Lateglacial and early holocene environmental changes along the Northwest European continental margin

Abstract

Palynological studies from two lacustrine sites, Lochan An Druim in northern Scotland and NikkupierjaVri in northern Finnmark, have demonstrated quantitative changes in the vegetation of the northwest European continental margin, following deglaciation (са 16.0 - 7.5 ka BP), and these changes have been correlated with the short term fluctuations and rapid changes in climate as recorded in the GRIP ice-core record. It has been shown that the palaeovegetation profiles from these sites, near to the potential extremities of northward penetration of warm ocean surface water during this time have recorded some of these events differentially, indicating a northward lag in response to Holocene warming that is not temporally consistent, and this has been attributed to the relative proximity of the North Atlantic Polar Front. เท addition, evidence is presented for a previously unrecorded early Holocene Icelandic cryptotephra from Lochan An Druim, together with evidence in support of a 'Younger Borroboľ cryptotephra from Lateglacial sediments of Allerød age at the same location.