Human influence upon sedimentation in Llangorse Lake, Wales

Abstract

AbstractPalaeolimnological studies at Llangorse Lake, Wales, constitute part of the British contribution to IGCP Project 158 (The Palaeohydrology of the Temperate Zone in the Last 15000 Years). The lake has been adopted as the Reference Site for the South Wales region under Subproject 158B (Lake and Mire Environments) and is located in the Reference Area for Britain: the Severn Basin.Results of biological, physical, and multielement chemical analyses on a 12.35 m Livingstone core are presented and compared with previous analyses on short Mackereth cores taken from two troughs in the lake basin. Human impact upon post‐glacial sedimentation is assessed with reference to sediment chemistry, physical properties, and sedimentation rates, based on relative pollen, 14C, and 210Pb dating. Vegetational history of the catchment is inferred from a pollen diagram for a section of the core from c. 8 to 6.75 m depth in which evidence for human impact is first apparent. Water content, loss on ignition, and carbonate content are presented for the whole core; density, water content, loss on ignition, carbonates, and elemental analyses of P, Ca, Mg, K, Ti, Al, Fe, and Mn for the interval 6 75 and 8.25 m depth.Sedimentation rates were low during Boreal and Atlantic times (c. 9000‐ 5000 BP), rose significantly from the time of the elm decline (estimated at 5000 BP) and increased further at c. 1800 BP when nekron muds were succeeded by deposition of silty clay. Inferred rates of erosion of soils from the catchment are discussed and related to sediment chemistry.