Climate Change and Human Impact on the Landscape

Updated for minor corrections, and intended for personal purchase and for advanced students, this volume includes reviews by leading scientists of records of climatic change, and the interpretation of evidence on the human impact on the landscape. This book should be of interest to undergraduate, postgraduate and research workers in botany, geography, environmental sciences, archaeology, quaternary science, holocene palaeoecology and climatology.

One: Precision and Accuracy in Studies of Climatic Change and Human Impact.- 1 Precision, concepts, controversies: Alan Smith’s contributions to vegetational history and palaeoecology.- 1.1 Introduction.- 1.2 Precision.- 1.3 Concepts.- 1.4 Controversies.- 1.5 Personal reflections.- 2 Forward to the past: changing approaches to Quaternary palaeoecology.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Inductive investigation in Quaternary palaeoecology.- 2.3 Deductive studies: the acid rain research.- 2.4 The future.- 3 Radiocarbon dating and the palynologist: a realistic approach to precision and accuracy.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 The pioneer phase.- 3.3 The routine phase.- 3.4 The questioning phase.- 3.5 Is there a future?.- 3.6 A hypothetical project.- 4 Great oaks from little acorns...: precision and accuracy in Irish dendrochronology.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 First case study.- 4.2.1 An Ulster crannog.- 4.3 Discussion.- 4.3.1 Precise dating.- 4.3.2 Climatic and environmental effects.- 4.3.3 The ‘suck-in’ effect.- 4.3.4 Proxy data: quantitative climatic records.- 4.4 Second case study.- 4.4.1 An attempt to apply dendrochronology to the dating of the inner ditch at Haughey’s Fort.- 4.4.2 Attempts to ‘date’ Q-7971.- 4.4.3 Inferences.- 4.5 Third case study.- 4.5.1 Early 16th century defoliations in Ulster.- 4.5.2 Localized effects and lessons therefrom.- 4.6 Conclusions.- Two: Climatic Change on the Landscape.- 5 Peat bogs as sources of proxy climatic data: past approaches and future research.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Past approaches.- 5.2.1 The Blytt-Sernander scheme.- 5.2.2 Recurrence surfaces.- 5.2.3 The search for new methods.- 5.3 The present position.- 5.4 Future research.- 5.4.1 Dating techniques.- 5.4.2 Sites.- 5.4.3 Methods.- 5.5 Conclusions.- 6 Forest response to Holocene climatic change: equilibrium or non-equilibrium.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 Case studies.- 6.2.1 Lake Michigan and the migration of Fagus in the USA.- 6.2.2 The western limits of Pinus sylvestris in Europe.- 6.2.3 The boreal-nemoral ecotone in central Sweden.- 6.3 Conclusions.- 7 Isolating the climatic factors in early- and mid-Holocene palaeobotanical records from Scotland.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Pollen records and the Holocene vegetational history of Scotland.- 7.2.1 Pioneer phase (c. 10 300 to 8500 bp).- 7.2.2 Afforestation phase (8500 to 5000 BP).- 7.2.3 Deforestation phase (5000 BP to present).- 7.3 Pollen stratigraphy and palaeoclimatic inferences.- 7.3.1 Blytt-Sernander scheme.- 7.3.2 Time-lagged responses.- 7.3.3 Indicator-species approach.- 7.3.4 Conclusions.- 7.4 Isolating the climatic factors in Holocene palaeobotanical records.- 7.4.1 Early Holocene climatic revertance.- 7.4.2 Holocene range limits of pine.- 7.4.3 Variations in pine macrofossil abundance.- 7.4.4 Conclusions.- 8 Radiocarbon dating of arctic-alpine palaeosols and the reconstruction of Holocene palaeoenvironmental change.- 8.1 Introduction.- 8.2 Field sites.- 8.3 Problems of soil dating and the importance of laboratory pretreatment.- 8.4 Time elapsed since burial.- 8.5 Time since the onset of soil formation.- 8.6 Holocene glacier and climatic variations.- 8.6.1 Climatic implications.- 8.7 Soil history at Haugabreen and Vestre Memurubreen.- 8.7.1 Podsol development.- 8.7.2 Brown Soil.- 8.8 Vegetation history.- 8.8.1 Haugabreen (podsol) sites.- 8.8.2 Vestre Memurubreen (Brown Soil) sites.- 8.9 Conclusions.- Three: Evidence for Human Impact.- 9 Earliest palynological records of human impact on the world’s vegetation.- 9.1 Data.- 9.2 Commentary.- 9.2.1 The nature of human impact.- 9.2.2 Gaps on the map.- 9.2.3 Time span.- 9.2.4 Oldest disturbance.- 9.3 Celebration.- 10 Vegetation change during the Mesolithic in the British Isles: some amplifications.- 10.1 Introduction.- 10.2 The background.- 10.2.1 The earlier Mesolithic.- 10.2.2 The later Mesolithic.- 10.2.3 The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition.- 10.3 Two more-detailed examples.- 10.3.1 Bonfield GUI and North Gill, North York Moors.- 10.4 A wider context.- 11 The development of high moorland on Dartmoor: fire and the influence of Mesolithic activity on vegetation change.- 11.1 Introduction.- 11.2 The Black Ridge Brook model.- 11.3 Pinswell.- 11.3.1 Site location and pollen and charcoal results.- 11.3.2 Vegetation change and peat initiation.- 11.4 Comparison with Black Ridge Brook and other Dartmoor sites.- 12 Models of mid-Holocene forest farming for north-west Europe.- 12.1 Introduction.- 12.2 Models of early farming activity.- 12.2.1 The landnam model.- 12.2.2 The leaf-foddering model.- 12.2.3 The expansion-regression model.- 12.2.4 The forest-utilization model.- 12.3 Conclusions.- 13 The influence of human communities on the English chalklands from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age: the molluscan evidence.- 13.1 Introduction.- 13.2 Molluscan analysis.- 13.3 The Mesolithic period.- 13.4 The earlier Neolithic.- 13.5 The later Neolithic.- 13.6 The Bronze Age and Iron Age.- 13.7 Research strategy.- 14 Mesolithic, early Neolithic, and later prehistoric impacts on vegetation at a riverine site in Derbyshire, England.- 14.1 Introduction.- 14.2 The site.- 14.3 Methods and presentation of results.- 14.3.1 Field sampling.- 14.3.2 Pollen analysis.- 14.3.3 Radiocarbon dating.- 14.3.4 Statistical analysis.- 14.4 Vegetation history.- 14.4.1 General.- 14.4.2 Reconstruction.- 14.5 Discussion.- 15 Holocene (Flandrian) vegetation change and human activity in the Carneddau area of upland mid-Wales.- 15.1 Introduction.- 15.2 Study area.- 15.3 Research strategy.- 15.4 Methods.- 15.5 Regional pollen assemblage zones.- 15.6 Vegetation and landscape change in the Carneddau region.- 15.6.1 Early- and mid-Flandrian woodland development.- 15.6.2 Mid- and late-Flandrian woodland decline: evidence of human impact.- 15.7 Conclusions.- 16 Early land use and vegetation history at Derryinver Hill, Renvyle Peninsula, Co. Galway, Ireland.- 16.1 Introduction.- 16.2 Sites investigated.- 16.3 Methods.- 16.4 Results and interpretation: short profiles on Derryinver Hill.- 16.4.1 Description of soil profiles.- 16.4.2 Pollen and macrofossil analysis.- 16.4.3 Chronology, and significance in terms of land use, of events recorded in profiles DYR I, II, III and VI.- 16.5 Discussion.- Four: Climatic Change and Human Impact: Relationship and Interaction.- 17 Rapid early-Holocene migration and high abundance of hazel (Corylus avellana L.): alternative hypotheses.- 17.1 Introduction.- 17.2 The hypotheses.- 17.2.1 Succession and soil development.- 17.2.2 Migrational lag.- 17.2.3 The position of ‘glacial refugia’.- 17.2.4 Late-glacial expansion.- 17.2.5 Human assistance.- 17.2.6 Climate.- 17.2.7 Plateaux in the radiocarbon timescale.- 17.3 Discussion.- 17.3.1 Rapid expansion of geographical range.- 17.3.2 Anomalous early-Holocene abundance.- 17.4 Conclusions.- 18 The origin of blanket mire, revisited.- 18.1 Introduction.- 18.2 Mechanisms of blanket mire inception.- 18.3 Extent and intensity of prehistoric forest modification.- 18.4 Replacement of forest by blanket mire.- 18.5 Conclusions.- 19 Climatic change and human impact during the late Holocene in northern Britain.- 19.1 Introduction.- 19.2 The late-Holocene environment of northern Cumbria.- 19.3 The Roman impact on the landscape of the frontier zone.- 19.3.1 Historical accounts.- 19.3.2 Palynological evidence.- 19.4 Testing and extending the record of climatic change.- 19.5 Conclusions.- 20 Palaeoecology of floating bogs and landscape change in the Great Lakes drainage basin of North America.- 20.1 Introduction.- 20.2 Early investigations.- 20.3 Ecological variation.- 20.4 Distribution.- 20.5 Hydrological variation.- 20.6 Stratigraphic variation.- 20.7 Human activities.- 21 Late Quaternary climatic change and human impact: commentary and conclusions.- 21.1 Introduction.- 21.2 Precision and accuracy.- 21.2.1 Precision and accuracy in taxonomy and sampling.- 21.2.2 Precision and accuracy in dating.- 21.3 Climatic change and vegetational response.- 21.3.1 Climate changes of the last 500 000 years.- 21.3.2 The last cold stage.- 21.3.3 Holocene temperate forest development.- 21.3.4 Volcanic activity and effects on climate.- 21.3.5 Proxy records of climate from peat stratigraphy.- 21.3.6 Conflicting evidence of past climatic change.- 21.4 Assessment of evidence for human impact.- 21.4.1 Pleistocene human impact.- 21.4.2 Holocene human impact: a recurrent theme.- 21.4.3 Mesolithic human impact in north-west Europe.- 21.5 Concluding remarks.- 21.5.1 Timescales of change.- 21.5.2 Nature conservation and environmental management.- References.