Abstract
Fundamental uncertainties exist in the study region about the former lowland vegetation at local scales. All existing palaeoecological results are derived from sediments of medium- to large-sized sites (8–5000 ha), which are thought to record mainly regional vegetation in their pollen content. Therefore the very small mire at Balladrum (0.05 ha) was analysed for pollen, plant-macrofossils, and charcoal and the results compared with those of previous studies in the same region. Common regional signals were detected, but also new insights for the tree species Pinus cembra (L.), Abies alba (Mill.) and Castanea sativa (Mill.). Our palaeobotanical data reveal the local dominance of the timberline species P. cembra during the Lateglacial (16500–14250 cal b.p.) at low-altitudes. For A. alba an early presence in the area is suggested by pollen data, corroborating previous high-altitudinal studies indicating the presence of glacial refugia in the region. Occasional findings of C. sativa pollen throughout the Holocene may indicate the local but very rare presence of this species in the Insubrian Southern Alps, in contrast to the conventional opinion that C. sativa was introduced during the Roman Period. Altogether the results confirm the need of multiproxy palaeobotanical records from basins of variable size to assess the past composition of vegetation more accurately.
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Acknowledgments
We thank B. Ammann for supporting this study by funding radiocarbon analyses and for fruitful and encouraging comments on the manuscript. We are grateful to T. Goslar for radiocarbon dating, to H. Wright for improving the manuscript, and to W.O. van der Knaap for the picture of the mire Balladrum. We thank two anonymous reviewers and F. Bittmann for useful comments on the manuscript
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Hofstetter, S., Tinner, W., Valsecchi, V. et al. Lateglacial and Holocene vegetation history in the Insubrian Southern Alps—New indications from a small-scale site. Veget Hist Archaeobot 15, 87–98 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-005-0005-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-005-0005-y