Content uploaded by Philip Iain Buckland
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Philip Iain Buckland on Dec 05, 2014
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
The Bugs Coleopteran Ecology Package (BugsCEP) : the development and implementation of software for palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatological research
... SEAD has no chronological limits, meaning not only that any fossil data may be entered, but also any modern data. Currently, this extends only to insect survey data, which will be used as proof of concept for the integration of fossil and modern data, building on work undertaken in the Bugs database project (Buckland 2007). This will interpret sites, but also opens up possibilities for With time, similar data will be added for plants and geoarchaeology in order to build up a powerful reference database. ...
... BugsCEP is a downloadable, Microsoft Access and Visual Basic for Applications based insect ecology database and software package which contains the large part of the Quaternary fossil insect record (http://www.bugscep.com, Buckland & Buckland 2006; Buckland 2007). It contains over abundance data in the form of minimum numbers of individuals of each taxon found in each sample. ...
An extraordinarily diverse and well-preserved material, including the remains of 47 insect taxa and 12 taxa of other invertebrates, extracted from the 17th century burial of Bishop Peder Winstrup in Lund Minster, is presented and discussed in terms of the treatment of the body, activities connected with the burial and faunal significance. The invertebrate assemblages include species from gardens, insects feeding on living plants as well as dried or decaying plant matter. Many of the species are regarded as closely associated with humans (synanthropic), and a number of these are associated with outbuildings, such as stables and cellars. The absence of species associated with cadavers (necrophilous taxa) in the studied insect material is significant. The most plausible explanation is that the bishop died, and was buried during the winter, when such species are inactive, and thus precluded from colonising the body. A number of species were recorded which are today rare or very rare in southern Sweden. This is a strong indication that they once were more common and widespread, perhaps due to a greater prevalence of their preferred habitats. Sweden’s earliest fossil bedbug is also amongst the finds.
The continued decline of natural forests globally has increased interest in the potential of planted forests to support biodiversity. Here, we examine the potential conservation benefits of plantation forests from an Irish perspective, a country where remaining natural forests are fragmented and degraded, and the majority of the forest area is comprised of non-native Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) plantations. We examine the true value of Irish plantation forests to native biodiversity, relative to remaining natural forest fragments, and to prior and alternative land use to afforestation. We find that plantation forests provide a suitable surrogate habitat primarily for generalist species, as well as providing habitat for certain species of conservation concern. However, we find that plantation forests provide poor habitat for native forest specialists, and examine potential management strategies which may be employed to improve habitat provision services for this group.
Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire is often considered a well-preserved ancient landscape, subsequently having survived by way of centuries of management as a hunting preserve. Archaeological evidence suggests otherwise, with an enclosed landscape beginning in the pre-Roman Iron Age and continuing through the Roman period. Due to the nature of the region’s soils, however, there is little empirical, palaeoecological evidence on its environmental history prior to the medieval period. This paper presents an insect fauna from a Roman well in a small enclosure in north Nottinghamshire, on the edge of Sherwood Forest, and its interpretation in terms of contemporary land use. Wells and small pools act as large pitfall traps and may effectively sample aspects of the local and regional insect fauna. The Wild Goose Cottage fauna and its environmental implications are also compared with a number of archaeologically and geographically similar contexts.
Updated version of bibliography to 20.12.16
Coring through glaciotectonically stacked Quaternary sediments situated below sea level on the island of Møn, Denmark, recovered a succession of interstadial sediments of Middle Weichselian age. Plant and animal remains including insects found in laminated sand and mud indicate deposition in a lake surrounded by dwarf shrubs, herbs, mosses and rare trees. The insect fauna indicates a mean July temperature of 8–12 °C, suggesting an arctic to sub-arctic environment, while winter temperatures around −8 to −22 °C suggest periglacial conditions with permafrost. Luminescence dating of sediment samples gave ages from 48–29 ka, and radiocarbon dating indicates deposition of plant fragments between 45 and 36 ka BP. The fossil assemblage from Møn shows close resemblance to those from other sites with similar ages found in the vicinity of the western Baltic Basin.
Analysis of insect fossil remains retrieved from a bog close to the abandoned farm at Gammelhemmet, near Lycksele in Swedish Lapland, enabled the reconstruction of environmental changes at the site over the last 2500 years. These results represent the first late Holocene palaeoentomological succession studied for insect remains in the Västerbotten interior, and they provide new evidence for landscape change in the area. Around 2000 years ago, at the end of the early Iron Age, disappearance of the tree and leaf litter fauna and an increase in aquatic species indicate the expansion of wetlands in the area. Patches of a multi-aged mixed woodland with a diverse assemblage of forest-dwelling beetles succeeded the wetland ∼1500 years ago, at the beginning of the late Iron Age. A marked change to open and drier conditions, and the presence of species often found in grassland and cultivated ground took place during the post-Medieval period. Our evidence indicates drainage of the area prior to the 18th century, placing the initiation of agricultural activities in Gammelhemmet earlier than the documentary record. Our research shows the potential of the use of fossil insects for understanding environmental change and also human impact on the landscape, even of limited scale, from natural contexts.
This paper reviews archaeoentomolgical research in the North Atlantic region, which until relatively recently, was focused mainly on Norse and later farms in Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroes, providing insights into many aspects of daily life on these settlements as well as their impacts on the local environment. Conversely, little research had been undertaken on insect fossils from hunter-gatherer settlements, save a handful of investigations from deposits associated with Saqqaq sites in Western Greenland. Over the past decade, the scope of these studies has extended to encompass new territories, time periods, and research questions. Insect remains from Palaeo- and Neo-Eskimo sites in the eastern Canadian Arctic were examined for the first time, and previously unexamined Norse and later sites have revealed new applications for archaeoentomology. This emerging body of work demonstrates the potential and importance of the continued integration of archaeoentomology in archaeological projects.
We present a series of summer air temperature isotherm maps based on chironomid-inferred temperatures from northwest Europe, covering the Lateglacial and early Holocene (15–8 ka BP). These maps are the first of their kind, and use data derived from 22 Lateglacial sites and 34 early Holocene sites. The isotherms are generated by weighted spatial interpolation (kriging). The major patterns of chironomid-inferred summer temperatures are spatially well-resolved in both the Lateglacial and early Holocene. The isotherm maps indicate that there was a strong west to east gradient during the Lateglacial Interstadial (GI-1) due to the influence of thermohaline circulation in the regions bordering the north Atlantic, which diminishes eastwards. A strong north to south temperature gradient is also apparent, particularly in eastern regions, influenced by the extent of the Scandinavian ice-cap. Peak temperatures are achieved early in the Interstadial in the south of the region but occur towards the end of the Interstadial in the north. Holocene warming varies spatially and temporally and is earliest in the south and east, but later in the north and west. During the period covered in our study maximum warmth is reached ca. 10 ka BP. The chironomid-based Lateglacial isotherm maps are compared with previously published isotherm maps from the same region based on beetle-inferred temperatures. While the trends shown in the two datasets are similar, beetle-inferred temperatures are often warmer than chironomid-inferred temperatures. This is especially marked in GI-1e and may be due to microclimatic effects causing the chironomids to underestimate air temperatures and/or the beetles to over-estimate air temperatures. The spatial coherence between sites in both the Lateglacial and early Holocene suggest that the chironomid-based temperature estimates are largely reliable, although data testing suggests that estimates from southern Scandinavia may be less reliable perhaps due to high topographical relief influencing local climate. More data points are required, particularly from northwest Scotland, southwest England and Wales, northeast France, Denmark, Finland and the Baltic States, to confirm trends and provide even coverage and a denser network of sites.
The problems of interpretation of many overlapping species lists of fossil assemblages are discussed using the example of insect faunas from a late medieval farm site in southern Iceland. Numerical techniques were employed, principally those available within the CLUSTAN package, and it was concluded that a considerable refinement in interpretation was achieved. Such quantitative procedures are suitable for groups other than fossil insects but their employment cannot be regarded as a substitute for, rather than an adjunct to, a sound ecological approach.
The results of a multiproxy study reconstructing the climate history of the last 9300 years in northern Sweden are presented. It is based on diatom, chironomid and pollen analyses, as well as near-infrared spec troscopy (NIRS), of a radiocarbon dated sediment core from Sjuodjijaure (67°22N, 18°04E), situated 100 m above tree-line in the Scandes mountains. Mean July air temperature was reconstructed using transfer functions established for the region. The biological proxies show significant changes in composition during the Holocene and the inferred temperatures all follow the same general trend. For the period between about 9300 to 7300 cal. BP the reconstructions should be interpreted with caution due to the lack of convincing modern analogues in the training set. However the reconstruction suggest that July temperature was on average about the same as today, with several rapid short-term cold and warm periods. Cold periods were dated to about 8500, 8200 and 7600 cal. years BP and a warm period to about 7700 cal. BP. About 7300 cal. BP, a major shift to a warmer climate occurred. Pine migrated into the area, which was previously covered with birch forest. From the mid-Holocene until today the sediment record suggests a descending tree-limit and a gradual lowering of July temperature.
Trichoptera have been utilised infrequently in palaeoecological studies despite their value as environmental indicators of freshwater habitat structure and quality, via their aquatic larvae, and catchment macroclimate conditions, via the aerial adults. Two sites, dated ca. 11 600 14C yr BP, in the middle reaches of the River Trent (England) supported caddisfly (Trichoptera) assemblages indicative of a dynamic braided river with extensive floodplain development. At the first, Barrow-upon-Trent, the caddisfly assemblage was dominated by taxa indicative of a medium to large gravel-bed river (Lepidostoma hirtum, Micrasema setiferum and taxa from the family Hydropsychidae). At the second site, Hemington, the caddisfly fauna was dominated by taxa from the families Limnephilidae and Phryganeidae. These usually occur in slow flowing and standing waters and are indicative of cut-off channels on the floodplain. Micrasema setiferum does not occur in the contemporary UK fauna and has a modern distribution across central Europe and Fennoscandia. A gridded climatology extracted for those geographical areas where M. setiferum occurs today indicated a greater degree of continentality than currently prevailing in the Trent catchment. The value of Trichoptera in palaeoecological studies is explored and a model of channel evolution for the River Trent is presented based on caddisfly data. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Species lists of Carabidae from 248 localities in NE England were classified by Two-Way Indicator Species Analysis (TWINSPAN) and ordinated by Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DECORANA). The classification led to the recognition of 10 ecologically meaningful habitat groups; coastal (1), upland (2), woodland (1), grassland (2), riverside (3), and marsh (1). Ordination showed that all these groups were distinct, and suggested that moisture, substrate porosity and altitude may be the main factors determining the carabid communities. A method is presented for fitting new localities into the existing classification, and assessing quantitatively the likelihood of their belonging to any habitat group, on the basis of site species lists. This method was tested with both recent and historical lists. -from Authors
Palaeotemperature estimates obtained from 74 sites in northern Europe, and collectively spanning approximately the last 45000 yr (radiocarbon time-scale), have been compiled as a major component of the EPECC project. The data presented here have been obtained using the mutual climatic range (MCR) method based on beetle assemblage data. The sites range across a transect from Ireland in the west to Poland and Finland in the east. Thermal gradients have been derived from the data using multiple linear regression. The regression models were solved for each of a series of ‘time windows’. Each interval has a separate time-dependant trend, which was removed by detrending before solving the regression equations. The robustness and confidence intervals of the regression coefficients were estimated using the bootstrap method, with samples being selected from the data set by Monte Carlo simulation. The resulting palaeotemperature gradients were compared with modern temperature gradients over Europe. The data suggest that there were significant changes in the steepness of latitudinal temperature gradients over northern Europe during the past 45 000 yr, although most attention in our compilations is focused on the last glacial–Holocene transition, the period for which the most abundant data are available so far. A significant delay in warming at the end of the last glacial stage in the northern part of the study area, by comparison with the southern sector, is also inferred. Reasons for these temporal and geographical variations and their possible palaeoclimatic implications are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Invertebrate faunas consisting mainly of insects, from deposits in the Church Stretton valley, are described and discussed. These deposits fall into two periods: (a) Late Devensian, which follows an episode of glaciation and precedes a period of accumulation of frost-shattered gravel fans; and (b) Flandrian, which post-dates the gravels and has been placed in the post-Glacial pollen zones VI and VII. The faunas of these two episodes are dealt with separately in Parts I and II respectively. Part I. From two sites in which sequences containing clays, peats and silts were examined five radiocarbon dates are available, the oldest being 13 555 ± 620 years B.P. and the most recent 11 000 ± 200 years B.P. The faunas include a substantial number of species not now found in Shropshire, many not in Britain. Inferences on the changing ecology and thermal environment of the area are drawn from these faunas and are compared with the pollen analytical zones. This comparison shows that, according to the insects, the warmest part of the episode was late zone I, and that zone II (the Alleroslashd), often considered to be the climatic optimum of the period, appears to have been a time of gradually deteriorating summer temperatures. Part II. Deposits from three late Flandrian sites are discussed. Although only one radiocarbon date was obtained, of 8101 ± 138 years B.P., pollen analysis was carried out by Rowlands throughout each sequence and this showed that the earliest deposit, at Little Stretton, dated from zone VIa and at all three localities deposition continued into zone VIIb. An examination of the insect assemblages shows that completely different biotopes, from open pasture to dense woodland, were existing side by side in the Church Stretton valley in late Flandrian time. Summer temperatures at least as high as those of today are inferred. The possibility exists that during the period represented here the climate was even warmer than that of the present but until more information is available it is not possible to be more definite on this point.