Holocene landscape change at Carn Dubh, near Pitlochry, Perthshire, Scotland

Abstract

Detailed palynological analyses, including pollen preservation and charcoal counts, and sedimentological analyses (loss-on-ignition, percentage dry weight, dry bulk density and humification), supported by 15 14C dates, were applied to a small upland (350 m OD) peat basin near Pitlochry, east-central Grampians, Scotland. Stratigraphical analyses and radiocarbon dating were also undertaken on the valley peat surrounding the basin.Organic sediment began to accumulate in the basin and on the valley floor at ca. 9800 yr BP.

Palynomorph Preservation in Volcaniclastic Rocks of the Miocene Tepoztlan Formation (Central Mexico) and Implications for Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction

“…It is therefore essential that the taphonomy of individual pollen grains is taken into account when interpreting palynological assemblages. Within the Tepoztlán Formation a clear distinction can be made between samples taken from different transport regimes (fluvial, lahar and pyroclastic flows), consistent with studies of other successions (e.g., Lowe, 1982;Tipping, 1995;Wilmhurst and McGlone, 2005) where a clear relationship between input of sediments and pollen deterioration has been recorded. As shown above, the highest percentage of well-preserved, amorphous, and crumpled palynomorphs occurs within fluvial sediments while the highest percentage of fragmented occurs within lahar deposits.…”

Aeolian deposits on a Scottish mountain summit: characteristics, provenance, history and significance

“…This peat cover thickens downslope, reaching a depth of over one metre in streambank exposures one kilometre west of the summit. Although the age of the onset of peat growth on the slopes of The Storr is unknown, blanket peat growth at other hillslope sites in Scotland is known to have begun no later than c. 3·0 calendar ka BP, and at some sites has been dated to the very early Holocene (Tipping, 1995). As much of the windblown sediment on the summit of The Storr accumulated after 3·8-3·2 calendar ka BP (the age of sample Storr 3, which underlies 235 cm of aeolian deposits; Table I), it is probable that a protective peat cover developed west of the summit during or before the main period of aeolian accumulation, inhibiting entrainment of sediment by wind.…”

Holocene reworking of drift-mantled hillslopes in the Scottish Highlands

“…Peacock, 1986;Brazier et al, 1988;Benn, 1992;Ballantyne and Benn, 1996). This temporal hiatus may simply be a figment of sampling, or it may reflect either lower magnitude and/or frequency of extreme events in the early Holocene than in the mid-and late Holocene, or slow reduction in the shearing resistance of sediments mantling steep hillslopes, possibly due to progressive pedogenesis 1995;Brooks, 1997) or removal of early Holocene forest cover. These speculations, however, can be resolved only by future investigation of sites where reworked drift containing intercalated organic horizons directly overlies demonstrably in situ till relating to final deglaciation.…”

“…Strachan, 1976;Innes, 1983aInnes, , 1985Ballantyne and Eckford, 1984;Ballantyne, 1986;Brazier et al, 1988;Brazier and Ballantyne, 1989;Tipping, 1995;Curry, 1998;Hinchliffe et al, 1998;Hinchliffe, 1999). Nevertheless, uncertainties concerning the precise timing and significance of this activity remain, and three hypotheses have been proposed to explain the causes of reworking of hillslope sediment in upland Britain during the latter half of the Holocene: the anthropogenic hypothesis, the climatic hypothesis, and the extreme event hypothesis (Ballantyne, 1991;McEwen, 1997;Ballantyne and Whittington, 1999).…”