Holocene evolution of a lowland Scottish landscape: Kirkpatrick Fleming. Part I, peat- and pollen-stratigraphic evidence for raised moss development and climatic change

Abstract

This series of papers addresses the principal natural and anthropogenic environmental changes that have transformed a typical lowland Scottish landscape during the Holocene. Sediment- and pollen- stratigraphic techniques, together with radiocarbon dating, are applied in this paper to the stratigraphy of a raised bog at Burnfoothill Moss, eastern Dumfriesshire, to deduce changes in groundwater levels within the bog, and by inference, changes in effective precipitation. The basin, initially a shallow pond, was rapidly colonized by fen peat at 9600 BP, possibly during a phase of drier climate, which ended at c. 8700 BP. Short-lived fluctuations in bog-surface wetness are identified before a major change to a wetter bog surface at around 7700 cal. BP, representing the transformation from fen peat to raised moss. Anthropogenic interference with surrounding woodland is believed to have destabilized the water balance within the peat. Drier bog-surface conditions occur at c. 6700 cal. BP, and a shift to a wetter climate at around 5250 cal. BP, but a perhaps more substantial wet shift is recorded at c. 4000 cal. BP. At c. 1900 cal. BP a dry climate shift is recognized, ending at c. 1200 cal. BP. Slightly prior to the 'Little Ice Age', represented by a very wet phase before c. 400 cal. BP, is a dry period between c. 600 and 400 cal. BP.