Late Glacial and Early Postglacial Environmental History of the Central Grampian Highlands, Scotland

1975 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 265 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. C. Walker
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
History Of

The Mesolithic site Ullafelsen in the Fotsch Valley (Tyrol, Austria) – a biomarker perspective

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Zech ◽  
Marcel Lerch ◽  
Marcel Bliedtner ◽  
Clemens Geitner ◽  
Dieter Schäfer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Analytical Data ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Swiss Alps ◽  
Peat Bogs ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Alpine Regions ◽  
Bavarian Alps ◽  
History Of

<p>The archaeology of high mountain regions got high attention since the discovery of the copper age mummy called "Ötzi" in the Ötztaler Alps in 1991. Results of former archaeological research projects show that mesolithic hunter-gatherers lived in Alpine regions since the beginning of the Holocene, 11,700 years ago (Cornelissen & Reitmaier 2016). Amongst others, the Mesolithic site Ullafelsen (1860 m a.s.l.) and surroundings represent a very important archaeological reference site in the Fotsch Valley (Stubaier Alps, Tyrol) (Schäfer 2011). Many archaeological artifacts and fire places were found at different places in the Fotschertal, which provides evidence for the presence and the way of living of our ancestor. The "Mesolithic project Ullafelsen" includes different scientific disciplines ranging from high mountain archaeology over geology, geomorphology, soil science, sedimentology, petrography to palaeobotany (Schäfer 2011). Within an ongoing DFG project we aim at addressing questions related to past vegetation and climate, human history as well as their influence on pedogenesis from a biomarker and stable isotope perspective (cf. Zech et al. 2011). Our results for instance suggest that (i) the dominant recent and past vegetation can be chemotaxonomically differentiated based on leaf wax-derived <em>n</em>-alkane biomarkers, (ii) there is no evidence for buried Late Glacial topsoils being preserved on the Ullafelsen as argued by Geitner et al. (2014), rather humic-rich subsoils were formed as B<sub>h</sub>-horizons by podsolisation and (iii) marked vegetations changes likely associated with alpine pasture activities since the Bronce Age are documented in Holocene peat bogs in the Fotsch Valley. Nevertheless, there remain some challenges by joining all analytical data in order to get a consistent overall picture of human-environmental history of this high mountain region.</p><p>Cornelissen & Reitmaier (2016): Filling the gap: Recent Mesolithic discoveries in the central and south-eastern Swiss Alps. In: Quaternary International, 423.</p><p>Geitner, C., Schäfer, D., Bertola, S., Bussemer, S., Heinrich, K. und J. Waroszewski (2014): Landscape archaeological results and discussion of Mesolithic research in the Fotsch valley (Tyrol). In: Kerschner, H., Krainer, K. and C. Spötl: From the foreland to the Central Alps – Field trips to selected sites of Quaternary research in the Tyrolean and Bavarian Alps (DEUQUA EXCURSIONS), Berlin, 106-115.</p><p>Schäfer (2011): Das Mesolithikum-Projekt Ullafelsen (Teil 1). Mensch und Umwelt im Holozän Tirols (Band 1). 560 p., Innsbruck: Philipp von Zabern.</p><p>Zech, M., Zech, R., Buggle, B., Zöller, L. (2011): Novel methodological approaches in loess research - interrogating biomarkers and compound-specific stable isotopes. In: E&G Quaternary Science Journal, 60.</p>

Late Weichselian Environmental History in Southeastern Sweden during the Deglaciation of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet

1987 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svante Björck ◽  
Per Möller
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Climatic Data ◽  
Basal Ice ◽  
Tundra Vegetation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Weichselian

AbstractLate Weichselian litho-, bio-, and chronostratigraphy (14C and varves) in southeastern Sweden provide a detailed picture of the deglaciation pattern and dynamics, shore displacement, late-glacial sedimentation, and history of the landscape, vegetation, and climate. Two plausible glacial models were tested against lithologic, chronologic, and climatic data. Permafrost at and outside the ice margin and topographic conditions beneath the ice apparently caused inward spread of frozen glacier-bed conditions. This led to a buildup of a large zone of debris-rich basal ice. A climatic amelioration about 12,700 yr B.P. changed the temperature profile in the ice sheet. Deposition of basal melt-out till began at the previously frozen glacier bed, and a rapid recession of the clean ice set in; thin exposed debris-rich basal ice which was separated from the active ice margin about 150 yr later. In this zone of stagnant ice there followed a 200– 300-yr period marked by subglacial and supraglacial melt-out and resedimentation, forming a large hummocky/transverse moraine. The mild climate favored rapid plant immigration, and a park-tundra was established. The gradual closing of the landscape was interrupted by a 100- to 150-yr period of tundra vegetation and a cool, dry climate, with local vegetational differences caused by differences in soil moisture. About 12,000 yr B.P. a second climatic amelioration set in, and during the next 1000 yr a birch (and pine) woodland gradually developed. Soils stabilized and Empetrum heaths became abundant as the climate gradually deteriorated at the end of this period. By 11,000 yr B.P. the area had become a tundra again with scattered birch stands, dominated by herbs such as Artemisia, Chenopodiaceae, grasses, and sedges. Some 500 yr later a birch/pine woodland again succeeded, and within about 500 yr the vegetation changed to a rather closed woodland as the climate ameliorated further. However, the time lag between climatic and vegetation change was considerable.

Late Pleistocene and early Holocene environmental history of southwestern Washington State, U.S.A.

1984 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 619-629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy W. Barnosky
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Cascade Range ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Olympic Mountains ◽  
Tundra Vegetation ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
History Of ◽  
Glacial Time

A comparison of pollen records and associated plant remains from sites along a major precipitation gradient in southwestern Washington enables reconstruction of the late Quaternary environment during glacial and early Holocene time. During the Evans Creek Stade (25 000 – 17 000 years BP) little moisture reached lowlands east of the Olympic Mountains and as a result both the Puget Trough and the Columbia Basin featured a cold dry climate and parkland–tundra vegetation In glacial time, greatest aridity seems to have occurred between 19 000 and 17 000 years BP. After 17 000 years BP the development of mesophytic subalpine parkland suggests that maritime conditions extended farther east into the Puget Trough, and the Cascade Range became an important precipitation divide. Conditions warmer and (or) drier than today developed throughout western Washington between 10 000 and 8000–6000 years BP. Vegetation on opposite sides of the Cascade Range became dissimilar as early as 17 000 years BP, but this trend was accentuated in late glacial and early Holocene time.

scholarly journals Holocene paleoclimatic and paleohydrological changesin the Sárrét basin, NW Hungary

2008 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 25-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pál Sümegi ◽  
Sándor Gulyás ◽  
Gergő Persaits
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Core Profile ◽  
History Of ◽  
Water Species

According to detailed sedimentological and paleontological analyses carried out on samples taken from the Sárrét–Nádasdladány core-profile, a complete environmental history of a neotectonic depression was drawn. The sequence is composed of fluvial-lacustrine and marshland deposits which started to accumulate during the Late Glacial and culminated at the beginning of the Holocene. The highly characteristic changes in the biofacies were linked to changes in the lithofacies within this sequence. A transition in the dominance of moving water species, observable initially in lacustrine species preferring well-lit, well-oxygenated conditions was observed. Eventually, the littoral and eutrophic lacustrine species, as well as marsh-dwellers, became dominant in the profile, marking the emergence of uniform peat land in the Sárrét Basin.

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