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A 7000-year record of environmental change, including early farming impact, based on lake-sediment geochemistry and pollen data from County Sligo, western Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael O'Connell ,
Beatrice Ghilardi  and
Liam Morrison
Michael O'Connell*
Affiliation:
Palaeoenvironmental Research Unit, School of Geography and Archaeology, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland
Beatrice Ghilardi
Affiliation:
Palaeoenvironmental Research Unit, School of Geography and Archaeology, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland
Liam Morrison
Affiliation:
Earth and Ocean Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail addresses:michael.oconnell@nuigalway.ie (M. O'Connell),ghilardibeatrice@gmail.com (B. Ghilardi),liam.morrison@nuigalway.ie (L. Morrison).
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Abstract

Detailed, chronologically tightly constrained, lake-sediment-based geochemical and pollen records have enabled local changes in soil erosion, woodland cover and composition, and prehistoric farming impact to be reconstructed in considerable detail. The profile opens shortly after 7800 BC when tall canopy trees were well-established and presumably in equilibrium with their environment. A distinct perturbation that involved an increase in pine and birch, a decrease in oak and a minor opening-up of the woodland is regarded as the local expression of the 8.2 ka climate anomaly. Lack of response in the geochemical erosional indicators is interpreted as evidence for drier conditions. A short-lived, over-compensation in climate recovery followed the 8.2 ka event. Neolithic farming impact is clearly expressed in both the pollen and geochemical data. Both datasets indicate that Neolithic impact was concentrated in the early Neolithic (3715–3440 BC). In the interval 3000–2700 BC there appears to have been a break in farming activity. The pollen data suggest substantially increased farming impact (both arable and pastoral) in the Bronze Age, with maximum farming and woodland clearances taking place in the late Bronze Age (1155–935 BC). These developments are poorly expressed in the geochemical record, possibly due to within-lake changes.

Keywords

GeochemistryPollen analysisPaleoecologyHuman impactClimate changeNeolithicBronze AgeIreland
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 81 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 35 - 49
Copyright
University of Washington

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