Quaternary Newsletter

Quaternary Newsletter Vol. 150 February 2020 i

NUMBER 150 FEBRUARY 2020

Quaternary Newsletter

A publication of theQuaternary Research Association

ii Quaternary Newsletter Vol. 150 February 2020

QUATERNARY NEWSLETTEREDITOR:Dr A. Stone Geography, School of Environment, Education and Development, The University of Manchester,

Arthur Lewis Building, Oxford Road, M13 9PL (e-mail: [email protected])

Instructions to authors

Quaternary Newsletter is issued in February, June and October. Articles, reviews, notices of forthcoming meetings, news of personal and joint research projects etc. are invited and should be sent to the Editor. Closing dates for submission of copy (news, notices, reports etc.) for the relevant issues are 5th January, 1st May and 1st September. These dates will be strictly adhered to in order to expedite publication. Articles must be submitted at least 6 weeks before these dates in order to be reviewed and revised in time for the next issue of QN, otherwise they may appear in a subsequent issue.

Suggested word limits are as follows: obituaries (2000 words); articles (3000 words); reports on meetings (2000 words); reports on QRA grants (800 words); reviews (1000 words); letters to the Editor (500 words); abstracts (500 words). Authors submitting work as Word documents that include figures must send separate copies of the figures in .eps, .tif or .jpg format (minimum resolution of 300 dpi is required for accurate reproduction). Quaternary Research Fund and New Researchers Award Scheme reports should limit themselves to describing the results and significance of the actual research funded by QRA grants. The suggested format for these reports is as follows: (1) background and rationale (including a summary of how the grant facilitated the research), (2) results, (3) significance, (4) acknowledgments (if applicable). The reports should not (1) detail the aims and objectives of affiliated and larger projects (e.g. PhD topics), (2) outline future research and (3) cite lengthy reference lists. No more than one figure per report is necessary. Recipients of awards who have written reports are encouraged to submit full-length articles on related or larger research projects

NB: Updated guidelines on the formatting of contributions are now available via the QRA webpage and from the editor.

© Quaternary Research Association, London 2019.

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COVER PHOTOGRAPHMoraines at Corrie Fee at the head of Glen Cova in Scotland (see the field report of the joint QRA/GLWC Field Meeting inside this issue).

mailto:[email protected]

Quaternary Newsletter Vol. 150 February 2020 1

EDITORIAL

I hope you have all had a good start to 2020.

At the start of 2020 we wish congratulations to Charlotte Bryant and Neil Roberts for their honorary memberships of the QRA. We also wish congratulations to Natasha Barlow, who receives the Lewis Penny Medal and to Jim Rose, who receives the James Croll Medal. We also thank the Leeds Quaternary team for hosting a wonderful 2020 Annual Discussion Meeting.

I write as my last issue of QN as editor. It has been an extremely rewarding four years, and a pleasure to serve on the committee and interact with so many members of the QRA via contributions to QN. The publication is a wonderful reflection and reminder of the vibrant and exciting research that is being undertaken by all of you. I would particularly like to thank Jim Rose for his legacy as editor in transforming the QN into the format that we still appreciate today, and one that encourages and supports the submission of research articles and reviews, in addition to reports relating to funding awarded and the discussion and field meetings of the society. I would also like to thank all of the contributors to QN who have written reports, articles, reviews and obituaries, as well as reviewers who willingly give their time and energy to peer review of articles. A huge debt of thanks is owed to Val Siviter for typesetting QN and distributing those hard copies that head to copyright libraries and to any members opting in to have a ‘blue book’ posted to them. The move of QN to electronic distribution was a decision voted in by the membership during 2016 and implemented from 2017. It has provided an opportunity to increase the length of articles and the inclusion of colour photographs and weblinks, and also allowed the QRA to direct the funds that used to be spent on a large print and postage bill toward outreach, geoconservation and support for research and conference attendance for our members.

The new editor of QN is Sarah Woodroffe, who researches Holocene and recent sea-level changes and how these connect with ice sheet history, crustal response to surface loading and predictions of future sea-level change. After studying a BA in Geography (featuring mostly physical geography) at Durham, University she completed an MSc. Her PhD research focussed on relative sea-level changes in Cleveland Bay in Queensland, Australia, supervised by Ian Shennan and Jerry Lloyd at Durham Univeristy. Sarah is an Associate Professor at the Geography Department at Durham University. She currently works on records from key locations associated with the Greenland Ice Sheet and supervises a range of PhD student projects that look at locations from the Antarctic to New Zealand. Sarah is an expert in the development and application of sediment and microfossil-

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based methodologies. I wish Sarah well for her term as QN editor and hope that members of the QRA will continue to be supportive of QN, making her task an enjoyable one.

With many thanks and all best wishes.

Abi StoneDepartment of Geography University of Manchester

Arthur Lewis BuildingOxford Road

Manchester, M13 9PL [email protected]



SPOTLIGHT ON A SITEQRA50: TOP 50(80) QUATERNARY SITES – SPOTLIGHT ON A

SITE: LEET HILL, NORFOLK, ENGLAND.

In celebration of Jim Rose’s James Croll Medal we will visit a site that provides impressive exposures of Bytham River gravels in eastern England in Norfolk (Figure 1). The site was nominated by Ian Candy.

Here is a summary of the entry from Silva and Phillip (2015, p 55):

• Leet Hill is known for its exposures of Bytham River gravels and glacial sediments from the Middle Pleistocene, both of which are some of the finest available in Eastern England.

• The progressive evolution of the Bytham is evidenced here, along with evidence of its interaction with an ice advance.

• Leet Hill is central to the construction of river terraces of the Bytham River and also debates around an ice advance during a pre-Anglian glaciation.

Figure 1. A view of Leet Hill Site of Special Scientific Interest (photo credit Dudley Miles, Creative Commons).


References (and key sources for the site)

Lee, J., Rose, J., Candy, I., Moorlock, B., Hamblin, J.O. (2008). Leet Hill (TM 384 926): pre-Anglian river and glaciofluvial outwash sedimentation. In: Candy, I., Lee, J., Harrison, A. (Eds.) The Quaternary of northern East Anglia: field guide. Quaternary Research Association, 102-113. (Quaternary Research Association. Field Guide).

Lee, J. R., Rose, J., Hamblin, J. O., Moorlock, B. S. P. (2004). Dating the earliest lowland glaciation of eastern England: a pre-MIS 12 early Middle Pleistocene Happisburgh Glaciation. Quaternary Science Reviews, 23, 1551-1566.

Rose, J., Lee, J. A., Candy, I., Lewis, S. G. (1999). Early and Middle Pleistocene river systems in eastern England: evidence from Leet Hill, southern Norfolk. Journal of Quaternary Science, 14, 347-360.


JAMES CROLL AWARDJAMES CROLL MEDAL – JIM ROSE

The James Croll Medal is the highest award of the QRA and is named in honour of James Croll (1821-1890). Croll is most closely associated with fundamental work on the astronomical theory of the ice ages, but he also made seminal contributions on the glacial geology of Scotland, on the mechanisms that drive ocean circulation and the impact of that circulation on recent climate, on tidal theory and the rotation of the Earth. These are all major issues that occupy Quaternary scientists to this day. Croll was effectively self-taught. His work and example demonstrate that any individuals from all backgrounds can rise to national eminence and generate science of lasting and major international impact, and that it is not who you are or where you come from but what you do that is important. These are the qualities that the QRA seeks to celebrate in the award of the James Croll Medal.

The Medal is therefore normally awarded to a member of the QRA who has not only made an outstanding contribution to the field of Quaternary science, but whose work has also had a significant international impact.

This year, the QRA is delighted to make the Award to Professor Jim Rose. Jim is Emeritus Professor of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London and a Visiting Research Associate at the British Geological Survey, having previously held the Gordon Manley Chair of Geography at RHUL, and been head of Department at RHUL and Birkbeck, University of London. Jim has a BA and DSc in Geography from the University of Leicester and is recipient of the Murchison Award and Victoria Medal from the Royal Geographical Society, the Coke Medal from the Geological Society and the Foulerton Award from the Geologists’ Association. He has also been elected as an Honorary Member of the UK Quaternary Research Association, the German DEUQUA, a Life member of INQUA and an Honorary Fellow of RHUL and Clare Hall Cambridge.

Jim’s main research interests cover a wide range of Quaternary science and process geomorphology and sedimentology. These include glacial sediments and bedforms, palaeohydrology, palaeopedology, displaced shorelines, glacial stratigraphy of the British Isles, Early and Middle Pleistocene stratigraphy of Eastern and Midland England, and Northern Europe region, climate and environmental change through the Last interglacial/ Last glacial in Europe, environmental change and Human occupancy of Britain and Borneo. Highlights of this research include the introduction of the bedform concept to glacial geomorphology, recognition of the scale of river activity in relation to short-term climate change in Europe, introduction of palaeosols to the British Quaternary stratigraphy and a major


Jim Rose receiving the medal from Neil Glasser (LH, photo: Abi Stone) and Jim enjoying his medal and a taste of Leeds (RH, photo: Adrian Palmer).

revision of the Early and Middle Pleistocene stratigraphy of Britain. An outcome of his work on early Middle Pleistocene landscapes is the discovery of the Bytham River (the largest river in England prior to lowland glaciation) and the recognition of the presence of Humans on the British land area over 750,000 years ago. Most recently he has been working to on the designation of Quaternary landscapes through a process-based stratigraphy so that information can be provided for end-users such as engineers, utilities, and local authorities who need to manage that landscape. Currently he is attempting to write-up a vast backlog of research in matters of geomorphology and environmental change, particularly in response to climate change.

He has been a member and Deputy Chair of the Geography Panel of the HEFCE RAE in 1996 and 2001 respectively, was Deputy Chair of the Earth Sciences Panel for the Netherlands Universities Research Assessment Exercise in 2002, and has acted as reviewer for courses and appointments throughout Europe and in North America. He has been President of the Quaternary Research Association, British Representative to the INQUA Congress, Chairman and member or chair of a number of UK Natural Environment Research Council Committees, a member of Council of the Royal Geographical Society. Jim was Editor-in-Chief of Quaternary Science Reviews for 14 years until 2008, Editor-in-Chief of the Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association for 9 years until 2017, as well as a member of the Editorial Board of Quaternary International, Quaternary Research, Boreas, Journal of Quaternary Science and Eiszeitalter und Gegenwart / Quaternary Science Journal. He has been a Scientific Advisor to English Nature, and a member of the Natural England Science Advisory Board.


Outside the academic arena he has acted as Chairman of the Trustees of the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre, a key venue on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site for the study of our geological and geomorphological heritage. It is a pleasure to make this award to Jim on behalf of the QRA.

Selected key publications:

Rose, J., Allen P., Hey, R. W. (1976). Middle Pleistocene stratigraphy in southern East Anglia. Nature, 263, 492-494.

Rose, J., Letzer, J. M. (1977). Superimposed drumlins. Journal of Glaciology, 18, 471-480.

Dickson, J. H., Stewart, D. A., Thompson, R., Turner, G. Baxter, M. S., Drndarsky, N. D. Rose, J. (1978). Palynology, palaeomagnetism and radiometric dating of Flandrian marine and freshwater sediments of Loch Lomond. Nature, 274, 548-553.

Perrin, R. M. S., Rose, J., Davies, H. (1979). The distribution, variation and origin of pre-Devensian tills in eastern England. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, 287, 535-570.

Bowen, D. Q., Rose, J., McCabe, A. M., Sutherland, D. G. (1986). Correlation of Quaternary Glaciations in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Quaternary Science Reviews, 6, 299-340.

Rose, J. (1994). Major River Systems of Central and Southern Britain during the Early and Middle Pleistocene, Terra Nova, 6, 435-443.

Rose, J. (1995). Lateglacial and early Holocene river activity in lowland Britain. Palaeoclimate Research/ Paläoklimaforschung, 9, 51-74.

Rose, J., Meng, X., Watson, C. (1999). Palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental responses in the western Mediterranean over the last 140 ka: evidence from Mallorca, Spain. Journal of the Geological Society, 156, 435-448.

Rose, J, Moorlock, B. S. P., Hamblin R. J. O. (2001). Pre-Anglian Fluvial and Coastal Deposits in Eastern England: Lithostratigraphy and Palaeoenvironments. Quaternary International, 79, 5-22.

Parfitt, S. A., Barendregt, R. W., Breda, M., Candy, I., Collins, M. J., Coope, G. R., Durbidge, P., Field, M. H., Lee, J. R., Lister, A. M., Mutch, R., Penkman, K. E. H., Preece, R. C., Rose, J., Stringer, C. B., Symmons, R., Whittaker, J. E., Wymer, J. J., Stuart, A. J. (2005). The earliest record of human activity in Northern Europe. Nature, 438, 1008-1012.

Barker, G., Barton, H., Bird, M., Daly, P., Datan, I., Dykes, A., Farr, L., Gilbertson, D., Harrisson, B., Hunt, C., Higham, C., Kealhofer, L., Krigbaum, J., Lewis, H., McLaren, S., Paz, V., Pike, A., Piper, P., Pyatt, B., Rabett, R., Reynolds, T., Rose, J.,


Rushworth, G., Stephens, M., Stringer, C., Thompson, G. The ‘human revolution’ in lowland tropical Southeast Asia: the antiquity and behaviour of anatomically modern humans at Niah Cave (Sarawak, Borneo). Journal of Human Evolution, 52, 243-261.

Rose, J. (2009). Early and Middle Pleistocene landscapes of eastern England. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, 120, 3-33.

Rose, J., (2010). The Quaternary of the British Isles: factors forcing environmental change. Journal of Quaternary Science, 25, 399-418.

Palmer, A. P., Rose, J. and Rasmussen, S-O. (2012). Evidence for phase-locked changes in climate between Scotland and Greenland during GS-1 (Younger Dryas) using micromorphology of glaciolacustrine varves from Glen Roy. Quaternary Science Reviews, 36, 114-123.

Böse, M., Lüthgens, C., Lee, J. R., Rose, J. (2012). Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe. Quaternary Science Reviews, 44, 1-25

Booth, S., Merritt, J. Rose, J. (2015). Quaternary Provinces and Domains – a quantitative and qualitative description of British landscape types. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, 126, 163-187.

Brown, A. G., Tooth, S., Bullard, J. E., Thomas, D. S. G. Chiverrell, R. C., Plater, A. C., Murton, J., Thorndycraft, V. R., Tarolli, P., Rose, J., Wainwright, J., Downs, P., Aalto, R. (2017). The Geomorphology of The Anthropocene: Emergence, Status and Implications. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 42, 71-90.

Palmer, A. P., Bendle, J. M., MacLeod, A. M., Rose, J., Thorndycraft, V. R. (2019). The micromorphology of glaciolacustrine varve sediments and their use for reconstructing palaeoglaciological and palaeoenvironmental change. Quaternary Science Reviews, 226, 105964.

Prof. Neil Glasser (QRA President)Department of Geography and Earth Sciences

Aberystwyth UniversityWales

SY23 [email protected]



RESPONSE

I am very honoured and proud to receive the Croll Medal from the QRA and I would like to thank those who nominated me. I have thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of my career and have been fortunate to ‘be around’ at the time when Quaternary Science exploded on the scientific scene, and I would like to thank all those with whom I have worked whether they have agreed with my findings or not! This award gives me particular pleasure. Firstly, because it is from the QRA which represents a subject of critical importance to science and society. Secondly because I have always been a great admirer of James Croll, who developed his work whilst employed as a janitor at the Andersonian Institute in Glasgow – a building I passed many times whilst doing my PhD thesis at Glasgow. Indeed I attempted to read his work while a research student and had to cut the pages of a hitherto unopened copy of the Philosophical Magazine in order to access the text (a not unusual practice at that time). Thirdly I am delighted to be presented with this award in Leeds. I was born and brought-up in Yorkshire, and Leeds was my Mecca where I would go to see a cricket test-match or attend a meeting of the Yorkshire Geological Society.

I would like to say a few words about Quaternary Science. As indicated above, I think it is a very important science, and its multidisciplinary content gives it immense power because perspectives from the different disciplines give it global relevance, and act a challenge to complacency and self-reinforcement. I firmly believe that Quaternary Science must never forget the processes upon which it is built. No matter how elegant the constructed models of climate and environmental change are, it must never be forgotten that these models are only as good as our understanding of the processes that underpin them. This is critical, whether the processes be based on geoscience, bioscience, atmospheric science, marine science, earth engineering, historical record and perception, or human participation. All are relevant and we must use the basic principles to underpin and challenge each new Quaternary concept. The Quaternary concepts will in turn enhance the meaning, relevance and value of the process involved. With this in mind, I would like to compliment the organisers of this meeting. It is timely and important and (as a retrospective comment) has been an exceptionally good meeting – dealing with matters that are of critical importance and involving outstanding presentations and organisations. I hope that some of the finding from this meeting can be put into the more ‘popular’ domain; indeed I hope that future meetings may select certain topics that can be brought to the attention of the national and international media.

I would like to conclude by saying a few words about myself. When listening to the young (relative to me) presenters at this meeting I am impressed and overwhelmed by the knowledge, rigour and vitality of the research community. I am proud to be part of such a vibrant community. When I started my studies


I did ‘little bits of many things’. I think this was acceptable at the time as there was relatively little scientific background; access to land and quarries was easy, and there were many sections! Nowadays there is much greater understanding and challenge and it is necessary to work on a narrow range of science, but in much greater depth and with a much greater range of (wonderful) techniques. Nowadays it is harder work and, I think, the results are more important. I just wish I were starting again! However, if I were, I would not be getting this medal, so I can’t have everything! Thank you!

Jim RoseEmeritus Professor (Geography)

Department of GeographyRoyal Holloway University of London

EghamSurrey, TW20 0EX

[email protected]



LEWIS PENNY AWARD

LEWIS PENNY MEDAL – NATASHA BARLOW

The Lewis Penny Medal is aimed at a young or new research worker who has made a significant contribution to the Quaternary stratigraphy of the British Isles and its maritime environment.

This year, the QRA is delighted to make the Award to Natasha Barlow. Natasha Barlow is an Associate Professor in Quaternary Environmental Change in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds, where she has been for the last 3 years, setting up ‘Leeds Quaternary’ alongside Prof Graeme Swindles. Prior to this Natasha was based in the Department of Geography at Durham University where she did her undergraduate, PhD and a further seven years as a postdoc. She was fortunate to learn from and work alongside excellent sea level scientists, being supervised during her time there by Profs Ian Shennan and Antony Long, as well as mentored by many of the wider Quaternary research community in the Department.

Natasha Barlow receiving the medal from Neil Glasser (photo: Abi Stone).


Natasha’s research career initially focused on Alaska where she worked sea-level changes associated with both large subduction zone earthquakes, as well as glacial isostatic adjustment during the Little Ice Age. Her viva was opened with the line: “thank you for trying to do an impossible thing, in the world’s most difficult location!”

As a postdoc, Natasha’s research moved closer to home, initially working on the Sea Level 500 project with Antony Long and Prof Roland Gehrels, where she led work developing the first 2000 year-long sea level record for the eastern side of the North Atlantic. This resulted in a love of North West Scotland where she has returned repeatedly since, publishing papers on Holocene sea-level change, the Storegga tsunami and modern diatom assemblages. In 2014 she was co-leader of the international PALSEA workshop in Lochinver which saw the likes of Peter Clark, Glenn Milne and Andrea Dutton, amongst others, spend 4 days in a remote hunting lodge during the Scottish Independence Referendum – a conference experience never to be forgotten!

Natasha then translated her skills to reconstructing sea level during previous interglacial periods, initially as part of the iGlass project. This was the first time that a Holocene-type sea level approach, including the ideas of sea level tendencies and indicative meaning, had been applied to estuarine sediments from these time periods. She published research revaluating the sea-level history of the classic Nar Valley sequences in Norfolk, and assessing Last Interglacial records from North West Europe for potential evidence of ice sheet instability. In 2018 she led a review in Nature Geoscience which questions the prevailing view for a substantial sea-level fluctuation in the Last Interglacial.

Since moving to Leeds, Natasha has focused her attention in the offshore realm; utilizing new industrial data, she is currently supervising early career researchers, and working with Dutch colleagues to reconstruct the late Quaternary landscape response to transgressions in the North Sea region. In 2018 Natasha was awarded an ERC Starting Grant to reconstruct the rates and magnitudes of Last Interglacial sea-level change in the region. She is also currently a Co-I on the C-SIDE project which aims to understand the drivers of carbon storage in salt marshes around the UK; she a leader of the PAGES and INQUA PALSEA working group; and co-founded and led the QRA Sea Level and Coastal Change working group from 2015-2018 alongside Dr Sarah Woodroffe. An acceptance by Natasha will appear in a forthcoming issue of QN.

Prof. Neil Glasser (QRA President)Department of Geography and Earth Sciences

Aberystwyth UniversityWales, SY23 3DB

[email protected]



Selected References:

Emery, A.R., Hodgson, D.M., Barlow, N.L.M., Carrivick, J.L., Cotterill, C.J., Phillips, E. (2019). Left High and Dry: Deglaciation of Dogger Bank, North Sea, Recorded in Proglacial Lake Evolution. Frontiers in Earth Science, 7: 234. https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00234

Capron, E., Rovere, A., Austermann, J., Axford, Y., Barlow, N.L.M., Carlson, A.E., de Vernal, A., Dutton, A., Kopp, R.E., McManus, J.F., Menviel, L., Otto-Bliesner, B.L., Robinson, A., Shakun, J.D., Tzedakis, P.C., Wolff, E.W. (2019). Challenges and research priorities to understand interactions between climate, ice sheets and global mean sea level during past interglacials. Quaternary Science Reviews, 219, 308-311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.06.030

Haywood, A.M., Valdes, P.J., Aze, T., Barlow, N., Burke, A., Dolan, A.M., von der Heydt, A.S., Hill, D.J., Jamieson, S.S.R., Otto-Bliesner, B.L., Salzmann, U., Saupe, E., Voss, J. (2019). What can palaeoclimate modelling do for you? Earth Systems and Environment, 3(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41748-019-00093-1

Shennan, I., Brader, M.D., Barlow, N.L.M., Davies, F.P., Longley, C., Tunstall, N. (2018). Late Holocene paleoseismology of Shuyak Island, Alaska. Quaternary Science Reviews, 201, 380-395. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.10.028

Barlow, N.L.M., McClymont, E.L., Whitehouse, P.L., Stokes, C.R., Jamieson, S.S.R., Woodroffe, S.A., Bentley, M.J., Callard, S.L., Ó Cofaigh, C., Evans, D.J.A., Horrocks, J. R., Lloyd, J.M., Long, A.J., Margold, M., Roberts, D.H., Sanchez-Montes, M.L. (2018). Lack of evidence for a substantial sea-level fluctuation within the Last Interglacial. Nature Geoscience., 11(9), 627-634. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-018-0195-4

Barlow, N.L.M., Long, A.J., Gehrels, W.R., Saher, M.H., Scaife, R.G., Davies, H.J., Penkman, K.E.H., Bridgland, D.R., Sparkes, A., Smart, C.W., Taylor, S. (2017). Relative sea-level variability during the late Middle Pleistocene: new evidence from eastern England. Quaternary Science Reviews, 173, 20-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.08.017

Barlow, N.L.M., Bentley, M.J., Spada, G., Evans, D.J.A., Hansom, J.D., Brader, M.D., White, D.A., Zander, A., Berg, S. (2016). Testing models of ice cap extent, South Georgia, sub-Antarctic. Quaternary Science Reviews, 154, 157-168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.11.007

Long, A.J., Barlow, N.L.M., Dawson, S., Hill, J., Innes, J., Kelham, C., Milne, F., Dawson, A. (2016). Lateglacial and Holocene relative sea-level changes and first evidence for the Storegga tsunami in Sutherland, Scotland. Journal of Quaternary Science, 31(3), 239-255. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2862

Garrett, E., Barlow, N., Cool, H., Kaufman, D., Shennan, I., Zander, P. (2015). Constraints on regional drivers of relative sea-level change around Cordova,

https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00234

https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00234

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.06.030

https://doi.org/10.1007/s41748-019-00093-1


https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-018-0195-4

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-018-0195-4





https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2862


Alaska. Quaternary Science Reviews, 113, 48-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.12.002

Saher, M., Gehrels, W., Barlow, N., Long, A., Haigh, I., Blaauw, M. (2015). Sea-level changes in Iceland and the influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation during the last half millennium. Quaternary Science Reviews, 108, 23-36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.11.005

Long, A., Barlow, N., Busschers, F., Cohen, K., Gehrels, W., Wake, L. (2015). Near-field sea-level variability in northwest Europe and ice sheet stability during the last interglacial. Quaternary Science Reviews, 126, 26-40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.08.021

Shennan, I., Barlow, N., Carver, G., Davies, F., Garrett, E., Hocking, E. (2014). Great tsunamigenic earthquakes during the last 1000 years on the Alaska megathrust. Geology, 42(8), 687-690. http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G35797.1

Barlow, N., Long, A., Saher, M., Gehrels, W., Garnett, M., Scaife, R. (2014). Salt-marsh reconstructions of relative sea-level change in the North Atlantic during the last 2000 years. Quaternary Science Reviews, 99, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.06.008

Watcham, E., Shennan, I., Barlow, N. (2013). Scale considerations in using diatoms as indicators of sea-level change: lessons from Alaska. Journal of Quaternary Science, 28(2), 165-179. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2592

Barlow, N., Shennan, I., Long, A., Gehrels, W., Saher, M., Woodroffe, S., Hillier, C. (2013). Salt marshes as late Holocene tide gauges. Global and Planetary Change, 106, 90-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2013.03.003

Barlow, N.L.M., Shennan, I., Long, A.J. (2012). Relative sea-level response to Little Ice Age ice mass change in south central Alaska: Reconciling model predictions and geological evidence. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 315-316, 62-75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2011.09.048







http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G35797.1



https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2592

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2013.03.003

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2011.09.048


HONORARY MEMBERS

Every year we invite nominations for Honorary Members of the QRA. These nominations are in recognition of significant, long-standing contributions to the QRA and to Quaternary science more widely. This year I am delighted to say that we have awarded Honorary Membership of the QRA to Neil Roberts and Charlotte Bryant.

NEIL ROBERTS

Neil’s research interests focus on understanding the long-term, two-way relationship between people, climate and environment. They include the analysis of lake sediment archives using diatom, stable isotope, pollen and charcoal analyses; climate changes at the end of the last ice age and how they affected the emergence of Neolithic farming; and the human transformation of land cover in Europe and the Mediterranean during the Holocene. Much of his work has been carried in close collaboration with archaeologists and historians.

Neil completed his doctorate in 1980 at UCL under the supervision of Claudio Vita-Finzi, Rick Battarbee and David Harris. This was followed by a post-doctoral post at Oxford working with Alayne Street-Perrott on the global lake level data base, as part of the COHMAP programme. His first lecturing position was at Loughborough University (1981 to 1998), where he wrote the first edition of his book The Holocene – now in its third edition (2013). From 1998 to 2018 he was professor of Geography at the University of Plymouth, where he still holds an Emeritus Chair. He also has an honorary doctorate from Ankara University in Turkey (2018) and he is now visiting research fellow in Archaeology at Oxford University (2018-2024). In 2006, he was the sole non-US member of the North


committee of the US National Academies on “Surface temperature reconstructions for the past 2000 years”, established at the request of the US Congress to evaluate the Hockey Stick debate. The following year he was visiting Blaustein Professor at Stanford University. He has served on numerous national committees, including those of the Royal Geographical Society, NERC and the British Institute in Turkey.

Neil has authored over a hundred refereed journal articles, including papers in Nature and Science. He been an editor of The Holocene journal (1991-2007), Quaternary Science Reviews (2008-2019) and from January 2020 he is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Quaternary Science for the QRA.

CHARLOTTE BRYANT

Charlotte was appointed to the NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory (now Facility, NRCF), East Kilbride, in 1995. Her initial remit was to develop the AMS 14C analytical capability and capacity of the Laboratory and to ‘communicate across a wide range of environmental science areas’ under the guidance of Head of Laboratory, Doug Harkness (QRA Honorary Member, 2012). Communication and collaboration with the science user communities from project inception, grant proposals, field and lab work, data interpretation to publication was a feature of all NERC Facilities. The provision of NERC Facilities support to UK scientists was said to be the envy of international scientists because the approach was effective in producing analytical data that was meaningful to the research project, allowed the Facilities to properly understand the research requirements, to develop techniques at the forefront of research areas and provided scientists with support at all stages of their projects. PhD student training visits were also an important component


of the work. Many of these students became researchers who continued their collaborative links with the Laboratory. NRCF has always had a close relationship with the Quaternary community, including the many members who have served on the NRCF Steering Committee.

Charlotte’s ability to communicate across a wide range of environmental science areas is based on a broad education in environmental science, encouraged by an exceptional geology teacher at 6th form college. Her Environmental Science BSc (1988) from University of London QMW, covered freshwater ecology, limnology, soil science, geology and chemistry. A NERC funded PhD studentship in the Chemistry Department of University of Edinburgh on Heavy Metals and Radionuclides in Scottish Freshwater Loch Sediments (1993), with additional supervisors at Institute Freshwater Ecology, Edinburgh and SUERC, East Kilbride developed her skills in field methods such as lake chemistry monitoring and sediment coring and analytical techniques and data interpretation, including 210Pb and 137Cs for sediment dating. Work with SUERC continued during a NERC pilot project at University of Paisley which required stable carbon isotope analysis. Thanks to Tony Fallick, Susan Waldron and the skilled technical staff at the NERC Stable Isotope Life Science Facility at SUERC the opportunity to train and use the laboratory equipment led to expertise in techniques which were closely related to some of the methods used for 14C AMS sample preparation. The advent of 14C AMS, which reduced sample size requirements by about 1000-fold (compare with radiometric 14C), opened up a wide range of new opportunities for materials for radiocarbon analysis and significantly increased demand across all science areas requiring 14C data, including Quaternary science and using 14C to elucidate the carbon cycle in terrestrial and aquatic systems. The need for additional AMS capability to meet this demand was well recognised and supported by the science user community. Charlotte increased the AMS sample preparation capacity and capability at NRCF and was co-applicant on the successful £3M Joint Infrastructure Funding bid for the first AMS at SUERC (also enabling the NERC Cosmogenic Isotope Analysis Facility to be established at SUERC) and later on the NERC funding bid for a second AMS to further increase analytical capacity at the SUERC AMS Laboratory.

After returning from maternity leave in 2000 to part time hours Charlotte became Head of NRCF in East Kilbride, following Doug Harkness’ retirement. Charlotte continued to work closely with the scientific user community and as demand continued to increase for more sample numbers, smaller samples and novel sample types it was important in leading NRCF into the future to appoint further science staff. A range of areas of expertise covered by the new staff ensured that support for all stages of projects continued, supported by skilled technical staff who also trained many visiting PhD students. Charlotte worked closely with Christopher Bronk Ramsey (Head of NRCF Oxford node at University of Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit) following NERC creating a two node NRCF. The success of this benefitted scientists and PhD students accessing the Facilities.


Collaboration of both Laboratories with Prof Takeshi Nakagawa (University of Newcastle) and UK and International colleagues on the NERC grant funded project ‘Lake Suigetsu varved sediment project: terrestrial radiocarbon calibration model and inter-regional comparison of climate changes’ also led to the first complete terrestrial radiocarbon calibration from 11.2 to 52.8kyr BP (Bronk Ramsey et al., 2012). Charlotte’s co-authorship on 100 publications, most of which are with the NERC Radiocarbon Facility science user community reflect her contribution and enthusiasm to work closely with many colleagues in the Quaternary Community. Charlotte retired from NRCF in 2016.


REVIEWSHANDBOOK OF LUMINESCENCE DATING

Bateman, M.D. (2019)

ISBN: 978-184995-395-5

Published by: Whittles Publishing, Dunbeath.

416 pages; hardcover GBP 90.

Within the Handbook of Luminescence Dating a cast of expert-practitioners explore the wide range of applications of luminescence dating that are employed by Quaternary scientists, archaeologists and geologists. The authorship, well-chosen by Mark Bateman, include scientists across a range of career stages and hosted across a broad geographical swath of academic institutions. Speakers with a handful of European voices. Readers who become interested in exploring the fascinating literature further will learn of the rapid growth of the application of luminescence dating within China and of the early expertise offered by research groups in India, amongst other non-western research laboratories. Only four of the twelve chapters are co-authored, which may reflect a deliberate decision to achieve a consistency of written styles and tone. However, bringing a wider range of perspectives and practical experiences to each of the methodological or application chapters through a wider authorship, may have also brought merit. Five of the eighteen authors are female, which doesn’t fully reflect the wider field of luminescence dating, where there is greater gender balance and perhaps even a current imbalance towards early career female scientists.


The book includes three very useful opening chapters that: (i) take the reader through the scientific principles of luminescence dating, including interesting historical insights, (ii) explain the decisions and approaches to be taken in the field and (iii) provide an explanation of statistical procedures employed in the analysis of chronological datasets. These chapters achieve aclear and concise treatment of these themes, and are each written with a skill that holds the interest of the reader. The use of key figures provide effective visual aids that help to communicate the scientific underpinnings of the method. The inclusion of diagrams throughout the book is consistently useful. A minor niggle for the reader is that these don’t follow a fully uniform style, for example in font styles and font size used within labels on the figures. The index has been well assembled and is useful alongside the clear chapter structure when navigating the themes within the book.

The scope of coverage of the eight application chapters is excellent and comprehensive. This ensures that this book will serve as a valuable reference point in this field. It has been designed for readers who are either learning to use the technique first hand or are seeking to have a clear idea of what to expect if they are working with geochronologists to have some material dated. The content and tone of the book conveys to the reader that luminescence dating methods are far from a plug-and-play commercial service, making it clear that producing a chronology requires a detailed understanding of both the geomorphological processes and the luminescence characteristics of the sample. The implication of this message is that, at the very least, luminescence ages are ‘coproduced’ with geochronology expert practitioners and are informed by a comprehensive understanding of sediment transport, burial conditions and any observations during field sampling.

Given the wide applicability to windblown depositional sediments to luminescence dating, it is sensible that there are two chapters devoted to this application. Chapter 4 focusses on the sand sized materials (which perhaps should have also been reflected in the chapter title), whilst Chapter 5 explores the finer-grained loessic material. Both chapters draw on a wide range of global applications and case studies to explore opportunities, challenges and developments. Chapter 6 focusses on glacial and periglacial environments, with an appropriate emphasis for the need for a strong understanding of geomorphological processes and depositional context. This message is reiterated for fluvial and hillslope applications in Chapter 7, which are shown to have a very wide and successful range of dating applications. Chapter 8 covers coastal and marine sediment dating, an environment where an increasing number of successful applications are being made, despite some additional methodological challenges, such as dose rate calculations in marine sediments. In chapter 9 the promise of the contribution of luminescence dating to understanding the behaviour of tectonic faults and the generation of earthquakes is explored, alongside a recognition of methodological challenges in this setting. Archaeological contexts are outlined in Chapter 10, an application for which there is great demand for luminescence as a geochronological tool but also challenging


research questions and technical methodologies issues to be addressed. The relatively new field of rock exposure dating is described within Chapter 11 with a comprehensive overview of equations and models used within these techniques. The book continues to employ a logic to the chapter order, leading from this newest field of application to a final chapter (Chapter 12) on future developments in luminescence dating. This detailed, yet concise chapter picks up on themes and challenges explored throughout the book, and highlights additional developments relating to the technology and equipment. The latter include: (i) field portable luminescence readers, (ii) radiography to image spatial variations in dose rate and (iii) charge coupled devices for use with scientific cameras to spatially resolve luminescence signals within a range of materials.

This book will certainly be a useful resource to direct undergraduate, masters and doctoral students towards. Each application chapter gives very clear examples and throughout helps to reiterate the important message gained in the first three chapters that luminescence dating is far from ‘plug-and-play’ commercial method. Successful luminescence dating requires a nuanced understanding of sample geology and geomorphology as well as an appreciation of the suitability of individual samples to the range of laboratory protocols that have been, and continue to be, developed. This important point about methodological development is expanded upon within the final chapter on future developments.

In summary, this book is an extremely valuable addition to the literature on luminescence dating. It offers something unique within the literature by providing an introduction to principals, practicalities and potential applications all within the same volume, with the aim of introducing a newly interested geochronologist to the technique in a manner which is accessible. It certainly achieves this aim and more than this. It is written and assembled in manner that is as fun and fascinating to read as it is informative.

Abi StoneQuaternary Environments and Geoarchaeology Research Group

Department of GeographyUniversity of Manchester

Arthur Lewis Building Oxford Road

Manchester, M13 [email protected]



QUATERNARY RESEARCH FUND

RECONSTRUCTING RECENT SEA-LEVEL CHANGE USING MICROATOLLS

Background and rationale

The record of the rapid acceleration of global sea-level rise, from pre-industrial times into the era of modern global warming, is informally known as the ‘sea-level hockey stick’ curve. Understanding the geographical pattern of the acceleration and its timing is of importance in identifying the causes of the rapid rates of recent sea-level rise, both natural and anthropogenic. Most ‘hockey stick’ sea-level data have so far been collected from salt marshes (Kopp et al., 2016). However, a main limitation of this approach is that salt marshes are geographically restricted to middle and high latitudes. There are many areas in the tropics where precise reconstructions of historical sea-level changes have not yet been established.

In past decades, a new technique has been developed to reconstruct sea-level changes from tropical regions using microatolls (Meltzner and Woodroffe, 2015). To learn more about this technique, Gehrels joined a University of Auckland expedition in May 2018 to Kiritimati (Christmas Island), in the central Pacific Ocean. Kiritimati is part of the Republic of Kiribati and the largest atoll island in the world. The aim of the trip, funded in part by the QRA, was to produce a detailed local reconstruction of historical sea-level changes using microatolls as proxy sea-level indicators.

Geophysical theory predicts that Kiritimati can be regarded as a key location for the study of global sea-level change. The reason for this is that Kiritimati is tectonically stable and located in a part of the world’s oceans where melting from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets combine to produce a maximum ‘sea-level fingerprint’ (Mitrovica et al., 2001). In most other oceanic regions ice-sheet contributions from opposite hemispheres tend to cancel each other out. Turning this around, sea-level reconstructions from Kiritimati, in combination with those from lower latitudes, therefore have the potential to quantify sea-level contributions from the polar ice masses in the recent historical past.

Methods

In 2017 the University of Auckland team collected slabs of two living micro-atolls in Kiritimati. The sampled corals, from Northeast Point (LMA-1) on the north side and Cecile Peninsula (LMA-3) on the south side of the island, were used to reconstruct recent sea-level changes. In May 2018 Gehrels visited the sample sites and conducted extensive GPS surveys to link the microatolls to tide levels and


establish their precise position in a 3-dimensional framework. Back in York, CT scans and x-ray imagery were used to identify annual growth bands in the slabs. This work was done in collaboration with visiting graduate student Shen. The sea-level reconstructions were based on annual Height of Living Coral (HLC) measurements (Smithers and Woodroffe, 2001) after careful horizontal calibration and growth band reconstruction. We compared the reconstructions with nearby tide-gauge records to assess their validity.

Results

Slabs LMA-1 and LMA-3 provided contrasting results. The reconstruction for LMA-1 spans the period 1964-2017 and follows the 5-yr moving average of the tide-gauge record (Figure 1). In the early part of the record, the microatoll was growing upward, but by the mid-1970s it started to track pentadal changes in sea level. There are signals of the two largest ENSO events, in 1983 and 1998, which led to a drop in sea level and a synchronous die down or growing pattern change of the microatoll. From the reconstruction it can be observed that, following the ENSO events, the microatoll went through a phase of recovery that lasted up to

Figure 1. Sea-level changes in Kiritimati reconstructed from two live microatolls, and compared with local tide-gauge records (monthly data obtained from the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level, www.psmsl.org; station 1371 for 1974-2015 and station 801 for 1956-1972). Only LMA-1 has recorded sea-level changes, whereas LMA-3 has been in a permanent ‘catching up’ phase. HLC – annual Height of Living Coral.

http://www.psmsl.org


a decade before it tracked sea level again. A smaller ENSO event, in 1988 is not recorded; we hypothesize that the microatoll had not yet recovered from the previous event.

In contrast, slab LMA-3 did not provide a useful sea-level reconstruction. The record spanned the period of 1974-2017, but it appears that the microatoll was growing gradually in a vertical direction throughout its lifespan and never was strongly affected by sea-level change. The coastal settings of LMA-1 and LMA-3 are similar except that LMA-3 is relatively more seaward compared with LMA-1. Based on our limited information, we hypothesize that hydro-geomorphic conditions, such as ponding, made LMA-3 unsuitable for sea-level reconstruction.

Significance

Microatolls can have low-frequency and multiple responses to sea-level changes. These are manifested as growing pattern changes, die downs, and abrupt HLC drops. Long-lived microatolls can therefore record sea-level changes over multi-annual timescales. However, it is important to identify hydrographic and geomorphic conditions to ensure that the microatolls track sea-level changes. Despite this limitation, our study shows the potential for live microatolls to record pentadal-scale sea-level changes beyond the tide-gauge era and provide supplementary data from tropical regions for sea-level ‘hockey stick’ research

Acknowledgments

We thank the team from the University of Auckland (Paul Kench, Carlos Carvajal, Oliver Knebel, Susan Owen, Emma Ryan) for inviting one of us (RG) to join their expedition to Kiritimati. Funding was provided by the QRA Quaternary Research Fund. Supplementary financial support was provided by the Worldwide University Network Research Mobility Programme.

References

Kopp, R. E., Kemp, A. C., Bittermann, K., Horton, B. P., Donnelly, J. P., Gehrels, W. R., et al. (2016). Temperature-driven global sea-level variability in the Common Era. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(11), E1434–E1441. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1517056113

Meltzner, A.J., Woodroffe, C.D. (2015). Coral microatolls. In: Shennan, I. et al. (eds.), Handbook of Sea-Level Research, AGU/Wiley, p. 125-145.

Mitrovica, J. X., Tamisiea, M. E., Davis, J. L., & Milne, G. A. (2001). Recent mass balance of polar ice sheets inferred from patterns of global sea-level change. Nature, 409(6823), 1026–1029. https://doi.org/10.1038/35059054


Smithers, S. G., & Woodroffe, C. D. (2001). Coral microatolls and 20th century sea level in the eastern Indian Ocean. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 191(1–2), 173–184. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0012-821X(01)00417-4

Roland GehrelsDepartment of Environment and Geography

University of [email protected]

Yingchu ShenPeking University

[email protected]




INVESTIGATING THE POTENTIAL TO INTERPRET ANDQUANTIFY HISTORIC GRAZING DENSITY FROM POLLEN

DIVERSITY AND COPROPHILOUS FUNGAL SPORES IN TRADITIONAL HIGH-NATURE-VALUE FARMED

LANDSCAPES

Background and rationale

Palaeoecology contributes much to our understanding of contemporary ecological dynamics. However, enduring problems limit the application of palaeoecological analysis to conservation ecology; these problems include interpreting detailed biodiversity change from rare taxa in pollen diagrams and understanding the fine-scale drivers of that change (e.g. Seddon et al., 2014). Secure interpretation of the herbaceous pollen signal is important to biodiversity studies from palaeoecology. Similarly, coprophilous fungal spores may be especially useful in determining the abundance of wild herbivores, and thus grazing intensity, in the landscape.

Over the past two decades palaeoecologists have increasingly used coprophilous fungal spores as a proxy for grazing activity (Baker et al. 2013, Perrotti and Van Asperen 2019). The relationship between fungal spore presence and diversity and grazing intensity, is however, still unclear. Further testing of the relationship between fungal spore presence and herbivore presence is still required (Feranec et al., 2011, Baker et al., 2013). Some correlations between quantities of fungal spores and precipitation or surface wetness have been noted (Van Asperen et al., 2019). In this project, we investigate the abundance and diversity of coprophilous fungal spores in an area subject to high precipitation. We use moss polster samples from fields in the south west of Ireland, grazed by traditional Kerry cattle, to test the relationship between fungal spore presence and cattle presence.

Results

Thirty moss polsters were collected during August 2018 within three currently and formerly grazed fields on the Muckross Estate, Killarney National Park, Co. Kerry. Grazing is by Kerry cattle with additional evidence of deer.

1. The Lawns field is currently grazed.

2. The Hilliards field was grazed earlier in the summer and rested for 6 weeks.

3. The West meadow was grazed seasonally until 6 years ago.

We selected three sites in each field: 1. an area under a tree; in currently grazed areas these had particularly high levels of dung presence; 2. open grassland; 3. from shrubby or rocky areas where grazing pressure was low. At each site three


moss polster samples were collected to allow assessment of within, and between, sample diversity. Where moss was scarce (especially in the open grassland), a turf/vegetation sample was taken instead. A rapid vegetation survey for species presence was undertaken around each site so that pollen could be analysed against vegetation presence in addition to the correlation of coprophilous fungal spores with grazing herbivore presence. In addition we collected controls in an ungrazed nearby woodland area. Fungal spore counting is ongoing.

Significance

We have previously collected samples from the Chillingham Wild Cattle Park in Northumberland, England. Analysis of that data shows that variation in precipitation has a clear seasonal and annual impact on fungal spore influx rates (Van Asperen et al., 2019) and can complicate the signal (Wood and Wilmshurst, 2012). The addition of sites in Ireland with traditional herds of a similar smaller cattle breed should allow for a direct comparison with the Chillingham data. Originally this project was designed to provide an assessment in an area where precipitation was high; however, the long hot summer drought of 2018 will provide us with an opportunity to compare drier summers in each area. The results, once finalised, will contribute to our developing understanding of the ability to reconstruct past herbivore abundance from coprophilous fungal spore analysis and therefore our understanding of grazing impact via non-pollen palynomorph analyses. This will be important for applied palaeoecology in pursuit of conservation objectives in high-nature-value farming and also highly relevant to understanding Quaternary vertebrate palaeoecology, especially for the impact of large herbivores on woodland throughout the Holocene.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to staff at Killarney National Park for facilitating access to land and providing information on grazing density. The July 2018 fieldwork was supported by a QRA Quaternary Research Fund Award. This research will allow a complementary comparison with samples collected at Chillingham Wild Cattle park from 2013 to 2018 in a project funded by the Leverhulme Trust (Early Career Fellowship ECF-2013-517: Eline van Asperen) and a QRA Quaternary Research Fund award (2017: Eline van Asperen).

References

Baker, A.G., Bhagwat, S.A. and Willis, K.J. (2013). Do dung fungal spores make a good proxy for past distribution of large herbivores? Quaternary Science Reviews, 62, 21-31.


Feranec, R.S., Miller, N.G., Lothrop, J.C., Graham, R.W. (2011). The Sporormiella proxy and end-Pleistocene megafaunal extinction: A perspective. Quaternary International, 245, 333-338.

Perrotti, A.G., Van Asperen, E.N. (2019). Dung fungi as a proxy for megaherbivores: opportunities and limitations for archaeological applications. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 28, 93-104.

Seddon, A.W., Mackay, A.W., Baker, A.G., Birks, H.J., Breman, E. , Buck, C.E., Ellis, E.C., Froyd, C.A., Gill, J.L., Gillson, L. , Johnson, E.A., Jones, V.J., Juggins, S. , Macias‐Fauria, M. , Mills, K., Morris, J.L., Nogués‐Bravo, D., Punyasena, S.W., Roland, T.P., Tanentzap, A.J., Willis, K.J., Aberhan, M. , Asperen, E.N., Austin, W.E., Battarbee, R.W., Bhagwat, S., Belanger, C.L., Bennett, K.D., Birks, H.H., Bronk Ramsey, C., Brooks, S.J., Bruyn, M. , Butler, P.G., Chambers, F.M., Clarke, S.J., Davies, A.L., Dearing, J.A., Ezard, T.H., Feurdean, A., Flower, R.J., Gell, P., Hausmann, S., Hogan, E.J., Hopkins, M.J., Jeffers, E.S., Korhola, A.A., Marchant, R. , Kiefer, T., Lamentowicz, M., Larocque‐Tobler, I., López‐Merino, L., Liow, L.H., McGowan, S., Miller, J.H., Montoya, E., Morton, O., Nogué, S., Onoufriou, C., Boush, L.P., Rodriguez‐Sanchez, F., Rose, N.L., Sayer, C.D., Shaw, H.E., Payne, R., Simpson, G., Sohar, K., Whitehouse, N.J., Williams, J.W. and Witkowski, A. (2014). Looking forward through the past: identification of 50 priority research questions in palaeoecology. Journal of Ecology, 102(1), 256-267.

Van Asperen, E.N., Kirby, J.R. and Shaw, H.E. (2019). Relating dung fungal spore influx rates to animal density in a temperate environment: Implications for palaeoecological studies. The Holocene, doi.org/10.1177/0959683619875804.

Wood, J.R. and Wilmshurst, J.M. (2012). Wetland soil moisture complicates the use of Sporormiella to trace past herbivore populations. Journal of Quaternary Science, 27(3), 254-259.

Helen ShawICARUS/Department of Geography, Maynooth University

[email protected]

Eline N. van AsperenDepartment of Anthropology / Department of Biosciences

Durham University, Durham DH1 3LEUnited Kingdom

[email protected]

Jason R. KirbySchool of Natural Sciences and Psychology

Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 3AF United Kingdom

[email protected]





REPORTSJOINT QRA/GLACIAL LANDSYSTEMS WORKING GROUP

FIELD MEETING

Glen Clova Scotland, 24th-27th October 2019

Introduction

This year’s annual Glacial Landsystems Working Group trip, now in its 20th year, was to the area in and around Glen Clova. The trip ran from the evening of Thursday 24th until Sunday 27th October. The trip was well attended, with 30 attendees at all stages of careers from PhD to professorships (Figure 1).

The field meeting was based at the spectacular Glen Clova Hotel where attendees congregated on Thursday 24th October 2019. After dinner Wishart Mitchell introduced the area and noted that some of the landforms to be visited were some of the first in Scotland to be described within the new glacial theory by the eminent geologist, Sir Charles Lyell. Despite this, the QRA has not made any field trips to the area with the nearest being Aberdeen in 1975. However, the landforms are of particular interest since they reflect the interaction of highland and lowland ice. Several maps were displayed to allow us to get our bearings for the numerous field sites to be visited over the next three days. The three days developed a number of themes; firstly the local LLS glaciation of upper Glen Clova and the high plateau of The Mounth (Eastern Grampians); secondly to examine the nature of the Strathmore Ice Steam (SIS) margin along the Highland Boundary Fault (HBF), particularly the eskers and numerous large meltwater channel systems; and thirdly the ice limits and former lake development within middle and lower Glen Clova where there was evidence of interaction between local Mounth ice and the SIS during deglaciation. In the second talk of the evening, David Jarman introduced us to the rock slope failures (RSF) in Glen Clova of which there are many, although generally rare in the remainder of eastern Scotland (Jarman, 2006).

Day 1 – Friday 25th of October - Sites in upper Glen Clova

Site 1 Corrie Fee

Day one started with a hike up to the head of Glen Clova to the spectacular Corrie Fee. Martin Kirkbride introduced us to the numerous moraines situated on the corrie floor. Two sets of moraines were identified and their age discussed (Figure 2). The “Group 1 moraines” consisted of a series of hummocks up to 10 in height, grouped into nested, elongated arcs. In contrast, “Group 2 moraines” consisted of a series of terraces running along the northern side of the corrie 60 m above the previously described hummocks. It was discussed whether these two sets of moraines represented two separate ice advances during the Younger Dryas


Figure 1. Delegates at the entrance to Corrie Fee.

and whether the terraces corresponded to a glacial limit further down the valley previously mapped by Sissons (1972). After a short hike up the side of the corrie a view down onto the moraines below made them appear streamlined possibly indicating later modification by ice also during the Younger Dryas. A sinuous ridge within the corrie bottom may be an esker but evidence of an obvious water source for such a feature appeared lacking. A quick traverse along the bottom of the corrie headwall took us across a debris flow deposit including several impressive examples of large chipped and broken boulders that had detached from the steep slope above during a heavy rainstorm in July 2015.

Figure 2. Moraines discussed at Corrie Fee.


Site 2 Corrie Brandy

After lunch back at the hotel the delegates set off up the valley side directly behind the hotel to the next site, Corrie Brandy. In contrast to Corrie Fee, Corrie Brandy only contains one distinct outer moraine. Martin Kirkbride led discussion about glacier reconstruction within the corrie based on the distinct outer moraine, while Ian Evans extended the discussion beyond the Quaternary to discuss corrie formation (Figure 3). Emrys Phillips talked about the bedrock geology and the implications of this in terms of landscape evolution in the area. As well as the fantastic view offered, another distinctive feature of Corrie Brandy is a very recent (within the last 3 years) rockfall deposit within an active RSF. Gareth Carter explained the LIDAR monitoring of the site that is currently being undertaken by the BGS to look for any signs of millimetre movement on the slope and the possible geohazards this may pose. David Jarman highlighted other relict RSF’s within the corrie and of particular note a large translational slide with incipient scarps and a 130 m slipped slice of material slumping down the corrie headwall, leaving a 100 m wide scar in the landscape.

Site 3 Corrie of Clova

The next stop was in the neighbouring Corrie of Clova. In contrast to Corrie Brandy, there are no obvious glacial landforms suggesting the corrie was not glaciated during the Younger Dryas in contrast to published reconstructions of Sissons (1972). The group discussed the possibility that this may be due to the base of the corrie being located at a slightly lower altitude compared to the neighbouring

Figure 3. Ian Evans, Wishart Mitchell and Martin Kirkbride disucssing glacier reconstruction and correi formation.


corries. Two areas of the corrie backwall also showed evidence of relict RSFs. In the evening Andrew Russell gave a presentation introducing some of the sections in lower Glen Clova and along the HBF to be visited the following day.

Day 2 – Saturday 25th October - Sites along the HBF and lower Glen Clova

Site 1 – West Kinwhirrie esker

Day two started with visits to sites along the Highland Boundary to the West of Glen Clova. This area contains a set of landforms representing the complex interaction of the Strathmore Ice Stream (SIS) and eastern Highlands ice, some of which occupied Glen Clova during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and subsequent retreat. The West Kinwhirrie Esker was introduced by Wishart Mitchell in context of a complex thinning, change of flow direction and retreat of the SIS. Surrounding the esker were numerous well developed glacifluvial mounds composed of stratified sand and gravel. The West Kinwhirrie esker runs in an east-west orientation over a distance of ~600 m. A small pond prevented direct access to the esker but Andrew Russell explained possible esker formation processes and corresponding sedimentary structures. The esker displays a coarse-grained core draped with finer sands and gravel interpreted to be deposited within a subglacial conduit with sediment transport oblique to the conduit centre (Brennand & Shaw, 1996). The esker and surrounding glacifluvial landforms correspond a possible margin of the SIS during deglaciation and Dave Roberts highlighted the significance of changing ice sheet geometry in this area and the implication this had for deglaciation of the North Sea post LGM.

Site 2 – Quharity Den esker

Next was a first for GLWG, a site introduced through a musical interlude, the appropriately named “Gravel Pit” by the Wu-Tang Clan. The gravel pit in question at the second site of the day was the Quharity Den esker section described by Andrew Russell. The Quharity Den esker is part of a wider network of channels and eskers corresponding to a major sub-marginal meltwater corridor associated with the SIS. In contrast to the West Kinwhirrie esker, two distinct crudely stratified gravel facies can be identified separated by a sharp erosional contact. Deformation and slumping can be observed in association with two collapse structures likely relating to melt-out of buried ice. The two gravel units provide evidence for at least two major phases of deposition and discussion followed as to whether this occurred englacially or possibly supraglacially.

Site 3 – Auldallan Channel

With a tight schedule, the next quick stop was to the impressive Auldallan meltwater channel, not only spectacular because of its scale, up to 100 m in depth, but also


the large esker contained within the channel. The esker along with several terraces within the meltwater channel are thought to record a former ice margin during a stillstand that interrupted the westward recession of the SIS. On the drive along the channel there was evidence that in some locations the channel was eroded into bedrock.

Site 4 - Coul eskers

Close-by, the Coul eskers are situated between extensive glacifluvial mounds. Wishart Mitchell pointed out several examples of unbranching and bifurcating eskers among numerous mounds and depressions that may indicate a former ice margin during deglaciation. These eskers were formed by meltwater draining eastwards towards the Auldallan channel. A clear view onto the Sidlaw hills promoted discussion about their role in directing the flow of Strathmore ice during deglaciation. Dave Roberts pointed out the Sidlaw Hills in the distance where the two sets of ice flow lines are recorded corresponding to eastern flow when ice was thick enough to flow over these topographic highs followed by north east flow when Strathmore ice thinned enough for the Sidlaws to exert topographic control.

Site 5 – Scott-Wilson Monument Meltwater Channel

A lunch stop was made in a sunny Kirriemuir followed by a trip to the Scott-Wilson monument in Glen Prosen recording the fact that Edward Wilson lived in the nearby Burnbank Cottage where Captain Robert Falcon Scott visited to plan the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition. In contrast to Glen Clova, Glen Prosen appears as a wide open glen with limited glacial modification. The Scott-Wilson Monument (Figure 4) is at the west end of a major meltwater channel that extends 1 km eastwards from the monument and has eroded by up to 40 m in depth through the interfluve separating Glen Prosen and Glen Clova.

Figure 4. The Scott-Wilson Monument.


Site 6 – Cullow Market

Cullow Market, in lower Glen Clova, contains landform-sediment assemblages that mark the former boundary that separated local ice from the eastern Highlands and the SIS (Figure 5). The first stop introduced by Wishart Mitchell was to Cortachy Cemetery, where a series of mounds were seen across the hillside. These mounds were deposited at the margin of the SIS as it flowed across the entrance to Glen Clova and was in contrast to lower Glen Clova which contained terrace surfaces which are composed of stratified fine grained sediment suggesting sedimentation in a lake impounded during the unzipping of the two ice masses. Even better views of the glen were afforded a short walk away to the banks of the River South Esk. From here a reddish brown till section on the east side of the river is thought to be associated with the SIS but it was not possible to get any closer to the section for a detailed look at the exposed sediments.

A discussion amongst the group led by Wishart Mitchell, Martin Kirkbride and Dave Roberts developed the possibility of an ice-dammed lake in the vicinity. Also clearly visible on the eastern side of the River South Esk were meltwater channels at different altitudinal levels which could be related to lake levels within the area during deglaciation. The deposition of ice marginal deposits either subaerially or subaqueously was a continuing theme of discussion amongst the group for the remainder of the day. The Cullow Market terraces just a short walk from the car park was the next stop. Unfortunately few sections are available through these terraces and the one section showing stratified laminated silts and clays was difficult to access because of a new fence.

Figure 5. View from our field stop at Cullow market with Martin Kirkbride discussing the possibility of an Ice-dammed lake.


Site 7 – The Glenarm Moraine

The Glenarm Moraine (Figure 6), about 3 km up Glen Clova, was first described by Charles Lyell (1841) and is thought to be one of the first moraines to be described in the scientific literature. Rather than a singular ridge, the Glenarm Moraine consists of a series of transverse ridges up to 10 m in height, extending up the western valley side. Cristina Balaban started a lively debate as to whether the ridge was a moraine or if other possible interpretations could be made. Dave Roberts suggested the ridge may be an esker with water sourced in a depression further up the western valley side while Dave Evans noted that if it were a moraine it was unlike any he had previously come across.

The group agreed that the ridges and corresponding deposits were related to ice marginal deposition but again it was difficult to determine if this had occurred subaerially or subaqueously. Three sections (E1, E2 and F) in the lower part of two of the ridges where introduced by Andrew Russell and contained stratified sand, gravel and silt units with some evidence of soft sediment deformation. It was discussed among the group whether this could relate to a grounding line proximal deposit. Martin Kirkbride also discussed samples taken from the sections for optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating which unfortunately gave a wide spread of ages making firm time constraints of the age of the deposits difficult to narrow down.

Figure 6. View of the Glen arm moraine.


Day 3 – Sunday 26th of October - Sites in Middle Glen Clova

Site 1 – The Rottal Moraines

The final day of the field trip started with a hike led by Wishart Mitchell up the eastern side of Glen Clova at the Rottal Estate following a distinct series of ridges up the valley side for about 2.5 km (Figure 7). The ridges provide a distinct zone of topography bounded on either side by relatively flat boggy terrain and have been regarded as marking an ice limit within Glen Clova (Charlesworth, 1956; Synge 1956). Bartosz Kurjanski suggested an alternative explanation whereby the ridges represented a medial moraine complex with local ice from the eastern corries coalescing with ice flowing down Glen Clova. A track along the side of the ridges also provided some sections primarily consisting of a basal gravel overlain by well sorted, massive sands with some of the upper sand units thought to be aeolian. Further up the valley side David Jarman pointed out valley slopes that appeared to be slumped and may represent a small RSF, as well as the larger debris mounds at Lochanluie.

Site 2 – The Wheen eskers

A short trip 1 km up valley from Rottal to the final site of the fieldtrip took us to a series of mounds and hummocks along the valley floor of Glen Clova (Figure 8). These have been interpreted as a series of eskers and kettle holes associated with stagnant ice occupying the valley bottom. Most of the eskers are relatively short but one extends for 500 m. A few small sections indicated that this part of the

Figure 7. Wishart Mitchell presenting the Rottal moraines.


valley contained significant volumes of glacifluvial sediment possibly reworked and concentrated in this area by a retreating ice margin towards upper Glen Clova. The field meeting officially came to an end with everyone sat on the side of an esker in the sunshine and thanks given in particular to Wishart Mitchell and Ailsa Guild for all the hard work that went into producing the accompanying field guide and logistical organisation of the field trip. Everyone was in agreement that the trip was a huge success and introduced us to a truly fascinating area of Scotland that many of us were unaware of before coming along on the trip.

References

Brennand, T.A., Shaw, J. (1996). The Harricana glaciofluvial complex, Abiti region, Quebec: its genesis and implications for meltwater regime and ice-sheet dynamics. Sedimentary Geology, 102, 221-262.

Charlesworth, J.K. (1956). Late-glacial history of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 62, 769-928.

Jarman, D. (2006). Large rock slope failures in the Highlands of Scotland: characterisation, causes and spatial distribution. Engineering Geology, 83, 161-182.

Lyell, C. (1841). On the geological evidence of the former existence of glaciers in Forfarshire. Proceeding of the Geological Society of London, 3, 337-345.

Sissons, J.B. (1972). The last glaciers in part of the South East Grampians. Scottish Geographical Magazine, 88, 168-181.

Figure 8. Mounds that have been interpreted as eskers along the valley floor of Glen Cova.


Synge, F.M. (1956). The glaciation of north-east Scotland. Scottish Geographical Magazine, 72, 129-143.

Benedict ReinardyInstitutionen för Naturgeografi

Stockholms Universitet106 91 Stockholm

[email protected]



ABSTRACTS QRA DISSERTATION PRIZE

QRA UNDERGRADUATE DISSERTATION PRIZE 2019We are delighted to announce that the winner of the 2019 QRA Dissertation Prize is Madeleine Wood from the University of Durham, for her thesis “An investigation into the ice marginal dynamics of the North Sea Lobe in North East England during the Late Devensian”.

Madeleine’s thesis is outstanding in its ambition and originality, its research design, and its success in tackling a difficult question in a systematic and visual way. The writing is mature and all aspects of the presentation are strong, allowing the reader to cross-reference diverse spatial information comfortably, and to link site-specific observations to regional syntheses. We were particularly impressed with the way in which competing hypotheses were explored, and strengths and weaknesses in their evidence base critiqued. Original mapping was expertly conducted across a very large area, and sound interpretations proposed. The author can be proud of this very high-level undergraduate research project.

The judges highly commend two other students whose dissertations were not far behind: Alexander Curtis (University of Oxford) “Using bioclimatic envelope modelling to test the sensitivity of pollen-based palaeoenvironmental reconstructions to taxonomic resolution”; and Alice Downham (University of Edinburgh) “Effects of moraine degradation and inheritance on cosmogenic exposure dating: insights from modelling and moraine morphology.” Both addressed challenging research questions with cutting edge numerical approaches. All the theses submitted for this year’s QRA prize are a credit to their departments, and demonstrate the interdisciplinary strength of UK Quaternary research at undergraduate level.

Judges:

Martin KirkbrideGeography and Environmental Sciences, University of Dundee, Nethergate, Dundee, Scotland, UK DD1 4HN [email protected]

Will FletcherDepartment of Geography, University of Manchester, Arthur Lewis Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL [email protected]




AN INVESTIGATION INTO ICE MARGINAL DYNAMICS OF THE NORTH SEA LOBE IN NORTH EAST ENGLAND DURING

THE LATE DEVENSIAN.

During the Late Devensian glaciation the North Sea Basin was an area affected by highly complex ice dynamics and multiple flow phases. One of the least understood of these flow phases was that of the North Sea Lobe (NSL). This was a southward expansion of ice that flowed parallel to the east coast of England for 400km damming meltwater pathways, and periodically encroaching onshore in Durham, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk. Little work has been undertaken to assess the NSL’s glacial imprint in Northumberland and Durham since the 1960s. Therefore, this project aimed to gain greater understanding about the behaviour, dynamics and relative chronology of the western margin of the NSL. A geomorphological map, created from a NEXTMap DEM, was generated in order to assess the landsystem that characterised the NSL as well as the style and relative timing of its deglaciation from North Eastern England.

Six distinct landform assemblages have been identified from this geomorphological mapping undertaken in this study, namely drumlins, eskers, kames, moraine ridge complexes, lateral and subglacial meltwater channels, and ice marginal glacio-fluvial depocentres. This has led to the following conclusions. Firstly, the NSL acted as a terrestrial piedmont lobe ice sheet, not a surging ice sheet or an ice stream as proposed by Eyles et al., (1994) and Dove et al., (2017). Secondly, the NSL’s western margin coalesced with the Tweed Ice Stream south of Berwick-upon-Tweed, as indicated by the glaciofluvial Bradford Complex. However, further south in the Tyne Lowlands and the Tees Estuary the NSL advanced onshore into ice free areas and did not coalesce with other easterly flowing ice streams. Lastly, the style of deglaciation of the western margin of the NSL was spatially and temporally variable; near Berwick-upon-Tweed retreat was rapid and continuous whereas further south retreat was slow and intermittent with multiple still-stands.

And so, this work highlights that the NSL was dynamic as it was characterised by a number of different landsystems in Northumberland and Durham, namely an interlobate land system and a terrestrial piedmont lobe landsystem, as well as deglaciation being spatially and temporally variable through the study site. The wider implications of this research include that the landforms mapped can be added to the BRITICE project’s landform inventory to improve knowledge of Late Devensian glaciation in North-East England and aid the reconstruction of the BIIS as a whole.

Madeleine WoodDepartment of Geography, Durham University

Lower Mountjoy, South RoadDurham, DH1 3LE


QUATERNARY RESEARCH ASSOCIATIONThe Quaternary Research Association is an organisation comprising archaeologists, botanists, civil engineers, geographers, geologists, soil scientists, zoologists and others interested in research into the problems of the Quaternary. The majority of members reside in Great Britain, but membership also extends to most European countries, North America, Africa, Asia and Australasia. Membership (currently c. 1,200) is open to all interested in the objectives of the Association. The annual subscription is £20 with reduced rates (£10) for students and unwaged members and an Institutional rate of £35.

The main meetings of the Association are the Field Meetings, usually lasting 3–4 days, in April, May and/or September, a 2-3 day Discussion Meeting at the beginning of January. Short Study Courses on techniques used in Quaternary work are also occasionally held. The publications of the Association are the Quaternary Newsletter issued in February, June and October; the Journal of Quaternary Science published in association with Wiley; and the QRA Field Guide and Technical Guide Series.

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President: Professor Simon Lewis, School of Geography, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS (email: [email protected])

Vice-President: Professor Jane Hart, Department of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton, University Road, Southampton, SO17 1BJ. (email: [email protected])

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OCTOBER 2019 No. 149

1 EDITORIAL

3 SPOTLIGHT ON A SITE1 Leet Hill, Norfolk, England

5 JAMES CROLL AWARD5 The James Croll Medal - Jim Rose

11 LEWIS PENNY AWARD11 The Lewis Penny Medal - Natasha Barlow

15 HONORARY MEMBERS15 Honorary Members Awarded at the 2020 AGM

19 REVIEWS19 Review of ‘Handbook of Luminescence Dating’ M.D. Bateman (Ed)(2019). Abi Stone

22 QUATERNARY RESEARCH FUND22 Reconstructing recent sea-level change using microatolls. Roland Gehrels, Yingchu Shen26 Investigating the potential to interpret and quantify historic grazing density from

pollen diversity and coprophilous fungal spores in traditional high-nature-value farmed landscapes. Helen Shaw, Eline van Asperen, Jason Kirby

29 REPORTS29 Joint QRA / Glacial Landsystems Working Group (GLWC) Field Meeting, 24-27th

October, 2019, Glen Clova, Scotland. Benedict Reinardy

39 ABSTRACTS QRA DISSERTATION PRIZE39 QRA Dissertation Prize- Judges comments, Martin Kirkbride, Will Fletcher40 An investigation into the ice marginal dynamics of the North Sea Lobe in North East

England during the late Devensian. Madeleine Wood

ISSN 0 143-2826

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