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Increasing consideration is being given as to whether and how the subsoil can be utilised as a resource to store greater quantities of organic carbon through a range of 'frontier' technologies. However, recent work suggests 'priming' effects may occur when fresh soil organic carbon (SOC) is mixed with older organic carbon (OC). Combined with increasing intensity of land use and perturbation of the surface environment there is potential for buried organic carbon (OC) to be re-incorporated into the active global C cycle. Therefore, understanding the nature of existing buried organic carbon (OC) within Soil Parent Material (SPM) and landscapes is increasingly important. A major OC burial route within landscapes is via erosion and deposition processes. This paper aims to provide a 'first order' overview of the role erosion processes have made since the UK Last Glacial Maximum (UK-LGM) in the burial of OC in Great Britain. Using collated information, Monte-Carlo simulations were used to produce 'first-order' estimates of the mass of OC buried within three deposit types; Devensian Till, Devensian Glacio-fluvial deposits and Holocene Alluvium. Combined median estimates for these three deposit types alone suggest, that 385 MT of OC has been buried in these deposits across Great Britain, demonstrating the importance of post UK-LGM erosion processes in long-term sequestration of OC. The paper provides a basis of a framework to describe where buried OC may be found within UK SPM and landscapes, whilst identifying gaps in our knowledge base. Whilst focusing on Great Britain, the processes are relevant to many countries, each of which will have experienced erosion processes unique to their own history of geology, geomorphology and climate. • Post UK-LGM erosion processes are assessed in relation to organic carbon burial. • The climate-vegetation-erosion concept was used to assess erosion processes. • Climate helped determine deposit thickness and carbon concentration. • Estimates of organic carbon burial in selected deposit types were 385 Mt C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we report new data on peat carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations and accumulation rates for 15 sites in the UK. Concentrations of C, N and P measured in peat from five ombrotrophic blanket mires, spanning 4000–10,000 years to present were combined with existing nutrient data from ten Scottish ombrotrophic peat bogs to provide the first UK perspective on millennial scale macronutrient concentrations in ombrotrophic peats. Long-term average C, N and P concentrations (0–1.25 m) for the UK are 54.8, 1.56 and 0.039 wt%, of similar magnitude to the few published comparable sites worldwide. The uppermost peat (0–0.2 m) is enriched in P and N (51.0, 1.86, and 0.070 wt%) relative to the deeper peat (0.5–1.25 m, 56.3, 1.39, and 0.027 wt%). Long-term average (whole core) accumulation rates of C, N and P are 25.3 ± 2.2 gC m − 2 year − 1 (mean ± SE), 0.70 ± 0.09 gN m − 2 year − 1 and 0.018 ± 0.004 gP m − 2 year − 1 , again similar to values reported elsewhere in the world. The two most significant findings are: 1) that a regression model of N concentration on P concentration and mean annual precipitation, based on global meta data for surface peat samples, can explain 54% of variance in N concentration in these UK peat profiles; and 2) budget calculations for the UK peat cores yield an estimate for long-term average N-fixation of 0.8 g m − 2 year − 1 . Our UK results, and comparison with others sites, corroborate published estimates of N storage in northern boreal peatlands through the Holocene as ranging between 8 and 15 Pg N. However, the observed correlation of N% with both mean annual precipitation and P concentration allows a potential bias in global estimates that do not take this into account. The peat sampling data set has been deposited at the NERC Data Centre ( Toberman et al., 2016 ). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present and appraise a large compilation of peatland palaeoecological research in Great Britain, and discuss the value of these data for secondary analysis. We identify 475 radiocarbon-dated palaeoecological records from British peatlands published since 1970. Peatland palaeoecological research has been widespread but with some clear spatial biases reflecting factors such as accessibility and the location and interests of active researchers. We show that basic details such as stratigraphic descriptions, site coordinates and full details of radiocarbon dates are omitted from publications with surprising frequency and note the large quantity of data that only ever appears in PhD theses. To allow papers to remain concise while presenting essential background information we propose a system of standardised meta-data in online supplementary material. The extensive body of palaeoecological data for British peatlands has been relatively unexploited. The compilation we present will be a valuable aid in making better use of this data resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The vegetation of Europe has undergone substantial changes during the course of the Holocene epoch, resulting from range expansion of plants following climate amelioration, competition between taxa and disturbance through anthropogenic activities. Much of the detail of this pattern is understood from decades of pollen analytical work across Europe, and this understanding has been used to address questions relating to vegetation-climate feedback, biogeography and human impact. Recent advances in modelling the relationship between pollen and vegetation now make it possible to transform pollen proportions into estimates of vegetation cover at both regional and local spatial scales, using the Landscape Reconstruction Algorithm (LRA), i.e. the REVEALS (Regional Estimates of VEgetation Abundance from Large Sites) and the LOVE (LOcal VEgetation) models. This paper presents the compilation and analysis of 73 pollen stratigraphies from the British Isles, to assess the application of the LRA and describe the pattern of landscape/woodland openness (i.e. the cover of low herb and bushy vegetation) through the Holocene. The results show that multiple small sites can be used as an effective replacement for a single large site for the reconstruction of regional vegetation cover. The REVEALS vegetation estimates imply that the British Isles had a greater degree of landscape/woodland openness at the regional scale than areas on the European mainland. There is considerable spatial bias in the British Isles dataset towards wetland areas and uplands, which may explain higher estimates of landscape openness compared with Europe. Where multiple estimates of regional vegetation are available from within the same region inter-regional differences are greater than intra-regional differences, supporting the use of the REVEALS model to the estimation of regional vegetation from pollen data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Lake sediments can play an important role in understanding and reconstructing temporal characteristics of the geomagnetic field, as they potentially offer near continuous high-resolution archives of magnetic information extending throughout the Holocene. To date lake sediment geomagnetic data has typically been excluded from British archaeomagnetic secular variation curves (SVC) due to uncertainties with the acquisition of magnetisation by lake sediments. This paper presents the argument that, with regards to British datasets, the real problem lies with poor chronological control and sets out to illustrate that with British archaeomagnetic data some progress has been made. The results indicate that it is not currently possible to resolve secular variation on a time scale of ∼100years from published British lake sediment data but more success has been made with data from archaeological sediments. This level of detail has been considered necessary for the incorporation of lake sediment data into the British archaeomagnetic dataset, as the ability to resolve short-term geomagnetic changes is critical for the integration of any dataset into the British SVC. As the latter is predominantly employed to date archaeological architecture and artefacts requires that it has the ability to resolve changes over timescales relevant to human lifetimes. Using currently available data this retrospective critique confirms that, in archaeological sediments, depositional and thermoremanent magnetisation can record the same direction over the same time interval. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Interglacial fluvial sediment sequences are common in lowland Britain where their palaeontology has been considerably studied but their sedimentology is poorly known. By contrast, Holocene (Flandrian) sequences have yielded important insights into river, and thus, environmental evolution. This paper examines the nature of the interglacial fluvial sedimentary record in southern Britain, showing similarities and differences in the sedimentary record. A four-phase pattern of fluvial behaviour through an interglacial cycle is presented. The utility of using Holocene sequences as analogues for previous interglacial sedimentation is discussed and an attempt is made to explain the proposed four-phase pattern in terms of predictable fluvial responses to an interglacial climate cycle. Finally, the implications of the pattern for alluvial unit preservation and the stratigraphical interpretation of Pleistocene temperate events from river sediments are highlighted. It is shown that British lowland rivers normally adopt three major behavioural modes in the Pleistocene: braided or wandering gravel-dominated mode, fine-sediment-dominated stable meandering to anastomosing mode, and incision or non-depositional mode. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]