What is it about?
The investigations reported on here, considered in conjunction with other investigations in inner Galway Bay and the nearby coasts of Counties Clare and Mayo, provide new insights into Holocene (post-glacial) environmental change at the mid-western coast of Ireland.
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Why is it important?
The investigations reported on here, considered in conjunction with other investigations in inner Galway Bay and the nearby coasts of Counties Clare and Mayo, provide new insights into Holocene (post-glacial) environmental change at the mid-western coast of Ireland. It is shown that pine and oak were relatively common on freshwater peat deposits that now lie in the mid and upper intertidal reaches due to relative sea-level rise. The pine timbers generally date to ca. 3000 BC and appear to be part of the ‘pine flush', i.e. the phenomenon of pine establishment on blanket bog surfaces in western Ireland at about this time. The oak timbers, which are less frequent, have a wider age range (ca. 4300–2100 BC). Peat deposits at Barna, Salthill and L. Atalia provide evidence for relative sea levels (RSL) possibly in excess of 2 m below present as late as the early first millennium AD. By ca. AD 1000, RSL in the Galway Bay region was probably at, or at least close to, present day level. Recent substantial increase in the rate of coastal erosion, for which photographic evidence is presented in the offline supplementary material, appears to be directly associated with increased storminess especially during winter. As regards Holocene woodland dynamics, a major expansion of yew between ca. 2700–2100 BC at L. Atalia is a notable feature. Associated with this feature is the demise of pine as an important woodland tree at ca. 2700 BC.
Perspectives
Michael O’Connell is Professor emeritus at NUI Galway where he was involved in research, teaching and administration for over four decades. His research interests include long-term environmental change with particular focus on farming impact, woodland history and climate change especially with respect to western Ireland. He was founder and first director of the Palaeoenvironmental Research Unit, NUIG (1990–2011). He is an elected member of the Royal Irish Academy and is a Humboldt Fellow. He serves on the editorial board of the international journal Vegetation History and Archaeobotany and is chairperson of the Agricultural History Society of Ireland (2014 to present).
Prof. (emeritus) Michael O'Connell
National University of Ireland Galway
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Mid- and late-Holocene environmental change in western Ireland: New evidence from coastal peats and fossil timbers with particular reference to relative sea-level change, The Holocene, June 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0959683617708447.
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