Climate Change and Human Impact on the Landscape

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.