What is it about?
This paper focusses on the Holocene vegetation history of the Beara peninsula, south-western Ireland and also considers vegetation history of the wider west Cork/Kerry region. Using detailed pollen analysis of the sediments of a small lake (Loch Beag) in the townland of Barrees, on the Beara peninsula, a record of vegetation change that spans in all about 14,000 years has been reconstructed. Particular attention is given to the role of human activity in bringing about the major changes in vegetation change that are described, especially over the last 4500 years (since the Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age).
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Why is it important?
The new pollen profile from Loch Beag is probably the most detailed pollen record available for this part of Ireland which is noted for its temperate rainforests, i.e. bryophyte- and fern-rich Atlantic oak woodlands and also yew woodlands. Apart from the woodland history – especially yew and pine, including pine growing on bogs as revealed by dating of bog deal, i.e. pine timbers preserved in bogs – the paper provides the first detailed Holocene records of the filmy ferns Hymenophyllum tunbrigense, H. wilsonii and Trichomanes speciosum (Killarney fern) from Ireland. Detailed records for a suite of bog/heath taxa, including ericoid species (Erica tetralix and E. cinerea), Narthecium ossifragum, Hypericum elodes and Myrica gale, are also presented that cast new light on the history of bog species in Ireland. The fossil record and the status (native vs. introduced) of the ericoid Lusitanian shrub, the strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo), are also discussed.
Perspectives
This paper complements and supplements an earlier paper based on research towards a PhD by Anette Overland carried out in the mid 2000s at the Palaeoenvironmental Research Unit, University of Galway. Overland, A. and O’Connell, M. 2008. Fine-spatial paleoecological investigations towards reconstructing late Holocene environmental change, landscape evolution and farming activity in Barrees, Beara Peninsula, southwestern Ireland. Journal of the North Atlantic, 1, 37–73. https://doi.org/10.3721/1935-1933-1.1.37 In the above paper, the results of palaeoecological investigations relating to pre-bog stone walls and other archaeological features in Barrees, Beara peninsula are detailed and a preliminary account is given of selected results from the Loch Beag pollen profile. We, the authors, are pleased to now have had the opportunity of synthesising our vegetation relating to the Beara peninsula, as well as those of others from further afield, in this lengthy paper in Vegetation History and Archaeobotany (VHA), a specialist Springer-Nature journal devoted to publishing papers on vegetation history and the effects of climate change and the nature and impacts of human activity on terrestrial environments. Publication dates in VHA: online, 25 June 2024; printed, 7 January 2025
Prof. (emeritus) Michael O'Connell
National University of Ireland Galway
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Holocene vegetation and flora dynamics of the west Cork/Kerry region, south-western Ireland, Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, June 2024, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/s00334-024-00998-6.
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