Problems of post-Glacial refugia

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1965
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1965.0004; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.1965.0004

As the result of investigations into the coleopteran remains contained within organic deposits which were laid down after the maximum of the last glaciation I have tentatively reviewed the late- and post-Glacial faunal history of the British Isles (Pearson 1963). In corroboration of the work of botanists and palynologists (Godwin 1940, 1949, 1956, 1961) it was suggested that the stenothermal arctic element finally disappeared from the lowland fauna during a period of some 1600 years in pollen zone I. Subsequently the more thermophilous elements entered the region in some 3000 years during pollen zones IV to VII. At the time of the ice-retreat, when these faunal changes began, the landscape of north-west Europe differed considerably from the topography which we know today. The differing degrees of resistance of the various substrata to erosion would have resulted in the removal of relatively soft rocks and the formation of steep bluffs and cliffs (Piggott & Walters 1954). Accompanying the scouring out of interglacial deposits the deposition of out-wash gravels and glacial till provided habitats which were more comparable with sand-dunes and loess steppe than with those of late post-Glacial lowland soils (Pearson 1962 a ).