Abstract
We report on a full-Holocene pollen, charcoal and macrofossil record from a small forest hollow in Gribskov, eastern Denmark. The Fagus sylvatica pollen record suggests the establishment of a small Fagus population at Gribskov in the early Holocene together with early establishment of other thermophilous broadleaved trees, including Quercus sp., Tilia sp. and Ulmus sp. The macrofossils contribute to the vegetation reconstruction with evidence for local presence of species with low pollen productivity or easily degraded pollen types such as Populus. The charcoal record shows frequent burning during two periods of the early Holocene and from c. 3000 cal. BP to present. The early-Holocene part of the record indicates a highly disturbed forest ecosystem with frequent fires and abundant macrofossils of particularly Betula sp. and Populus sp. The sediment stratigraphy and age–depth relationships give no clear indication of post-depositional disturbance, although a possible short-lived hiatus occurs around 6500 cal. BP. The early pollen record from thermophilous trees could indicate that there may have been some downwash following sediment desiccation through wood peat layers deposited between c. 6500 and 10,000 cal. BP, but the overall biostratigraphy is consistent with other Danish small hollow records.
Highlights
The way in which species distributions respond to variations in climate is of concern, owing to rapid, current climate change
Many palaeoecological studies have investigated how trees returned to the deglaciated areas of northern Europe during the Lateglacial and earlyHolocene climatic warming (Huntley and Birks, 1983; Iversen, 1973)
We examine the hypothesis that thermophilous tree species
Summary
The way in which species distributions respond to variations in climate is of concern, owing to rapid, current climate change. Interpretation of previous research has suggested that species spread with different speeds as rapid migration fronts from southern refugia (Bialozyt et al, 2012; Clark, 1998), and arrived in northern Europe in a predictable and consistent order (Huntley and Birks, 1983; Iversen, 1973) This view has been challenged by evidence for so called ‘cryptic refugia’ (Bhagwat and Willis, 2008; Hu et al, 2009; Magri et al, 2006; Petit et al, 2003; Provan and Bennett, 2008; Stewart and Lister, 2001; Willis et al, 2000). Segerström and von Stedingk (2003) provided limited pollen support for Kullman’s claims with finds of continuous, The Holocene 23(2)
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