Lateglacial vegetation change in East Yorkshire: a radiocarbon dated pollen sequence from Routh Quarry, Beverley

Abstract

Summary Pollen and radiocarbon analyses of Lateglacial Interstadial deposits from Routh Quarry, East Yorkshire, indicate the growth of open, herb-rich grassland vegetation during the early part of the Interstadial. The subsequent expansion of birch and juniper scrubland appears to have been accompanied by a brief period of landscape stability prior to a contraction in both taxa, probably as a result of a climatic cooling. A series of fluctuations in the representation of birch during the later part of the Interstadial may likewise be related to periods of climatic cooling identified in other proxy records from Britain and Europe. Successional processes at the site resulted in the growth of a brown moss fen, which in turn led to changes in the representation of certain pollen taxa, possibly connected to taphonomic factors resulting from changes in pollen source area as much as actual vegetation change. The transition to the Loch Lomond Stadial is not clearly resolved palynologically, but appears to have led to the destabilization of local soils and the deposition of a clay-silt layer over the fen deposits.