Late Pleistocene floras from Earith, Huntingdonshire
A pit in fluviatile gravel of the River Ouse at the western edge of the East Anglian fenland has exposed several richly organic beds of Last-glacial age. A radiocarbon date of 42000 years from one bed confirms the terrace stratigraphy in placing the beds in a fairly early part of the Weichselian. Th...
Published in: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences |
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Language: | English |
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1970.0039 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.1970.0039 |
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rstb.1970.0039 2024-06-02T08:08:02+00:00 Late Pleistocene floras from Earith, Huntingdonshire 1970 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1970.0039 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.1970.0039 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences volume 258, issue 826, page 347-378 ISSN 0080-4622 2054-0280 journal-article 1970 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1970.0039 2024-05-07T14:16:42Z A pit in fluviatile gravel of the River Ouse at the western edge of the East Anglian fenland has exposed several richly organic beds of Last-glacial age. A radiocarbon date of 42000 years from one bed confirms the terrace stratigraphy in placing the beds in a fairly early part of the Weichselian. The organic beds are succeeded by cryoturbation phenomena and ice wedge casts, indicating a severely cold climate with permafrost. The beds represent former pools on the flood-plain into which plant detritus was washed from the surroundings, chiefly by melt water in the spring. Pollen is sparse, but the macroscopic plant remains indicate a vegetation dominated by dwarf willows, accompanied by many herbs of base-rich, open habitats. Identification of the macrofossils is discussed and comments are made on the ecology and taxonomy of important species. The flora contains a mixture of northern and southern distributional types, the southern including species requiring a July mean temperature approaching 16 °C. Halophytes are frequent, and four species are considered to be obligate halophytes and to demonstrate the presence of salt in the substrate. The plant mixtures are explained as a result of the peculiarly open habitats of the glacial landscape and of the climate, which appears to have had warm summers and very cold winters, with a mean annual temperature slightly below 0 °C, resulting in discontinuous permafrost. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ice permafrost wedge* The Royal Society Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences 258 826 347 378 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
A pit in fluviatile gravel of the River Ouse at the western edge of the East Anglian fenland has exposed several richly organic beds of Last-glacial age. A radiocarbon date of 42000 years from one bed confirms the terrace stratigraphy in placing the beds in a fairly early part of the Weichselian. The organic beds are succeeded by cryoturbation phenomena and ice wedge casts, indicating a severely cold climate with permafrost. The beds represent former pools on the flood-plain into which plant detritus was washed from the surroundings, chiefly by melt water in the spring. Pollen is sparse, but the macroscopic plant remains indicate a vegetation dominated by dwarf willows, accompanied by many herbs of base-rich, open habitats. Identification of the macrofossils is discussed and comments are made on the ecology and taxonomy of important species. The flora contains a mixture of northern and southern distributional types, the southern including species requiring a July mean temperature approaching 16 °C. Halophytes are frequent, and four species are considered to be obligate halophytes and to demonstrate the presence of salt in the substrate. The plant mixtures are explained as a result of the peculiarly open habitats of the glacial landscape and of the climate, which appears to have had warm summers and very cold winters, with a mean annual temperature slightly below 0 °C, resulting in discontinuous permafrost. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
title |
Late Pleistocene floras from Earith, Huntingdonshire |
spellingShingle |
Late Pleistocene floras from Earith, Huntingdonshire |
title_short |
Late Pleistocene floras from Earith, Huntingdonshire |
title_full |
Late Pleistocene floras from Earith, Huntingdonshire |
title_fullStr |
Late Pleistocene floras from Earith, Huntingdonshire |
title_full_unstemmed |
Late Pleistocene floras from Earith, Huntingdonshire |
title_sort |
late pleistocene floras from earith, huntingdonshire |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
1970 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1970.0039 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.1970.0039 |
genre |
Ice permafrost wedge* |
genre_facet |
Ice permafrost wedge* |
op_source |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences volume 258, issue 826, page 347-378 ISSN 0080-4622 2054-0280 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1970.0039 |
container_title |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
258 |
container_issue |
826 |
container_start_page |
347 |
op_container_end_page |
378 |
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1800753194849009664 |