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Article

Latitude as a Factor Influencing Variability in Vegetational Development in Northeast England During the First (Preboreal) Holocene Millennium

by
J. B. Innes
* and
C. Orton
Geography Department, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Quaternary 2025, 8(1), 7; https://doi.org/10.3390/quat8010007
Submission received: 31 October 2024 / Revised: 6 January 2025 / Accepted: 22 January 2025 / Published: 5 February 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vegetation Response to the Hydro-Climatic Changes during the Late Quaternary)
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Abstract

:
In the North Atlantic region, the transition from the very cold Lateglacial Stadial (GS-1) to the temperate Holocene was abrupt, with a rapid increase in temperature of several degrees, after which the low-stature, cold-tolerant Stadial vegetation was replaced through the immigration and rapid succession of tall herb, heath, and shrub communities towards Betula woodland of varying density. In northeast England, pollen diagrams on a south to north transect between mid-Yorkshire and the Scottish border show that there was considerable variation in the rate at which postglacial woodland was established in the first Holocene millennium. In mid-Yorkshire’s Vale of York, the development of closed Betula woodland was swift, whereas in north Northumberland, near the Scottish border, Betula presence was low for the first several centuries of the Holocene, with open vegetation persisting and with shrub vegetation dominated mostly by Juniperus. Intermediate locations on the transect show there was a gradient in post-Stadial vegetation development in northeast England, with latitude as a major factor, as well as altitude. Transitional locations on the transect have been identified, where vegetation community change occurred. Vegetation development in the first Holocene millennium in northeast England was spatially complex and diverse, with the climatic effects of latitude the main controlling environmental variable.

1. Introduction

The retreat of Devensian glacial ice cover from lowland northern England was complete by about 17 k cal. BP [1,2], although very cold Stadial climate conditions persisted for some millennia until the Devensian Termination [3] and the lengthy transition to the succeeding Holocene Interglacial. The Lateglacial period and final switch to the early Holocene were characterised by climatic fluctuations of varying amplitude and duration [4,5,6]. The Greenland (GRIP) ice-core record [3,7,8] indicates that the temperature rise marking the start of the temperate climatic conditions of the Lateglacial Interstadial, phase GI in GRIP terminology [9,10], occurred a little after 15 k cal. BP. This Greenland age is in good agreement with, for example, calibrated radiocarbon dates in northeast England [11,12,13] for the start of organic sedimentation, caused by increased biological productivity and revegetation of the landscape under the much warmer conditions at the start of the Interstadial, although a small time lag of a few centuries exists between Greenland and Britain, probably caused by their significant latitudinal difference [14]. The warm conditions of the Interstadial were interrupted by cool periods, of which two (GRIP GI-d and GI-b) were significantly cold [15], although much less so than in the main Devensian Stadial (GS-2), were relatively brief, and lasted only a few centuries. The climate fluctuations of the Lateglacial culminated in a much more prolonged and severely cold and arid Stadial event (GRIP phase GS-1), termed the Younger Dryas [16], or the Loch Lomond Stadial in northern England. This end-Lateglacial Stadial began at about 12.8 k cal. BP, lasted about a thousand years, and was cold enough to trigger major ice readvance in northwest Scotland [17] and even for northern England to see the return of small valley glaciers to Cumbria [18] and the Pennine Hills [19], ending at c. 11.7 k cal. BP [10,20] with the start of the Holocene Interglacial.
All of the temperature and precipitation changes associated with these Lateglacial climatic fluctuations caused responses in the vegetation cover, with plants favoured or disadvantaged according to their environmental tolerances and plant community succession either accelerating or retarded/reversed in the warmer or colder climate phases, respectively [21]. The most rapid vegetation responses occurred when temperature rose sharply by several degrees at the end of the very cold GS-1 and GS-2 Stadials [22,23,24]. The steep temperature gradient at the abrupt transition to the Holocene from the Lateglacial (GS-1) Stadial [25,26,27,28,29] initiated rapid successional changes in plant communities. On the many areas of unstable bare and broken ground that existed under very cold Stadial conditions, these successions were primary, but more often secondary successions occurred on the grassy sedge–tundra and low heath vegetation that had persisted through the Stadial in more sheltered, favourable locations. Everywhere in northern England, the low-stature, cold-tolerant Stadial vegetation was replaced through the immigration and rapid succession of tall herb, heath, and shrub communities in a progression towards protocratic (pioneer) interglacial woodland [30], first manifest by Betula woods of increasing canopy density [31] and progressively supressing lower-stature herbaceous and shrub vegetation.
While the general vegetation succession trajectory towards closed early-Holocene (preboreal) Betula woodland was similar throughout northern England, there would have been various environmental factors that influenced the rate at which succession to woodland progressed and the successional pathways through which it was achieved. Not least of these was a brief episode of colder climate, the Preboreal Oscillation, that would have retarded the succession towards woodland [32,33,34] and which has been recognised in some northeast England pollen diagrams [35]. Other factors would also have had an influence at the regional level, however, and they would have operated locally at various spatial scales and complexity. These would have included latitude and its climatic effects, altitude, and surficial geology and its effects on soil stability and drainage.

2. Research Methodology

In this paper, we investigate the variability in the vegetation history across a south–north transect in northeast England during the preboreal (early Greenlandian) phase of post-Devensian vegetation development [36,37], as deduced from inspection of published pollen diagrams from the region. Innes et al. [38] noticed that there was considerable latitudinal variability across the northeast region during and after the Lateglacial Stadial (GS-1) period, with clear differences in vegetation development between mid-Yorkshire in the south and the Scottish border to the north. This paper expands upon that research, concentrating upon the influence of latitude as the primary factor in driving vegetation variability, but also considers secondary factors such as altitude where appropriate. The preboreal pollen evidence on this south–north transect across northeast England is reviewed and the influence of latitude on vegetation development is evaluated, a research methodology that has been applied successfully elsewhere [32]. For discussion purposes, lowland sites are defined as those around and below 100 m above sea level, above which altitude might be expected to have had a more significant impact on vegetation colonisation and development. Because of the lower availability of suitable depositional environments in the early Holocene, there are fewer sites recorded at high altitudes. We have identified thirty-six sites (Figure 1 and Table 1) from which to review pollen data in this analysis, concentrating upon Betula frequencies as a percentage of total land pollen as a proxy for woodland establishment and density in early and later phases of the preboreal. Sites have been excluded from the analysis where high pollen percentages of very local wetland plants confuse interpretation of the tree and shrub vegetation record, as at Wykeham Quarry in the Vale of Pickering [39].

3. The Study Area—Northeast England

For the purposes of this paper, northeast England is defined as the area between mid-Yorkshire/River Humber and the Scottish border (Figure 1), a distance of about 250 km, and which has the uplands of the Pennine and Cheviot Hills to the west, and the North York Moors to the east. Its surficial geology in the lowlands is mostly glacigenic till and varies little along the transect of sites shown on Figure 1, the region having a similar Devensian history of ice occupation and deglaciation, ice penetrating all of the Vale of York between 22 k and 19 k BP, as well as the lowland sites of east Yorkshire during the same interval [1,63,64]. The uplands of the Pennines, North York Moors, and Cheviots have either very thin glacigenic cover or none, as in the case of the unglaciated North York Moors, with thin acid soils. The latitudinal distance is sufficient to investigate whether latitude, manifest mainly as temperature differences, had a significant influence over patterns of revegetation following the end of the Lateglacial Stadial, as has been noted within Britain [65] and more widely in northwest Europe during this period [66,67].
Previous summaries of northeast England’s vegetation history [68,69,70] have recognised that there were considerable differences in both the rate of establishment and in the density of Betula woodland between the southern and northern parts of northeast England during the first (preboreal, cf. early Greenlandian) millennium of the Holocene. In his study of Lateglacial to Holocene vegetation history in north Northumberland, Bartley [56] compared his new data from near the Scottish border with the initial Holocene Betula pollen curve at his site at Tadcaster in the southern Vale of York [42], far to the south (Figure 1). He noted that at Tadcaster, fully closed Betula woodland was established extremely quickly at the start of the Holocene, whereas in north Northumberland, birch woodland was very sparse for several centuries, with open ground and shrubs including Juniperus very important, and only becoming denser towards the end of the preboreal millennium. Several subsequently published pollen diagrams from the region (Figure 1) have confirmed this apparent contrast. Innes et al. [38] noted that the persistence of Juniperus in the northern sites hindered the expansion of birchwoods northwards, perhaps from Stadial refugia in North Yorkshire [71], with a boundary apparent at the latitude of the Tees valley, the boundary between North Yorkshire and County Durham, their site at Pepper Arden Bottoms being the most northerly with a rapid Betula woodland establishment. Initial and later preboreal Betula frequencies at the sites on Figure 1 are shown in Table 1. Three apparent groupings of Betula abundance can be seen, with divisions between lowland Yorkshire, County Durham, and north Northumberland. Table 1 indicates that, even in comparable lowland areas, there seems to have been a significant latitudinal gradient in vegetation development across the northeast region after the close of the Lateglacial Stadial (GS-1).

3.1. North Yorkshire

The Betula frequencies as percentages of total land pollen at the North Yorkshire sites listed in Table 1 show that to the south of the river Tees, dense birch woodland was swiftly established during the preboreal Holocene. At sites in the southern Vale of York in the most southerly part of the transect, as at Bingley Bog [47] and Tadcaster [42], Betula frequencies rise to very high frequencies of 80% almost immediately and are maintained there. Unlike all other areas in this study, Juniperus is virtually absent in the earliest Holocene in these Vale of York sites, reflecting the absence of a shrub stage precursor to Betula woodland. It is interesting that analogous sites in eastern Yorkshire that are in the east of the southern part of the transect, at The Bog, Roos [12], and Routh Quarry [40], have lower initial Holocene Betula frequencies, although they swiftly rise to the very high levels recorded at the two most southerly Vale of York sites. In both of these eastern Yorkshire cases, local factors, including residual higher wetland herb values, made the rise of birch more gradual than in the sites in the southern Vale of York.
In northern Yorkshire, around the valleys of the rivers Ure, Swale, and Tees [44,72,73,74], the situation is more complex (Table 1), with initial Betula frequencies ranging between 30% at Killerby Quarry [46] and 60% at Marfield [44], for example, lower than in the Vale of York to the south. Local factors might well have influenced birch abundance in this area in the earliest preboreal Holocene; for example, the Nosterfield site is on a sand and gravel outwash fan [44,73] that might have favoured persistence of more open vegetation, but by the mid-preboreal Betula frequencies in this area had risen to 80%, as in the Vale of York. Sites at this latitude and in the eastern part of the transect at Skipsea Withow [41] and Lake Flixton [43] are similar to the transect sites in the Ure to Tees area, culminating in the mid-preboreal with Betula percentages around 80% of total land pollen. An anomalous site occurs at Dishforth Bog [45], where Betula frequencies begin very low at 25% and are maintained at that level in the preboreal. The early substantial presence of Coryloid pollen, presumably hazel, rising through the preboreal, supresses Betula percentages at this site, which would otherwise be similar to other sites in the Ure–Tees area. Despite local differences, however, it seems that all the sites in northern North Yorkshire, in the Ure to Tees area, had a slower trajectory towards full Betula forest cover, with variable but always lower initial Betula frequencies than in the Vale of York, and a longer pre-forest phase, although closed Betula forest with up to 80% Betula pollen frequencies was eventually established later in the preboreal. Even at the edge of the Tees valley itself, in this initial Holocene, at both Seamer Carrs [11] and Pepper Arden Bottoms [38], Betula contributes up to 60% of total land pollen, representing well-developed birch woodland, and so similar to the more southerly sites of North Yorkshire, while achieving 80% later. While Betula was clearly present in this lowland Ure–Tees area at the start of the preboreal Holocene, and therefore probably also in the later Younger Dryas [71], it was unable to expand as swiftly from such regional survival centres as the sites further south. That none of these more northerly North Yorkshire sites shows very rapid full forest establishment suggests that a macro-environmental factor was operative, although perhaps only exerting a subtle influence in this area. The evidence from higher-altitude sites in North Yorkshire (Figure 1), at Kildale Hall [48,74] and Malham Tarn Moss [50], shows low initial Betula percentages and final frequencies of only 30–40%, Juniperus and other open vegetation taxa remaining abundant. While poorly developed upland soils might have been a factor, the significantly lower temperatures at altitude might have been decisive, suggesting that temperature might have been a limiting factor in the Ure–Tees lowlands of North Yorkshire also, albeit subtly.

3.2. County Durham

There are several pollen sites in and to the north of the Tees valley, in County Durham, with which to compare the Yorkshire data (Figure 1), and Table 1 shows that there is a clear dichotomy between these two adjacent geographical areas. The County Durham sites initially show poorly developed Betula woodland with a strong Juniperus component, as at Cranberry Bog [52]. At the three sites in this area that contain initial preboreal pollen data [35,51,52], all have initial Betula frequencies of only 20–30% of total land pollen (Table 1), much lower than most of the North Yorkshire sites, even those that are very close to the Tees valley [11,38]. The six County Durham lowland sites (Table 1), including the sites that began sediment accumulation in the mid-preboreal [35], all show a maximum Betula abundance of 50–60% of total land pollen, significantly lower than almost all the Yorkshire sites. Even at maximum development, therefore, a much more open preboreal birch woodland characterised the area north of the river Tees than that to the south. It seems that the Tees valley formed a relatively sharp boundary zone on a south–north environmental gradient during the Lateglacial to Holocene climate transition and the subsequent Holocene preboreal, with even sites on the Tees valley’s southern edge [11,38] being similar to the North Yorkshire group of sites, but Burtree Lane [51] on its northern edge falling within the County Durham group. Altitude, presumably acting as a proxy for temperature, illustrates the variability in the County Durham data, as Romaldkirk [51], at a moderately higher altitude, has initial Betula frequencies similar to those at the lowland sites, but does not achieve the same final birch percentages, indicating an even more open woodland. Very high altitude pollen diagrams in the Pennines at Pow Hill [53] and at a group of sites in Upper Teesdale, as at Weelhead Moss [54], show very low initial Betula frequencies indeed, and an increase to only very limited final Betula percentages later in the preboreal. In these cases, open herbaceous vegetation persisted for a long period of time, with Juniperus-dominated scrub as the stable, higher stature vegetation. Birch must have existed locally in these higher-altitude areas but will have been confined to more sheltered locations within valleys at this time, the preboreal temperature increase having less effect with increasing altitude.

3.3. Northumberland and Southeast Scotland

The northern end of the site transect in northeast England lies around the Scottish border in northern Northumberland and southeast Scotland (Figure 1), where clusters of five more lowland pollen sites and four higher-altitude pollen sites are available (Table 1). There are major differences between all of the sites in the southern, Yorkshire part of the transect and these five lowland sites at the transect’s northern limit, as in lowland north Northumberland initial percentages of Betula in the early preboreal Holocene are very low indeed at 10–20% of total land pollen, with the cold-tolerant Juniperus [75] and the dwarf shrub Empetrum dominant. As these far-northern lowland sites are all geographically close, it is perhaps not surprising that their pollen data are very similar. This similarity mostly continues into the later preboreal, as their final Betula frequencies do not exceed 30–40%, although the site at Lilburn South Steads [57] rises to 60%, and so is analogous with the final preboreal birch percentages in the County Durham sites and is an anomaly for north Northumberland. Local factors are likely to have caused this difference, with the site at Lilburn perhaps more sheltered than the others. The pollen evidence at the upland sites in southeast Scotland is the same as for the Northumberland group in the initial preboreal, with Betula percentages of 10–20%. These Scottish sites are all at higher altitude, ranging between c. 120 and c. 240 m above sea level, so might be expected to have open vegetation and delayed woodland development at the start of the Holocene, with low temperatures and poorly developed, perhaps unstable, soils. That the lowland sites have the same low Betula representation indicates that temperature rather than altitude was the overriding environmental factor. There is more variability amongst these pollen records in their final preboreal Betula percentages, with those at Whitrig Bog and Beanrig Moss [59,62,76] remaining low at only 20–30% while those at Linton Loch, Din Moss, and The Dod [58,60,61] rise to rival final percentages in the County Durham sites at 40–50% of total land pollen. This latter trio of sites vary considerably in altitude, so local factors might account for the disparity. The final Betula preboreal percentages at the lowland Northumberland group are comparable with the nearby upland Scottish sites at 30–50%, apart from the higher birch values of the Lilburn outlier, so low temperatures at both lowland and upland locations in this northern area would have resulted in comparable vegetation histories.
It is unfortunate that pollen data of suitable age are not available from central or south Northumberland to complete the preboreal south–north transect, but peat deposits of the required age appear not to be available for analysis. Some early Holocene peat profiles occur in southern Northumberland but early pollen studies [77] showed that their peat inception began after the preboreal period that is the subject of this paper. Similarly, peat deposits in the river Tyne valley [78] contain pollen records that start in the earlier Holocene but also begin too late to be included in this analysis.

4. Discussion

Because of factors of pollen productivity and taphonomy, such as long-distance transport of tree pollen in particular [79], pollen data cannot provide an entirely accurate record of the actual spatial vegetation cover in a landscape, but even without modern modelling techniques [80] they can be interpreted reliably in terms of overall vegetation components and abundances around a site, including the degree of tree cover [81,82], although this can be overestimated [83]. From the pollen data available for preboreal Holocene northeast England, it is apparent that lowland sites at comparable latitudes had broadly similar vegetation histories in the first Holocene millennium, as would be expected from models of postglacial woodland expansion [84,85]. Almost all sites on the southern part of the north–south transect in North Yorkshire, as well as those on a similar latitude in east Yorkshire (Figure 1), show the swift development of full Betula woodland cover with little indication of tall herb, dwarf shrub heath, and tall shrub transitional successional stages of any duration. In contrast, however, at sites near the Scottish border at the northern end of the transect, tree Betula presence was very low for the first several centuries of the Holocene, with shrub vegetation dominated by Juniperus persisting, as well as some open areas with herbaceous cover. Sites in County Durham near the middle of the south–north transect record vegetation conditions that are intermediate between the southerly and northerly extremes, in terms of both their initial Betula expansion and Betula’s final abundance in the vegetation. It is clear that between the southern Vale of York and the Scottish border there was considerable variation in the rate and trajectory of vegetation succession during the first several centuries of the initial Holocene (preboreal) millennium following the swift increase in temperature after the severely cold Lateglacial Interstadial GS-1. This confirms the great regional north–south variation in tree immigration and eventual tree cover that was first recognised by Bartley [56] in his early study at sites at both ends of the transect. There could be a number of possible reasons for this observed difference in vegetation development during the initial warm phase of the Holocene in northeast England, and in this paper the availability of sites at a range of altitudes enables the probable causes of this extreme variability to be identified. It is probable that climatic drivers [86] caused by both latitude and altitude, and the climatic tolerances of individual taxa [87] and their migration rates [88,89] were the major factors that determined the rate of establishment, composition, and spatial distribution of woodland in northeast England in the earlier centuries of the first Holocene millennium.
The migration rates of shrub and tree taxa might well have had some role to play in this spatially variable process of woodland development in northeast England, as these woody taxa colonise and occupy a site in the mid- and later stages of vegetation community succession, and unless present locally would have had to migrate from refugia where they endured the cold of the Lateglacial Stadial (Younger Dryas, GS-1). Tree birches surviving in regional refugia to the south, and possibly to the east [31], of the study transect could migrate into the Vale of York when temperature rose abruptly at the start of the Holocene. This would have taken time and, if refugia were only to be found to the south of the Vale of York, could explain the much more rapid advent of closed Betula woodland in the southern, Yorkshire part of the study transect. Both Betula and Juniperus pollen percentages are low but consistently present throughout the Lateglacial Younger Dryas Stadial at Gransmoor in east Yorkshire [90], suggesting local persistence through the cold period in sheltered locations. Although there are indications of limited warming towards the end of the Younger Dryas [91,92], the subsequent temperature rise to the preboreal Holocene was sudden in Britain [25,26], mainly because of its exposure to the influence of changes in North Atlantic Ocean surface conditions [91,92,93,94], but some delay in the advance of trees and shrubs from southern refugia would have been inevitable because of their relatively slow migration rates and the need for soils to develop and mature [95,96] before succession progressed sufficiently for their colonisation. Feurdean et al. [88] suggest a mean migration rate for tree Betula of about 450 m per year, so that migration of tree birch from the southern to the northern end of the transect might have taken about half a millennium, comparable to the time lag recorded for this process elsewhere in northwest Europe [97]. This delay would fit with the apparently clear south to north gradient in Betula immigration and abundance in the preboreal of northeast England, especially as Juniperus, the dominant tall shrub in the pre-Betula woodland [98], can disperse much more rapidly than Betula, by birds rather than seed, and so should be favoured further north before the eventual arrival of birch. The cold-tolerant Juniperus [75] would probably have been present during the later stages of the GS-1 Stadial in northern areas anyway, and would expand quickly to dominance as a local community legacy in many places. The river Tees valley might have formed a natural barrier to tree migration, judging by the disparity in Betula frequencies to the north and south of it shown in Table 1, but surely not sufficient to account for the apparent pause in Betula expansion towards the north, especially as birch trees were clearly present to the north of the Tees, although in low populations.
Migration rates, however, are likely to have played only a minor role in the south–north gradient in Betula abundances recorded in Table 1. Over the two-thousand-year period of the Lateglacial Interstadial, tree and shrub taxa would easily have had time to expand northwards from refugia in the south of England [99] at the end of the main Devensian Stadial (GS-2) and become established in substantial local populations in northeast England, with Betula macrofossils found in Interstadial sediments at Bradford Kaims [56], for example, in north Northumberland (Figure 1). While the Lateglacial Stadial (GS-1) was very cold and lasted almost a thousand years, some of these tree and shrub populations evidently survived it in favourable northeastern locations as northerly refugia [100], as Blackburn [101] found Juniperus macrofossils in GS-1 Stadial moss layers at Neasham Fen and Innes et al. [38] recovered Betula macrofossils from sediments of Lateglacial Stadial–Holocene transition age at Pepper Arden Bottoms; both sites at the edges of the river Tees valley (Figure 1). Hunt et al. [102] also found tree Betula macrofossils in GS-1 Stadial sediments at Skipsea Withow Mere in east Yorkshire. These sites are unlikely to be isolated examples, and there were clearly Lateglacial Stadial refugia in northeast England [38,71] at least as far north as the Tees valley. Although less reliable than macrofossils, the Betula pollen frequencies in some of the northeast England Lateglacial Stadial pollen diagrams are sufficiently substantial to suggest isolated birch trees, perhaps in scrub form, in the vicinity, supporting the sparse macrofossil evidence. Even with its relatively slow migration rate, Betula could easily have established itself in substantial populations even in northernmost northeast England soon after the start of the Holocene.
The most probable explanation for the variability in Betula representation in the preboreal Holocene of northeast England is that temperature gradients were the controlling factor [103,104], perhaps as well as supplementary climate factors such as rainfall. Proxy climate data from chironomid and isotope studies [23,24,28] indicate a temperature differential in northern England between the latitudes of the southern Vale of York and north Northumberland that was up to 2 °C in the later Younger Dryas Stadial (GS-1) and also by about the same degree in the preboreal Holocene [105]. This south–north temperature differential was apparently maintained throughout the Lateglacial to Holocene transition, and isotherm maps [106] show a temperature transition zone between southerly warmer areas and colder northerly areas at about the latitude of the river Tees valley in both time periods, even though chironomid data [29] indicate an abrupt temperature rise of several degrees in northeast England at the transition to the Holocene. This abrupt rise would have initiated major biological responses [92,106], including rapid movement through initial Holocene successional communities [107] to the establishment of closed woodland in the warmer southerly areas, where their respective temperature tolerances would have allowed birch to outcompete and thus quickly suppress the light-demanding Juniperus [108]. Warmer temperatures inhibit Juniperus dispersal and seed viability [109], giving Betula a competitive advantage [110]. This would not have occurred at the northern end of the transect where temperature would have been lower [59,62], accounting for the spatial difference in the abundance of juniper and birch, the main shrub/woodland components. Intermediate levels of Betula colonisation success occur along the transect of sites (Table 1), according to the pollen data, so that latitude and its effects on temperature appears to have governed both initial vegetation development in this region, and also the composition and density of the finally established woodland cover in the preboreal Holocene. Climatic limitation would therefore have been the deciding factor in northeast England in the relative abundance of Juniperus, Betula, and other taxa in the latest GS-1 Stadial and earliest preboreal Holocene, with various climate proxy data aligning with the pollen evidence of spatial variation in vegetation development defined in the region by latitude.
As temperature seems to have been the limiting factor in vegetation development in this region, the impact of climatic fluctuations in the preboreal should also be visible in the pollen record. Such a period of cold climate, lasting well over a century, is termed the Preboreal Oscillation [32,33,34]; it occurred about 11,400 cal. BP and has been recorded across the wider region [79,111,112,113] as well as in the Greenland ice-core record [3,7,8]. This relatively brief but significantly cold phase must have interrupted the vegetation successions towards postglacial woodland, reverting to earlier, more open and lower-stature communities, and indeed has been recognised at many northwest European sites [6,32,113], including in northern England [23]. Several pollen diagrams on the northeast England south–north transect record vegetation reversals in the early to mid-preboreal Holocene that must be referable to this cold phase, as at Bishop Middleham and Thorpe Bulmer [35], Burtree Lane [51] and Pepper Arden Bottoms [38], although none are in the southern part of the transect where Betula forest was well established at the time of the oscillation. Brief mid-preboreal falls in Betula frequencies do occur at some of the north Northumberland sites, as at Longlee Moor and Bradford Kaims [56], with birch and shrubs replaced by herbaceous taxa such as Cyperaceae as well as heath taxa. That the oscillation is recognised most clearly in the central part of the transect near the river Tees valley, but is not at its southern end, suggests that woodland was more unstable in the Tees area and to the north, and more sensitive to climate change, whereas the birch forest at the warmer south end of the transect was more stable and less sensitive to this temperature reduction, remaining within birch’s temperature tolerances [110,114,115]. At the northern end of the transect, in north Northumberland, trees and tall shrubs were replaced by open ground herbs and shrub heath, whereas in the centre of the transect, around the Tees valley, birch trees were replaced by taller shrubs, mainly juniper, illustrating the differential impacts of the oscillation’s temperature reduction on the already existing plant communities. These pollen data support the contention that temperature, governed by latitude as well as altitude, was the decisive factor in vegetation development in northeast England in the preboreal Holocene.

5. Conclusions

Among the environmental factors influencing preboreal plant successions and vegetation development in northeast England, the influence of latitude on temperature was probably the most influential. Other factors would have also played a significant part in vegetation development, of which altitude and its effects on temperature would have been the most influential, although in places geological and edaphic factors might have also retarded successions and delayed woodland establishment. Nevertheless, it is clear that at all altitudes latitude, as a proxy for temperature, was a highly influential factor in the woodland history of northeast England in the first Holocene millennium. Not only was there a major difference between mid-Yorkshire and the Scottish border at the extreme ends of the latitudinal transect, it is clear that there was a continuous south–north spatial environmental gradient across northeast England in the date of woodland establishment, its rate of development, its spatial distribution, and in its eventual density through time. The Tees valley between Yorkshire and County Durham appears to have formed some kind of transitional zone or geographical boundary, as both the initial and final abundances of Betula are much lower to the north of it than to its south, over a relatively short distance. The river Tyne valley might have formed a similar boundary feature, although data are required from southern Northumberland, where research sites are lacking, to test this hypothesis further. The effects of the Preboreal Oscillation are recognised in the central and northern parts of the region, but not the southern, and its different impact on vegetation in these two areas indicates that temperature, governed by latitude, continued to be the main regulator of vegetation cover in the northeast region of England during this significant climatic deterioration, as it did throughout the preboreal Holocene.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, J.B.I.; methodology, J.B.I. and C.O.; writing—original draft preparation, J.B.I.; writing—review and editing, C.O.; visualization, C.O. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Data Availability Statement

Data is contained within the article.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to two anonymous referees whose comments improved the paper.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

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Figure 1. Pollen sites in northeast England (mid-Yorkshire to the Scotland border) that have data from the earliest Holocene millennium (preboreal/Greenlandian). The inset section (a) shows the location of section (b) in Britain. Darker green shading indicates land above 100 m. Sites are numbered as in Table 1, where they are described in detail, with their published sources shown. Sites are identified as follows: 1. Routh Quarry; 2. The Bog, Roos; 3. Skipsea Withow; 4. Tadcaster; 5. Lake Flixton; 6. Newby Wiske; 7. Dishforth Bog; 8. Ings Lane, Snape; 9. Pepper Arden Bottoms; 10. Nosterfield Flasks; 11. Killerby Quarry; 12. Seamer Carrs; 13. Bingley Bog; 14. Marfield; 15. Kildale Hall; 16. Ewe Crag Slack; 17. Malham Tarn Moss; 18. Mordon Carr; 19. Neasham Fen; 20. Bishop Middleham; 21. Burtree Lane; 22. Thorpe Bulmer; 23. Cranberry Bog; 24. Hutton Henry; 25. Romaldkirk; 26. Pow Hill; 27. Weelhead Moss; 28. Broomhouse Farm; 29. Bradford Kaims; 30. Lilburn South Steads; 31. Longlee Moor; 32. Linton Loch; 33. Whitrig Bog; 34. Din Moss; 35. The Dod; 36 Beanrig Moss.
Figure 1. Pollen sites in northeast England (mid-Yorkshire to the Scotland border) that have data from the earliest Holocene millennium (preboreal/Greenlandian). The inset section (a) shows the location of section (b) in Britain. Darker green shading indicates land above 100 m. Sites are numbered as in Table 1, where they are described in detail, with their published sources shown. Sites are identified as follows: 1. Routh Quarry; 2. The Bog, Roos; 3. Skipsea Withow; 4. Tadcaster; 5. Lake Flixton; 6. Newby Wiske; 7. Dishforth Bog; 8. Ings Lane, Snape; 9. Pepper Arden Bottoms; 10. Nosterfield Flasks; 11. Killerby Quarry; 12. Seamer Carrs; 13. Bingley Bog; 14. Marfield; 15. Kildale Hall; 16. Ewe Crag Slack; 17. Malham Tarn Moss; 18. Mordon Carr; 19. Neasham Fen; 20. Bishop Middleham; 21. Burtree Lane; 22. Thorpe Bulmer; 23. Cranberry Bog; 24. Hutton Henry; 25. Romaldkirk; 26. Pow Hill; 27. Weelhead Moss; 28. Broomhouse Farm; 29. Bradford Kaims; 30. Lilburn South Steads; 31. Longlee Moor; 32. Linton Loch; 33. Whitrig Bog; 34. Din Moss; 35. The Dod; 36 Beanrig Moss.
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Table 1. Preboreal (PB) Betula frequencies as percentages of total land pollen at the available sites on a south to north transect in northeast England shown in Figure 1. * indicates there was no pollen record for the early preboreal. † indicates that the percentage has been interpolated from published total tree pollen diagrams. The sites’ geographical region, altitude, location, and published source reference are also shown. In the few cases where these data were not included in the published papers, interpolation from UK Ordnance Survey maps has been necessary.
Table 1. Preboreal (PB) Betula frequencies as percentages of total land pollen at the available sites on a south to north transect in northeast England shown in Figure 1. * indicates there was no pollen record for the early preboreal. † indicates that the percentage has been interpolated from published total tree pollen diagrams. The sites’ geographical region, altitude, location, and published source reference are also shown. In the few cases where these data were not included in the published papers, interpolation from UK Ordnance Survey maps has been necessary.
Site PB Betula %AltitudeLocation Reference
Early: Late(m)(UK Grid Ref.) Latitude (N)Number
Yorkshire
1.Routh Quarry40: 700TA08743753.878 [40]
2.The Bog, Roos40: 805TA27428853.740[12]
3.Skipsea Withow*: 855TA18454753.974 [41]
4.Tadcaster †80: 8018SE49843053.880 [42]
5.Lake Flixton50: 8025SE36986554.272 [43]
6.Newby Wiske50: 8025TA02881054.214 [44]
7.Dishforth Bog25: 2526SE37773654.156[45]
8.Ings Lane, Snape40: 8030SE28384954.258 [44]
9.Pepper Arden Bottoms 60: 8035NZ29702754.418 [38]
10.Nosterfield Flasks30: 5039SE28580854.222[44]
11.Killerby Quarry30: 6048SE95525953.720 [46]
12.Seamer Carrs60: 8070NZ48609754.480 [11]
13.Bingley Bog80: 7071SE11538653.843 [47]
14.Marfield60: 80100SE21882854.240 [44]
15.Kildale Hall10: 30168NZ60909754.479 [48]
16. Ewe Crag Slack30: 60235NZ69511054.489 [49]
17.Malham Tarn Moss †20: 40375SD88366954.097 [50]
County Durham
18.Mordon Carr*: 50 35NZ32125354.621 [35]
19.Neasham Fen*: 7045NZ33211654.498 [35]
20.Bishop Middleham*: 50 76NZ32430454.667 [35]
21. Burtree Lane30: 5077NZ26818954.564 [51]
22. Thorpe Bulmer30: 6095NZ45335454.711 [35]
23.Cranberry Bog20: 6097NZ23254554.884 [52]
24.Hutton Henry*: 60137NZ41035054.708 [35]
25.Romaldkirk†30: 40200NZ99223054.592 [51]
26. Pow Hill10: 30228NZ01251654.859 [53]
27.Weelhead Moss10: 15480NY80830454.668 [54]
Northumberland
28.Broomhouse Farm20: 405NU03845155.699 [55]
29. Bradford Kaims10: 3046NU16031055.572 [56]
30. Lilburn South Steads10: 6090NU40362355.852 [57]
31. Longlee Moor10: 30105NU15619555.469 [56]
Southeast Scotland
32. Linton Loch20: 5092NT79325455.521 [58]
33.Whitrig Bog10: 20125NT62234955.606 [59]
34.Din Moss20: 50170NT80531555.576 [60]
35. The Dod20: 40 200NT47306055.345 [61]
36. Beanrig Moss15: 30 240NT51729355.554 [62]
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Innes, J.B.; Orton, C. Latitude as a Factor Influencing Variability in Vegetational Development in Northeast England During the First (Preboreal) Holocene Millennium. Quaternary 2025, 8, 7. https://doi.org/10.3390/quat8010007

AMA Style

Innes JB, Orton C. Latitude as a Factor Influencing Variability in Vegetational Development in Northeast England During the First (Preboreal) Holocene Millennium. Quaternary. 2025; 8(1):7. https://doi.org/10.3390/quat8010007

Chicago/Turabian Style

Innes, J. B., and C. Orton. 2025. "Latitude as a Factor Influencing Variability in Vegetational Development in Northeast England During the First (Preboreal) Holocene Millennium" Quaternary 8, no. 1: 7. https://doi.org/10.3390/quat8010007

APA Style

Innes, J. B., & Orton, C. (2025). Latitude as a Factor Influencing Variability in Vegetational Development in Northeast England During the First (Preboreal) Holocene Millennium. Quaternary, 8(1), 7. https://doi.org/10.3390/quat8010007

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