Climate research

• Main Authors: Blockley, S., Matthews, Ian, Palmer, Adrian, Candy, Ian, Kearney, Rebecca, Langdon, Peter, Langdon, Catherine, Abrook, Ashley, Lincoln, P, Farry, Amanda, Darvill, Chris, Deeprose, Laura
• Other Authors: Milner, Nicky, Conneller, Chantal, Taylor, Barry
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: White Rose University Press 2018
• Subjects: Greenland; Carr; Greenland ice cores; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/477951/; https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/477951/1/star_carr_volume_2_4_climate_research.pdf

This chapter explores the analyses of records from a former lake, Lake Flixton, which allows us to reveal the local record of climatic and environmental change that is compared to the archaeological record in Chapter 9. While the general pattern of climate change for the North Atlantic and European region is known from records such as the Greenland ice cores (Chapter 4) it is essential to have a detailed understanding of records from nearby sites. This is partly because the expression of climate change is different regionally, but also for human groups it is the local environmental response to climate change that matters most. Fortunately for the Star Carr project, the site is located next to Lake Flixton; this is a natural archive for preserving past climatic and environmental data in the form of chemical changes to the lake water, pollen profiles that record changes in the local vegetation and insects that reflect different taxa with a range of temperature tolerances, which can in turn be used to reconstruct average temperatures. This chapter outlines the different methods used to examine the Lake Flixton record and summarises the main climatic and environmental changes that occurred during the period of Mesolithic human occupation in the area.