POLLEN STRATIGRAPHY OF 2 HOLOCENE PEAT SITES IN THE LIGURIAN APENNINES, NORTHERN ITALY

This paper presents the results of recent pollen-stratigraphical investigations of Holocene peat sites in eastern Liguria, northern Italy. Relative pollen data from two of the sites studied are presented together with pollen concentration data and four radiocarbon dates. The study area lies within the northern Apennines, a region from which few detailed late Quaternary palaeoenvironmental records have been published and from which no radiocarbon-dated pollen profiles have previously been reported. Peat accumulation in the Ligurian Apennines typically began during the period 4000 to 5000 B.P., a lack of early Holocene sediments probably having been due to widespread climatic conditions inimical to peat development. During the later middle Holocene montane forests were dominated by Abies but from approximately 2000 B.P. fir disappeared from the pollen records. Subsequently beech woodlands were predominant, a situation which remains to the present day. The problems of interpretation of this event in the pollen-stratigraphical data are examined. © 1990.