Devensian Late-glacial and early Flandrian environmental history of the Vale of Pickering,Yorkshire, England |
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| Authors: | Petra Day |
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| Abstract: | Pollen, sedimentological and charcoal particle analyses are presented from Devensian Late-glacial and early- to mid-Flandrian deposits from a former lake in the Vale of Pickering, Yorkshire. The combined analytical methods provide evidence for a short-lived climatic deterioration towards the end of the Late-glacial Interstadial, followed by a brief recovery prior to the Loch Lomond Stadial. This deterioration may be correlated with one of the ‘pre-Younger Dryas’ cooling periods identified not only in other pollen sequences from Britain and Europe, but from such diverse sources as Foraminifera from the Norwegian Sea and electrical conductivity measurements from the Greenland ice sheet. Loss-on-ignition and magnetic susceptibility data suggest that the Loch Lomond Stadial was characterised by an initial prolonged temperature decline, followed by a sudden more severe downturn resulting in particularly intense solifluction. Radiocarbon accelerator dating of the early Flandrian marl deposits illustrates the problem of age determination in calcareous lakes, and an estimate of the magnitude of ‘hard water error’ is obtained. The local population expansion of Alnus glutinosa is dated to 7640 ± 85 yr BP, but there is possible evidence for a Late-glacial presence of the tree, the significance of which is discussed in relation to other sites in east Yorkshire. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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| Keywords: | Late-glacial pollen analysis magnetic susceptibility soil erosion Alnus glutinosa |
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