Replicated proxy-climate signals over the last 2000 yr from two distant UK peat bogs: new evidence for regional palaeoclimate teleconnections

• Published in: Quaternary Science Reviews
• Main Authors: Barber, K.E., Maddy, D., Rose, N., Stevenson, A.C., Stoneman, R., Thompson, R.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2000
• Subjects: ice core
• Online Access: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/389430/

Ombrotrophic peat is an established source of proxy-climate data but previous records have been produced by different methods and have been difficult to compare. High-resolution plant macrofossil analysis has been applied to a lowland raised bog at Fallahogy, Northern Ireland, and a montane blanket bog, Moine Mhor in the Cairngorms, Scotland. Although the bogs are 300 km apart and differ floristically, the results demonstrate parallel responses to climatic forcing, especially that of the Little Ice Age. This approach provides a powerful tool for reconstructing proxy-climate records wherever suitable peat deposits exist. In contrast to the ocean and ice core records these proxies are from a terrestrial source, and related to climate changes on land over most of the Holocene.