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Populations of anadromous brown trout, also known as sea trout, have suffered recent marked declines in abundance due to multiple factors, including climate change and human activities. While much is known about their freshwater phase, less is known about the species' marine feeding migrations. This situation is hindering the effective management and conservation of anadromous trout in the marine environment. Using a panel of 95 single nucleotide polymorphism markers we developed a genetic baseline, which demonstrated strong regional structuring of genetic diversity in trout populations around the English Channel and adjacent waters. Extensive baseline testing showed this structuring allowed high‐confidence assignment of known‐origin individuals to region of origin. This study presents new data on the movements of anadromous trout in the English Channel and southern North Sea. Assignment of anadromous trout sampled from 12 marine and estuarine localities highlighted contrasting results for these areas. The majority of these fisheries are composed predominately of stocks local to the sampling location. However, there were multiple cases of long‐distance movements of anadromous trout, with several individuals originating from rivers in northeast England being caught in the English Channel and southern North Sea, in some cases more than 1000 km from their natal region. These results have implications for the management of sea trout in inshore waters around the English Channel and southern North Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The British Isles have been worked for millennia to extract metal ores to feed industrial development, leaving a legacy of mine water pollution that continues to impact freshwater communities in many regions. Brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) have long been observed to persist in these metal‐impacted systems as apex predators, with previous studies showing a small number of impacted populations to be highly genetically divergent. We sought to understand the scale of genetic diversity across regions and the repeatability of genetic divergence in trout populations affected by metal pollution. Location: We examined four mine water‐impacted regions across the British Isles: west Wales, northeast England, southwest England and southeast Ireland. Methods: We employed a panel of 95 SNP loci to screen 1236 individuals from 71 sites representing paired metal‐impacted and clean sites from across the four regions. From these, we obtained diversity statistics, assessed genetic structuring of populations and modelled historical demographic scenarios to understand which factors most credibly explain genetic variation in divergent populations. Results: We evidenced hierarchical population structure in the regions studied, in line with expectations from phylogeographic history. However, in a hierarchical analysis of genetic structuring the first level of differentiation was driven by the divergence of the metal‐impacted trout of Cornwall in southwest England. Within regions we observed reduced genetic diversity and repeated patterns of local genetic sub‐structuring between paired samples from metal‐impacted and relatively clean sites. Demographic history analyses suggested the timing of these splits to be relatively recent and to be associated with periods of peak mining activity. Main conclusions: Our findings demonstrate distinct patterns of genetic isolation and reduced diversity arising from legacy pollution in freshwater ecosystems, with impacts being most apparent where both chemical pollution and physical barriers are present. Management should focus on the amelioration of mine water wash‐out and the removal of barriers to fish movement to safeguard genetic diversity in impacted populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK's decision to leave the EU was partly influenced by a desire to reduce immigration. This followed a period of increased Euroscepticism, and an 'othering' of those of a different background, nationality or religion, and ultimately the EU itself. Post-Brexit, this has been linked to a rise in hate crime in England, and the referendum decision has been characterised as an expression of a strengthened English identity. Hostility towards those perceived as 'foreigners' or 'others' seems also to have affected people from the other nations within the British Isles, with speculation that Brexit might lead to the break-up of the UK. Here, we focus on Scots living or who have lived in England and, while their experiences are mixed, it appears that some hostility towards Scots (and indifference to Scotland) has grown. We speculate that this and additional political tensions may, eventually, bring about the end of the union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the British Isles, the European badger (Meles meles) is thought to be the primary wildlife reservoir of bovine tuberculosis (bTB), an endemic disease in cattle. Test, vaccinate or remove ('TVR') of bTB test-positive badgers, has been suggested to be a potentially useful protocol to reduce bTB incidence in cattle. However, the practice of removing or culling badgers is controversial both for ethical reasons and because there is no consistent observed effect on bTB levels in cattle. While removing badgers reduces population density, it may also result in disruption of their social behaviour, increase their ranging, and lead to greater intra- and inter-species bTB transmission. This effect has been recorded in high badger density areas, such as in southwest England. However, little is known about how TVR affects the behaviour and movement of badgers within a medium density population, such as those that occur in Northern Ireland (NI), which the current study aimed to examine. During 2014–2017, badger ranging behaviours were examined prior to and during a TVR protocol in NI. Nightly distances travelled by 38 individuals were determined using Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements of animal tracks and GPS-enhanced dead-reckoned tracks. The latter was calculated using GPS, tri-axial accelerometer and tri-axial magnetometer data loggers attached to animals. Home range and core home range size were measured using 95% and 50% autocorrelated kernel density estimates, respectively, based on location fixes. TVR was not associated with measured increases in either distances travelled per night (mean = 3.31 ± 2.64 km) or home range size (95% mean = 1.56 ± 0.62 km2, 50% mean = 0.39 ± 0.62 km2) over the four years of study. However, following trapping, mean distances travelled per night increased by up to 44% eight days post capture. Findings differ from those observed in higher density badger populations in England, in which badger ranging increased following culling. Whilst we did not assess behaviours of individual badgers, possible reasons why no differences in home range size were observed include higher inherent 'social fluidity' in Irish populations whereby movements are less restricted by habitat saturation and/or that the numbers removed did not reach a threshold that might induce increases in ranging behaviour. Nevertheless, short-term behavioural disruption from trapping was observed, which led to significant increases in the movements of individual animals within their home range. Whether or not TVR may alter badger behaviours remains to be seen, but it would be better to utilise solutions such as oral vaccination of badgers and/or cattle as well as increased biosecurity to limit bTB transmission, which may be less likely to cause interference and thereby reduce the likelihood of bTB transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Combining data from multiple acoustic telemetry studies has revealed that west coast England Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) smolts used a northward migration pathway through the Irish Sea to reach their feeding grounds. Hundred Atlantic salmon smolts were captured and tagged in May 2020 in the River Derwent, northwest England as part of an Environment Agency/Natural England funded project. Results: Three tagged smolts were detected on marine acoustic receivers distributed across two separate arrays from different projects in the Irish Sea. One fish had migrated approximately 262 km in 10 days from the river mouth at Workington Harbour, Cumbria to the northernmost receiver array operated by the SeaMonitor project; this is the longest tracked marine migration of an Atlantic salmon smolt migrating from the United Kingdom. This migrating fish displayed behaviours which resulted in fast northward migration. The remaining two fish were detected on a receiver array operated by a third project: the Collaborative Oceanography and Monitoring for Protected Areas and Species (COMPASS). Conclusion: These detections further provide evidence that migration to reach marine feeding grounds of at least a proportion of salmon smolts from rivers draining into the Irish Sea is northerly, though without a southern marine array it is impossible to conclude that this is the only route. The pattern of these detections would not have been possible without the collaborative efforts of three distinct and separately funded projects to share data. Further work is required to fully understand migration trajectories in this species on the west coast of the British Isles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The way that scholars have discussed Catholicism inside the Church of England after the Reformation has been problematic. If the English Reformation is, as some have claimed, an anomaly, then post-Reformation Catholicism in England and the British Isles can sometimes seem to be an irrelevance. This essay revisits the recent historiography of the topic and makes the case for a "narrative turn" in the way that we think and write about it. If we do this, the subject might be rescued from its tendency toward introspection and made compatible with the best current writing on the rest of the English Church in that period, and indeed the politics of the Reformation more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This account presents information on all aspects of the biology of Tilia platyphyllos Scop. subsp. cordifolia (Besser) C.K. Schneid (Large‐leaved Lime) that are relevant to understanding its ecological characteristics and behaviour: all British native material is this subspecies. The main topics are presented within the standard framework of the Biological Flora of the British Isles: distribution, habitat, communities, responses to biotic factors, responses to environment, structure and physiology, phenology, floral and seed characters, herbivores and disease, history, and conservation.Tilia platyphyllos is a tall, shade‐tolerant tree of old relict woods. It is rare as a native and restricted to England and Wales, where it is often found on calcareous and brown soils of low phosphate status, with Fagus sylvatica or Fraxinus excelsior and Quercus petraea.In contrast to Tilia cordata, with which it hybridizes, it was mainly planted, probably first in monastic times then more widely since the Middle Ages. After 1650, it has often been accompanied by the hybrid (T. x europaea) in parks, towns and gardens throughout lowland parts of the British Isles. Hybrids and backcrosses have led to difficulties with identification and significant over‐recording of T. platyphyllos in the British Isles.The flowers are entomophilous, and rich in nectar. Tilia platyphyllos is fertile, regenerating sparsely from seed in many localities. Germination of pollen occurred at temperatures as low as 7–9°C (several degrees lower than for T. cordata), which probably explains its relatively high fertility in the north of England. It has ectotrophic mycorrhiza. Different parts of the tree are palatable to birds, mammals and many invertebrates.Evidence presented in this account alleviates doubts about the native status of T. platyphyllos; previously, it was believed that it might have been introduced from France by Premonstratensians (White Canons) in Medieval times. Tilia cordata, however, was widely native but also planted, mainly as coppice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) is an emblematic species for conservation, and its decline in the British Isles exemplifies the impact that alien introductions can have on native ecosystems. Indeed, red squirrels in this region have declined dramatically over the last 60 years due to the spread of squirrelpox virus following the introduction of the gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). Currently, red squirrel populations in Britain are fragmented and need to be closely monitored in order to assess their viability and the effectiveness of conservation efforts. The situation is even more dramatic in the South of England, where S. vulgaris survives only on islands (Brownsea Island, Furzey Island, and the Isle of Wight). Using the D‐loop, we investigated the genetic diversity and putative ancestry of the squirrels from Southern England and compared them to a European dataset composed of 1,016 samples from 54 populations. We found that our three populations were more closely related to other squirrels from the British Isles than squirrels from Europe, showed low genetic diversity, and also harbored several private haplotypes. Our study demonstrates how genetically unique the Southern English populations are in comparison with squirrels from the continental European range. We report the presence of four private haplotypes, suggesting that these populations may potentially harbor distinct genetic lineages. Our results emphasize the importance of preserving these isolated red squirrel populations for the conservation of the species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes field work carried out in autumn 2017 to investigate the spread of the leaf-mining micro-moth Stigmella aceris in a defined geographical area covering four English Vice-counties. Topics discussed include the spread of this species in The Netherlands and Belgium and to the British Isles.

Between the eleventh century and mid-thirteenth century a Sterling Area evolved in the British Isles, with a common currency based upon the English silver penny and equivalents of it produced in Scotland and Ireland. This Sterling Area began to contract in the second half of the fourteenth century, when reductions in the bullion content of Scottish coins ended the equivalence of the English and Scottish currencies, and in the fifteenth century Ireland developed its own coinage. Estimates of the currency of the Sterling Area are provided, taking the chronology of its growth and contraction into account. Estimates of the sterling currency are not estimates of the currency of England, and they cannot be combined with data relating exclusively to England in economic modelling, without qualification. Per capita currency estimates and values of coin hoards and single coin finds are at a high level around 1400, falling in the second half of the fifteenth century, indicating that the European 'bullion famine' of the 1390s to c. 1415 had less effect on the currency than the second late medieval bullion crisis, from the 1430s to the 1460s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excavation of four hundred complete and partial in situ burials from the Hospital of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge, represented one of the largest medieval hospital osteoarchaeological assemblages from the British Isles. The significance of the group is enhanced by the detailed investigation of a carefully maintained network of pathways associated with the cemetery, the archaeological sequence that pre- and post-dated its use and a number of contemporary properties that were situated immediately outside its bounds. This evidence allows the cemetery to be placed within its urban context in a way that is rarely possible. The overwhelming majority of the burials were extended west-east aligned supine inhumations without grave-goods. Atypical burials included examples aligned east-west and south-north, a double burial, a prone burial and individuals buried with a jet crucifix and a brooch. Other significant finds included a nearby pit with four bodies in it, an anthropomorphic bone handle and a reused cruciform horse harness pendant. The proportion of males and females in the burial population is similar, whilst individuals who died under the age of sixteen are relatively uncommon and individuals aged under five are completely absent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phytophthora ramorum is the oomycete pathogen responsible for Sudden Oak Death on the West Coast of the USA and Sudden Larch Death in the British Isles. It also causes twig dieback and leaf blight on a series of ornamental hosts (e.g. Rhododendron, Viburnum, Pieris and Camellia) commonly grown in plant nurseries, traded by garden centres and cultivated in public and private gardens. The role of the plant trade in the dispersal of P. ramorum has been well documented, but there is a need for regional analyses of which environmental variables can predict disease expression in the trade and in the wild, so as to be able to better predict the further development of this worldwide plant health issue. In this study, we analyse data on the incidence of P. ramorum (2002-2009, thus before the reports in Japanese larch plantations) in counties in England and Wales as a function of environmental variables such as temperature and rainfall, controlling for confounding factors such as county area, human population and spatial autocorrelation. While P. ramorum county incidence in nurseries and retail centres was positively related to county area and human population density, county incidence in gardens and the wild did not show such correlations, declined significantly towards the East and was positively correlated with disease incidence in the trade. The latter finding, although not conclusively proving causation, suggests a role of the trade in the dispersal of this pathogen across English and Welsh landscapes. Combined together , P. ramorum county incidence in the trade and in the semi-natural environment increased with increasing precipitation and with declining latitude. This study shows the importance of environmental variables in shaping regional plant epidemics, but also yields results that are suggestive of a role of people in spreading plant diseases across entire countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first high-resolution chironomid-inferred mean July air temperature (C-IT) reconstruction for the early Holocene from England. The reconstruction is based on a core recovered from a terrestrialised carbonate bench at Hawes Water, a small hard-water lake in northwest England. The record shows that temperatures rose rapidly after the Younger Dryas with temperatures reaching 14.0°C at the beginning of the Holocene. Over millennial timescales, the temperature record points to a slight rise in temperatures towards the top of the sequence at around 8000 years before the year 2000 (b2k). The trend is punctuated by a series of cool oscillations (at 11 200, 11 400, 10 700, 10 400, 9300 and 8300 b2k) and by a short period (11 300 to 10 250 b2k) when temperatures were considerably warmer (up to 14.9°C). The five cool oscillations coincide with temperature reversals found elsewhere in the North Atlantic region and in the Greenland ice core records. These cool events correlate well with both meltwater fluxes from the Laurentide and Scandinavian ice sheets and periods of low solar activity. Two of these oscillations (at 9300 and 8300 b2k) vary significantly from the early-Holocene mean. C-IT shift rapidly during both these events and temperatures fall ∼1.6°C below the early-Holocene mean trend for ∼ 50-60 years. The results presented here provide an insight into the instability of the early-Holocene climate in the British Isles and demonstrate the sensitivity of chironomids to rapid climatic events during the early Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most widespread depositional landforms in many of the upland valleys of the British Isles which have undergone glaciation during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) are so-called solifluction sheets. These form a landform-sediment association consisting of smoothed-slopes underlain by poorly-sorted deposits. The timing and nature of sediment deposition is unclear in the absence of a dating framework within which solifluction sheet development can be placed. This paper presents the first dates from these landforms in the British Isles. We used optical dating on deposits exposed at Linhope Burn in the Cheviot Hills of North East England. The results suggest that the bulk of sediment deposition at this site happened over a period spanning the Younger Dryas. We argue that both paraglacial and periglacial processes can account for the main periods of deposition and that the timing of sediment deposition reflects the rapidity with which landform development responded to climatic shifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which shows and explores the evidences of sediment transmission during the late Holocene (last 3000 years) for a terraced fluvial system, with particular focus on the complexity and time transgressive nature of geomorphological change. The study used the evolution of river terraces in the lower Ribble system in northwest England and British Isles. Study shows that the Ribble evidence comprises depocenters with various geomorphological histories.

1. This account reviews information on all aspects of the biology of Paris quadrifolia L. (herb Paris) that are relevant to understanding its ecological characteristics and behaviour. The main topics are presented within the framework of the Biological Flora of the British Isles: distribution, habitat, communities, responses to biotic factors, responses to environment, structure and physiology, phenology, floral and seed characters, herbivores and disease, history and conservation. 2. Paris quadrifolia is a perennial woodland herb that is found across the boreal and temperate areas of Europe. In the UK, it is a native species of moist, mostly ancient woodlands on calcareous soils. It can occasionally be found in grikes on open limestone pavement. It is absent from both very dry and very wet sites. It flowers and fruits most freely in the open stages of the coppice cycle, but persists in deep shade. 3. Paris quadrifolia is a rhizomatous geophyte. Regeneration is both by vegetative spread and sexual reproduction, and heavily weighted towards the former strategy. Paris quadrifolia has a monopodial growth form, with the increments of several years of growth remaining connected along the rhizome. Branching of the rhizome is sometimes observed. Amylose (a component of starch and a major storage carbohydrate) concentrations are low in young rhizome segments, but significantly higher in older segments. Severing rhizome connections by removing the oldest segments results in reduced growth and significantly smaller distal shoots, indicating that the size of the clonal fragment determines vigour of the terminal shoot and that integration serves to maintain the vitality of the rhizome, particularly in resource-poor environments. 4. Flowers are pollinated by wind, or self-pollinated. Insect pollination is very rare. Seed dispersal is limited and rates of spread vary between 0.21 and 0.33 m year−1. 5. As in most other European countries, Paris quadrifolia has declined in the UK. Many sites were lost in northern England and central Scotland before 1930, and since then there has been some decline in south-east England because of the destruction of broad-leaved woodland and planting of conifers. Since the species colonizes new forest stands very slowly, management should focus mainly on conservation of ancient forest stands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on evaporative climate change in the British Isles. It states that in this study the evaporation measurements made at 16 sites in the British Isles were examined for evidence of long-term changes. It is also posed that half of the series were from sites in Ireland evaluated with Class A evaporation pans between 1963 and 2005, and half in England and Scotland gauged with the British Meteorological Office (MO) sunken evaporation tank between 1885 and 1968. Moreover, differences in sunshine duration (SD) were identified to be the major factor explaining spatial as well as temporal variations in evaporation in the British Isles.

Rivers transport both organic and inorganic carbon from their sources to the sea. Results of ~800 organic and inorganic analyses from various British rivers of contrasting size and land use are presented here: (1) the headwater River Tern, a rural river of 852 km2 catchment; (2) the Ouseburn, a small urban 55 km2 catchment; (3) the River Tyne, a larger river system of ~3000 km2 catchment; (4) a spatial survey from 205 sample sites on ~60 rivers from SW England. We found that, with the exception of peat-rich headwaters, DIC concentration is always greater than DOC. DIC is primarily in the form HCO3− , with DIC concentrations highest in highly urbanised catchments, typically greater than those observed in catchments with carbonate bedrock, demonstrating a significant and previously unrecognised anthropogenic inorganic carbon input to urban rivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A new palaeodictyopteran, Anglopterum magnificum gen. et sp. n., is described from concretions of Late Carboniferous (Langsettian) in the Lancashire County (UK). The new genus, based on the hind-wing venation, is attributed to Homoiopteridae and compared with other homoiopterid genera. A previously figured homoiopterid from Late Carboniferous (Upper Asturian) roof shales in Somerset (UK) is bearing venation pattern of anal area similar to Mazonopterum wolfforum Kukalová-Peck and Richardson, 1983. These are the first formally described species of Homoiopteridae from the British Isles. Furthermore, their similarity in venation pattern to Mazonopterum wolfforum Kukalová-Peck and Richardson, 1983 from Mazon Creek (USA) provides evidence for a Euramerican connection during the Late Carboniferous. To cite this article: J. Prokop et al., C. R. Palevol 5 (2006) . [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

'The Celtic fringe' commonly denotes those parts of the British Isles whose population is predominantly of Celtic stock, namely Cornwall, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Its use presupposes a range of common features and characteristics in the various peoples characterised as Celtic and also implies a relationship in the nature of core and periphery with another region of the British Isles, namely lowland England. The term is, however, essentially an English and metropolitan--and so outsider--construct. It also brings with it considerable ideological baggage arising out of England's historically fraught relations with the Celtic peoples, which reflect a pattern of English colonisation and cultural imperialism in the British upland zone since the eleventh century. Not surprisingly, therefore, many Celts find the term offensive. In terms of the writing of history, moreover, British scholars have tended, until very recently, to study the archipelago's individual nations in isolation from each other rather than to develop comparisons between them in the context of a pattern of state formation. In any case, few historians have the requisite linguistic skills to master the sources and modern literatures in the various Celtic languages. Although recent initiatives--for instance, the advent of the so-called New British history and a range of EU-funded projects which promote collaborative research between the various national traditions--now afford scope for a more thorough analysis of the concept, it remains to be investigated how far the various Celtic peoples may be said to have experienced a collective history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents updates on geology compiled as of May 1999. Conservation efforts at Cleeve Common in England; Characteristics of a marble supplied from sources in the British Isles; Books on Noah's ark.

Species-area relationships in plots of varying size in Purwell Meadow, Hertfordshire (total area 24.6 ha), are examined, and compared with previously published data for other areas. It is shown that the species-area relationship in both small and large areas in the British Isles is usually one of a continuous exponential increase in the number of species as the size of the area in which they occur is increased. However, in areas of intermediate size, such as Purwell Meadow, there may be a gradual change in species-area relationships, during which the rate of increase in the number of species is a logarithmic one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on Roydon Common as the heath in Greensand, England. Roydon Common is one of the driest district in the British Isles because of its annual rainfall of less than 25 in. It occupies an area of about 2 sq. miles wherein two-thirds are dry and elevated while the remaining part is low-lying and boggy. It is dominated by different plant species particularly Calluna vulgaris and Pteridium aquilinum. It is also consisted of bent-fescue grassland or grass-heath which occupy 50 acres of the dry area.

The article discusses the vegetation of "spray washed cliffs" in North Cornwall, England. The study was conducted along the premises of the British Isles where non-halophytic species appear to be missing. It reports that there is only a few groups of plants that can survive with the presence of strong winds and abundant of spray. On the higher parts of the cliffs with less spray and with strong winds, other plants exist just like in lower area but in different amounts. In the cliff grassland above the rocks, only few cliff plants can vie with the grasses and it possesses a dry soil but less exposure to spray. With this, the reappearance of true cliff species on the cliff grassland occurs.

The article describes the biological flora of the British Isles, with focus on Dryas octopetala. Dryas octopetala is restricted to a few sites in the north Pennines and the Lake District in England, but it has a wide distribution in North Korea, Japan, Alaska, the Yukon region and in the Swiss Alps. Described are Drays octopetala's geographical and altitudinal distribution, habitat, substratum, soil analysis, response to biotic factors, effect of frost and drought, physiological data and the growth of Mycorrhiza plants.

European paleoenvironmental records through the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition (LGIT; ca 16-8 cal ka BP) record a series of climatic events occurring over decadal to multi-centennial timescales. Changes in components of the climatic system other than temperature (e.g. hydrology) through the LGIT are relatively poorly understood however, and further records of hydroclimatic changes are required in order to develop a more complete understanding on the phasing of environmental and anthropogenic responses in Europe to abrupt climate change. Here, we present a multiproxy palaeoenvironmental record (macroscale and microscale sedimentology, macrofossils, and carbonate stable isotopes) from a palaeolake sequence in the Vale of Pickering (VoP), NE England, which enables the reconstruction of hydroclimatic changes constrained by a radiocarbon-based chronology. Relative lake-level changes in the VoP occurred in close association (although not necessarily in phase) to threshold shifts across abrupt climate change transitions, most notably lowering during cooling intervals of the LGIT (∼GI-1d, ∼GI-1b, and ∼GS-1). This reflects more arid hydroclimates associated with these cooling episodes in the British Isles. Comparisons to hydrological records elsewhere in Europe show a latitudinal bifurcation, with Northern Europe (50–60°N) becoming more arid (humid), and Southern Europe (40–50°N) becoming more humid (arid) in response to these cooling (warming) intervals. We attribute these bifurcating signals to the relative positions of the Atlantic storm tracks, sea-ice margin, and North Atlantic Polar Front (NAPF) during the climatic events of the LGIT. • Lake-level reconstructions can be used to reconstruct hydroclimatic changes. • Northern (Southern) Europe becomes more arid (humid) during abrupt cooling events. • European hydroclimatic changes were more dynamic than changes in temperature. • Hydroclimatic changes were not concurrent with δ18O in the Greenland ice cores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant macrofossil analyses of fossiliferous silt and sand channel-fill deposits from The Brays Pit near Mathon in the English West Midlands yielded the first record of Corrigiola litoralis L. in the British Middle Pleistocene. The presence of Corrigiola litoralis at this site shows that this taxon has occurred naturally in the British Isles. This may support the opinion that one of the extant populations of this species in south-west England may be regarded as native. The stratigraphic context of the site is briefly considered followed by a description of the macroscopic remains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the mean sea-level pressure at the British Isles block as the lowest in all months in 142 years of record starting 2014. It mentions that the block's average pressure was 5.5 megabar (mbar) lower compared to previous record in February 1990. It states that several Februarys were wetter compared to the 2014 February, while sunshine ranged from well below normal in northwestern England and western Scotland to well above normal in East Anglia and Midlands.

The article reports on the proposed National Atlas of Britain on the British Isles. It is said that a committee was appointed under the Chairmanship of Prof. Eva G. R. Taylor to consider the possibility and desirability of producing a National Atlas of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is also said that the scheme has overwhelming scientific advantages but presents certain technical difficulties as well. The aim of the proposed atlas is said to be an objective and scientific presentation of the natural conditions, natural resources, and economic utilization of the land, of the history and prehistory of the country, and of the distribution, occupations, movement and social conditions of the population.

Focuses on a project by London, England-based librarians, Gavin Bridson and Anthony Harvey. Creation of a guide to the natural history manuscript resources of the British Isles; Survey of relevant libraries, museums and other organizations.