Littleton Bog, Tipperary: An Irish Vegetational Record

Abstract

In a basin at Littleton near Thurles, County Tipperary, in south-central Ireland at 140 m above sea level, a series of deposits-first open-water mud, then fen peat, and finally raised-bog Sphagnum peat-developed, beginning in Late Glacial time and continuing to the present day. Pollen counts were made throughout the deposits, and the pollen of all plants thought to have grown on the drier ground surrounding the basin were included in the pollen total. The total diagram thus makes clear the dominance of herbs in Late Glacial time, interrupted by the Allerod phase when Betula expanded. When Postglacial time began, bushes quickly displaced the herbs, and the bushes in turn gave way to Pinus and Corylus. Quercus and Ulmus established themselves later in the Boreal period, and in the following Atlantic period Pinus shrank markedly, and Quercus, Ulmus, Alnus, and Corylus formed a closed deciduous canopy which overshadowed the herbs.

Pollen Percentage and Influx Analyses in South-East Ireland: A Contribution to the Ecological History of the Late-Glacial Period

“…Betula occurs in relatively large amounts at levels corresponding to the Gramineae assemblage zone at a number of sites, particularly in the south and west, notably (in approximate order of the height of the Betula maximum) at Littleton (Mitchell 1965), Long Range, Muckross and Poulroe (Watts 1977), and Gortalecka. The later Juniperus peak corresponding to the Juniperus peak zone is low at most north-eastern sites, particularly at Roddans Port and in Lecale.…”

“…Pinus was abundant in Zone VI and Quercus was of minor importance (Mitchell 1965), may be more a matter of local than regional ecology. The most remarkable feature of zone Be-7 is the very sudden Alnus increase and the major contribution of Alnus to the pollen sum throughout the zone, as at Ballydugan, Co. Down (Singh & Smith 1973).…”

Pollen Analyses of Sediments From Lough Ine and Ballyally Lough, Co. Cork, S.W. Ireland

“…The latter part of Mitchell's zonation scheme is based on fluctuations in the Ulmus curve. The possible causes of the 'elm decline' have long been disputed, especially in Irish diagrams where a 'decline, recovery and further decline' sequence is often recognized, for example by Mitchell (1956Mitchell ( , 1965, Morrison (1959), Smith and Willis (1962), Pilcher (1973). Possible influences can be broadly divided into three categories (1) climatic, (2) anthropogenic, (3) disease, or any combination of these.…”

Peat deposits of southeastern New York

“…This rate was almost equaled in a bog in Quebec, Canada, as shown by the radiocarbon studies of Potzger and Courtemanche (1954). Mitchell (1965), however, calculated the rate of accumulation at Littleton Bog in Ireland at 1 foot per 480 years, by using radiocarbon dates. An average but not constant rate of 1 foot per 1,400 or 1,500 years according to radiocarbon dates was computed for peat accumulation in Bear Meadows Bog in central Pennsylvania by Westerfeld (1961).…”