Sudden disappearance of yew (Taxus baccata) woodlands from eastern England coincides with a possible climate event around 4.2 ka ago

BEBCHUK, Tatiana, Paul J KRUSIC, Joshua H PIKE, Alma PIERMATTEI, Ronny FRIEDRICH, Lukas WACKER, Alan CRIVELLARO, Tito AROSIO, Alexander V KIRDYANOV, Philip GIBBARD, David BROWN, Jan ESPER, Frederick REINIG and Ulf BÜNTGEN. Sudden disappearance of yew (Taxus baccata) woodlands from eastern England coincides with a possible climate event around 4.2 ka ago. Quaternary Science Reviews. Elsevier Ltd, 2024, vol. 323, January 2024, p. 1-11. ISSN 0277-3791. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108414.

Basic information

• Original name: Sudden disappearance of yew (Taxus baccata) woodlands from eastern England coincides with a possible climate event around 4.2 ka ago
• Authors: BEBCHUK, Tatiana, Paul J KRUSIC, Joshua H PIKE, Alma PIERMATTEI, Ronny FRIEDRICH, Lukas WACKER, Alan CRIVELLARO, Tito AROSIO, Alexander V KIRDYANOV, Philip GIBBARD, David BROWN, Jan ESPER, Frederick REINIG and Ulf BÜNTGEN (276 Germany, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: Quaternary Science Reviews, Elsevier Ltd, 2024, 0277-3791.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Article in a journal
• Field of Study: 10511 Environmental sciences
• Country of publisher: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• Impact factor: Impact factor: 4.000 in 2022
• Organization unit: Faculty of Science
• Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108414
• UT WoS: 001138596100001
• Keywords in English: Dendrochronology; Forest dynamics; Mid-Holocene; Palaeoecology; Radiocarbon dating; Sea-level changes; Subfossil wood; Tree rings
• Tags: rivok
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

Tree-ring chronologies form the backbone of high-resolution palaeoclimatology. However, their number declines drastically prior to medieval times, and only a few such records worldwide extend back to the mid-Holocene. Here, we present a collection of more than 400 subfossil yew (Taxus baccata L.) trees excavated from near sea-level peat-rich sediments in the Fenland region of eastern England. The well-preserved yew trunks are between two and eight metres long, often exhibit adventitious root layers, and contain up to 400 rings of highly irregular growth. Combined dendrochronological and radiocarbon dating resulted in two tree-ring width chronologies that comprise 36 and 32 trees, span 413 and 418 years, exhibit mean inter-series correlations (Rbar) of 0.50 and 0.51, and were provisionally dated to 5225-4813 (+/- 4) and 4612-4195 (+/- 6) years cal BP. Together with a total of 63 radiocarbon dates (14C), our subfossil tree-ring evidence suggests that yew establishment (or onset of preservation) began-5250 years cal BP and resulted in extensive climax forests between 5200 and 4200 years cal BP. A first stage of yew decline-4800-4600 years cal BP was possibly caused by oxygen deprivation from soil wetting, whereas yew disappearance-4200 years cal BP is suggested to have been triggered by marine inundation as a consequence of rapid sea-level rise. Both phases of yew decline in eastern England coincide with marked reductions in subfossil oak and pine from peatbogs in Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands. Our results emphasise the potential to develop a dendrochronological network in coastal England for better understanding of larger-scale climate and environmental changes during the mid-Holocene, including the still debated 4.2 ka climate event. Moreover, we expect our subfossil yew chronologies to facilitate the dating of local archaeological remains, refine sea-level reconstructions around the British Isles, and contribute to the international radiocarbon calibration curve IntCal.