부산대학교 도서관

The Last Termination ca. 21-11 cal ka BP, including the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition (LGIT) ca. 16-11 cal ka BP, represents the most recent period of abrupt climate change in which high amplitude cooling and warming events occurred on a sub-millennial scale. These events, best recorded in the Greenland ice-core records, had significant impacts on landscape change in NW Europe. Whilst there are a number of European continental sequences in which responses to these climatic shifts have been investigated, there have been limited studies in NE England. The Vale of Pickering (VoP), offers the opportunity to investigate landscape and biological response during the LGIT due to range of terrestrial archives preserved in the area which can be correlated to the LGIT. In addition, there is also archaeological evidence for repeated phases of early human occupation during this climatically unstable period in the valley. However, the lack of quantitative climatic reconstructions, detailed geomorphic mapping, and poor chronological control precludes a full understanding of the magnitude of climatic shifts, and the phasing of terrestrial responses through the Last Termination in the eastern Vale of Pickering (eVoP). On this basis, a systematic geomorphological and sedimentological reinvestigation of the eVoP was undertaken. First, detailed geomorphic mapping of the Vale, followed by depositional modelling using new and previously published sedimentary records from the Wykeham Quarry area was undertaken in order to identify new sequences in which palaeoenvironmental information can be derived. Second, sedimentological, biological (pollen, macrofossils and coleopteran) and geochemical (18O and 13C stable isotopes) techniques were applied to these sequences in order to reconstruct past climatic and environmental changes. Third, robust chronologies were developed for these sequences using radiocarbon, SAR-OSL, tephrostratigraphy and Bayesian age modelling. The results from this investigation indicate that cooling and warming events the eVoP during the LGIT are broadly in phase with the Greenland ice core record, but differ in amplitude to those recorded elsewhere in the British Isles and Western Europe. Additionally, there is evidence for dynamic hydrological, vegetational and geomorphic responses in the eVoP to the abrupt warming and cooling events. These are broadly in phase with those elsewhere in northern Europe, however the nature of these responses differs, indicating spatial variability in landscape change during this period. This has important implications for the interpretation of the archaeological record and environmental context of early human occupation during the LGIT.