Was there a ‘4.2 kyr event’ in Great Britain and Ireland? Evidence from the peatland record

Roland, T.P., Charman, D.J., Caseldine, C.J. and Turney, C.S.M. (2013) Was there a ‘4.2 kyr event’ in Great Britain and Ireland? Evidence from the peatland record. Holocene Climate Change, London, United Kingdom. 03 - 04 Apr 2013.

Abstract

Palaeoenvironmental and archaeological data from several regions of the world show evidence of a multi-centennial climatic event c. 4200 cal yr BP. Owing to the absence of continental ice-sheets, studies of this mid-Holocene event provide an opportunity to examine abrupt climatic change within an environmental context comparable to that of the modern day. Whilst the climatic change and/or impact of the event is clear in certain regions, such as western Asia, more work must be done to disentangle the timing and magnitude of changes in other regions, including northern Europe. A more comprehensive reconstruction of the event’s spatial and temporal variability will help determine the likely drivers of the event. Presented here are the results of a temporally-focussed, high-resolution and multi-proxy (testate amoebae, plant macrofossil, peat humification and stable isotopic analyses) examination of peat sequences from northern Ireland, with radiocarbon chronologies supplemented by the region’s excellent tephrochronology

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