic analyses was used to determine when Phragimites became established in a Lake Superior coastal wetland and whether the source of Phragmites was native or non-native populations. Radiocarbon-dated stratigraphic changes in the abundance of pollen and macroscopic plant remains were used to infer the timing of vegetation …