Frank M. Chambers

Owing to its specialised methodology, palaeoecology is often regarded as a separate field from ecology, even though it is essential for understanding long-term ecological processes that have shaped the ecosystems that ecologists study and manage. Despite advances in ecological modelling, sample dating, and proxy-based reconstructions facilitating direct comparison of palaeoecological data with neo-ecological data, most of the scientific knowledge derived from palaeoecological studies remains siloed. We surveyed a group of palaeo-researchers with experience in crossing the divide between palaeoecology and neo-ecology, to develop Ten Simple Rules for publishing your palaeoecological research in non-palaeo journals. Our 10 rules are divided into the preparation phase, writing phase, and finalising phase when the article is submitted to the target journal. These rules provide a suite of strategies, including improved networking early in the process, building effective collaborations, transmitting results more efficiently to improve cross-disciplinary accessibility, and integrating concepts and methodologies that appeal to ecologists and a wider readership. Adhering to these Ten Simple Rules can ensure palaeoecologists’ findings are more accessible and impactful among ecologists and the wider scientific community. Although this article primarily shows examples of how palaeoecological studies were published in journals for a broader audience, the rules apply to anyone who aims to publish outside specialised journals.

Holocene paleoclimate reconstructions and comparisons largely rely on accurate age-depth modeling. However, uncertainties in chronology, such as those caused by sparse radiocarbon dates, will hamper inter-core comparisons and correlations, and might result in misleading “cause and consequence” conclusions. This study aimed to find a solution to increase the comparability and minimize the uncertainty of wetland chronology as much as possible. Sediment cores were recovered and radiocarbon dated from the Lianhuachi wetland located in Southeastern China. Humification degree and loss-on-ignition (LOI) were determined using colorimetric and combustion methods respectively. Our data were compared with previously published datasets obtained in the same wetland. The results show that independent humification profiles from the Lianhuachi wetland displayed high similarities. This high similarity between the humification profiles allowed us to transfer radiocarbon ages from one core to another using sequence slotting correlation. Applying the humification-based chronology refinement method to all sediment cores resulted in an improvement in the correlation coefficients between the same but independently measured proxy sequences from the wetland, which suggests both the inter- and intra-core comparability was improved. Because determining peat humification degree is easy, inexpensive, and time-saving, we suggest that humification can serve as a tool that can be used to correlate different cores and to transfer published radiocarbon ages within the same wetland (peatland) or in a comparable geological setting, to establish a more robust chronology of these comparable cores. The degree of peat humification can thus serve as a relative dating technique to refine the chronology of wetland (including peatland) records.

The Little Ice Age (LIA) is a well-recognised palaeoclimatic phenomenon, although its causes, duration and severity have been matters of debate and dispute. Data from a wide range of archives have been used to infer climate variability before, during and after the LIA. Some published proxy-climate data from peatlands imply that two particularly severe episodes within the LIA may be contemporaneous between hemispheres; these echo a previous climatic downturn ca. 2800 cal BP of similar severity but lesser duration. Here, we present palaeoclimate data from the mid- to late-Holocene, reconstructed from three blanket peats in Yorkshire: Mossdale Moor, Oxenhope Moor and West Arkengarthdale. Multiproxy techniques used for palaeoclimatic reconstruction were plant macrofossil, pollen and humification analyses. Dating was provided by a radiocarbon-based chronology, aided by spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCPs) for all sites, and ²¹⁰Pb dates for one. The LIA presents as a distinct climatic event within each palaeoenvironmental record at the three sites. These indications are compared with terrestrial datasets from northwest Europe and elsewhere. A broad degree of synchronicity is evident, signifying that the LIA is one of the most pronounced downturns in global climate in the last ca. 6000 years, and arguably the most routinely recorded within the Holocene.

Sweet chestnut Castanea sativa has been regarded as a Roman archaeophyte in Britain ever since a debate in the eighteenth century contested whether it was indigenous or introduced. This paper re-examines its status, presenting new evidence within an ‘historical ecology’ analytical framework. Sweet chestnut trees and coppice stools from 237 sites across England and Wales were assessed using genetic, dendrochronological, palaeoenvironmental, archaeological, and historical analyses. Seven types of ‘sweet chestnut landscape’ were identified: ancient inclosures/ groves; ancient coppice woods; historic boundaries; historic gardens; ancient deer parks and historic parklands; historic formal avenues; and more recent high forest and production coppice. Genetic analysis has indicated that the sources of the oldest British sweet chestnut trees and stools lie in parts of France, Spain, Portugal and Italy which were refugia during the Last Glacial Maximum. Tree and stool antiquity are verified for the first time through clonal analysis and dendrochronology. The earliest written record of sweet chestnut growing in Britain found in this study was a.d. 1113, referencing a boundary marker tree for Goldcliff Priory in south-east Wales. Later twelfth-century records evinced localised coppiced woods, nut production and ‘totemic’ plantings of individual trees in noble house and garden settings. By the eighteenth century sweet chestnut was extensively planted in designed parklands and avenues; and in woods, mostly as ‘industrial’ coppice. Present-day ‘landscapes of sweet chestnut’ are endowed with ancient trees, stubs and coppice stools of great significance for cultural and ecological interests.

The Roman period sees the introduction of many new plants and animals into Britain, with a profound impact on people's experience of their environment. Sweet chestnut is considered to be one such introduction, for which records of sweet chestnut wood and charcoal from archaeological excavations of Romano-British period contexts have been used as evidence. This paper reviews the records for sweet chestnut in Britain pre-a.d. 650, by critically evaluating original excavation reports and examining archived specimens. This review re-assesses the original identifications of sweet chestnut and/or their dating and concludes that most of the evidence that justified sweet chestnut's status as a Roman archaeophyte is untenable. The review emphasises the importance of securely identifying and directly dating plant material and of long-term curation by museums and archives. The Supplementary Material online (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X19000011) contains details of all published records of finds of sweet chesnut.

Large areas of upland mire and moorland in Northwest Europe are regarded as degraded, not actively peat-forming, and releasing carbon. Conservation agencies have short-term targets to restore such areas, but often have no clear knowledge of the timing and nature of degradation. It has been suggested that palaeoecology can be used to inform conservation management about past vegetation states, so as to help identify feasible restoration targets. Our research study in northern England, commissioned by the national statutory conservation agency, applied multiple palaeoecological techniques to establish the vegetation history of several mire and moorland sites, specifically to ascertain the nature and timing of degradation. Techniques applied included pollen analysis, plant macrofossil and charcoal analyses, determination of peat humification and mineral magnetic susceptibility, with ages ascertained using spheroidal carbonaceous particle analysis, ²¹⁰Pb and ¹⁴C dating. Data are presented from case-study sites in the North York Moors, North- and South Pennines to illustrate how palaeoecology can extend long-term monitoring and guide conservation management. Palaeoecological data from a site within a National Nature Reserve, subject to exceptionally long-term (half-centennial) ecological monitoring, showed that this period does not include its pre-degradation state and that its current valued vegetation is novel and may have established after major fire. Overall, the studies suggest that the principal vegetation change at the sites took place after the start of the Industrial Revolution, and that the current landscape appearance not only has no long history, but that valued aspects, such as extensive heather moorland, feature only recently in the cultural landscape. These findings pose challenging questions for conservation management. We offer a non-specialist guide to the palaeoecological techniques that considers level of skill, cost, and comparability with ecological aspects of conservation and monitoring interest. We suggest palaeoecological data can provide valuable information and insights to aid practical conservation. While mires are particularly suitable, palaeoecological techniques could be applied in many other degraded landscapes internationally.

The so-called ‘Little Ice Age’ (LIA) of the 15th to 19th centuries ad is well-attested from much of Europe and from some other parts of the Northern Hemisphere. It has been attributed to solar forcing, associated with reduced solar activity, notably during the Spörer, Maunder and Dalton solar minima, although other causes have also been proposed and feature strongly in recent papers. Detection of the LIA in some proxy-climate records from the Southern Hemisphere is less clear, leading to suggestions that the LIA was perhaps not a global phenomenon. Resolving this issue requires more data from the Southern Hemisphere. We present proxy-climate data (plant macrofossils; peat humification) covering the past three millennia from an ombrotrophic mire (peat bog) in Tierra del Fuego, southern South America, but focus our discussion on the period traditionally associated with the LIA. During parts of this time, the mire surface was apparently relatively dry compared with much of its 3000-year record. It was reported earlier that a particularly dry episode in the mire coincided with the 2800 cal. BP ‘solar’ event (since identified as a Grand Solar Minimum), which was attributed to solar-driven changes in atmospheric circulation, and more specifically to a shift in position of the Westerlies. Parts of the LIA record show a similar shift to dryness, and we invoke a similar cause. The shifts to and from dry episodes are abrupt. These new data support the concept of a global LIA, and for at least the intense dry episodes might reinforce the claim for solar forcing of parts of the LIA climate.