Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 144 (2007) 135 – 144

www.elsevier.com/locate/revpalbo

Simulating the nature of vegetation communities at the opening of

the Neolithic on Achill Island, Co. Mayo, Ireland — the potential
role of models of pollen dispersal and deposition
Chris Caseldine a , Ralph Fyfe b,⁎, Catherine Langdon a , Gareth Thompson a
a
Department of Geography, School of Geography, Archaeology and Earth Resources, Amory Building, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4RJ, UK
b
School of Geography, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK
Received 2 December 2005; received in revised form 10 July 2006; accepted 14 July 2006
Available online 22 August 2006

Abstract

The landscapes of the extreme western fringe of the European seaboard provide significant challenges to the reconstruction of
prehistoric landscapes. The landscapes that exist today often bear little resemblance to those that existed in the middle Holocene
owing to a combination of climatic and human influences on the landscape, and there are few surviving landscapes which offer an
analogous vegetation situation. The coast of Co. Mayo in Ireland provides perhaps one of the biggest challenges in this regard,
being now virtually treeless and covered with extensive tracts of ombrotrophic peat. Palaeoecological data sets indicate extensive
woodland in the past in these areas, and the archaeological record shows that the region supported Neolithic populations practising
early forms of agriculture. Landscape reconstruction using models that relate pollen dispersal to vegetation communities offers a
potential stochastic insight into the nature of former landscapes. The results presented here from a modelling approach to
reconstructing earlier prehistoric landscapes clearly demonstrate likely spatial vegetation patterning which could produce pollen
assemblages comparable to those in the sub-fossil record. Areas such as Achill Island would have had extensive woodland cover
dominated by taxa such as pine, oak and elm, a landscape substantially different from that which exists today. It is argued that at the
onset of clearance during the Neolithic the area would have been significantly more attractive to agriculture than it is today.
© 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: pollen analysis; modelling; Ireland; landscape reconstruction; Neolithic

1. Introduction ships between landscape elements (geology, soils, as-

Interpretation of the likely structure of vegetation
communities and the landscape that faced the first agri-
cultural communities in NW Europe has relied heavily
on intuitive reconstruction founded in current ecological
understanding and a qualitative estimation of relation-
⁎ Corresponding author. Fax: +44 1752 233054.
E-mail address: ralph.fyfe@plymouth.ac.uk (R. Fyfe).
0034-6667/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2006.07.002
pect etc) and plant communities (Watt, 1947; Vera,
2000). Where present landscapes are clearly very dif-
ferent from those that existed in the Middle Holocene,
due to human impact, climatic change, or a combination
of the two, it is often difficult to conceptualise quite how
different those landscapes could have been. The land-
scape of the extreme western fringe of the European
seaboard along the coast of Co. Mayo in Ireland pro-
vides perhaps one of the biggest challenges in this
136 C. Caseldine et al. / Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 144 (2007) 135–144
regard. The area is now virtually treeless and covered
with extensive tracts of ombrotrophic peat, many of
which have been modified or, in some cases, completely
removed for fuel. Pollen and macrofossil data reveal
evidence for extensive woodland in the past in these
areas (O'Connell et al., 1988; O'Connell and Molloy,
2001; Huang, 2002; Molloy and O'Connell, 2004;
Caseldine et al., 2005) and the density and richness of
the archaeological record (Cooney, 2000) show that,
especially during the Neolithic, the region supported
populations practising early forms of agriculture. Deter-
mining the character of the landscape that faced the
earliest agricultural communities is therefore a major
concern for both archaeologists and palaeoecologists.
Landscape reconstruction using models that relate
pollen dispersal to vegetation communities offers a po-
tential quantitative insight into the nature of former land-
scapes (e.g. Prentice, 1985; Sugita, 1993, 1994; Gaillard
et al., 1994; Broström et al., 1998, 2004). Studies in
Southern Sweden and Denmark have used calibrated
models of pollen dispersal to reconstruct landscape struc-
ture and composition with considerable success (Bros-
Fig. 1. Location of study area. The dashed box indicates the extent of the area used in the DEM.
tröm et al., 1998; Nielsen, 2004; Nielsen and Odgaard,
2005), and pollen productivity estimates (PPEs) for all the
major taxa characteristic of West European pre-Neolithic
woodland communities are now available for use in
modelling (Broström et al., 2004). The development of
the programs MOSAIC and POLLFLOW as a means to
simulate landscapes and their pollen loadings at specific
points in space (Middleton and Bunting, 2004; Bunting
and Middleton, 2005) has allowed an evaluation of the
sort of vegetation mosaics and landscape structure that
could have produced given empirical sub-fossil pollen
counts, based on the Prentice–Sugita model (Sugita,
1993, 1994), as demonstrated by Caseldine and Fyfe
(2006) and Fyfe (2006).
This paper applies the pollen modelling approach to
part of the landscape of Achill Island, Co. Mayo from
which pollen diagrams have been obtained as part of a
project on long-term vegetation history and human im-
pact (Caseldine et al., 2005), and seeks to determine
potential landscape and vegetation structure immediate-
ly prior to the earliest Neolithic impact on the landscape
around 5800 cal. yr BP.
 C. Caseldine et al. / Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 144 (2007) 135–144
2. Study Area
Achill Island lies at the westernmost tip of Ireland
(Fig. 1), separated from the mainland by a narrow
sound, with a climate dominated by the oceanic location
in the path of Atlantic westerly airstreams, characterised
by high precipitation (over 1000 mm p.a. at sea level)
and relatively mild winters. The area chosen for this
modelling study comprises the westernmost part of the
island, 6.5 × 4 km in extent, with an extensive area of
blanket peat surrounded to the west and north by moun-
tains (Fig. 1), underlain by Dalradian schists, quartzites
and schistose conglomerates (Chew, 2003).
3. Modelling rationale
The area of Achill Island chosen for study has a
number of advantages for the modelling approach:
(1) There are a series of detailed pollen diagrams
covering most of the Holocene that are well-dated
over the period under review (Caseldine et al.,
2005; unpublished).
(2) Although not flat the area has very well defined
topography with relatively uniform predominant-
ly acidic geology.
(3) Three sides of the area are surrounded by water,
and hence define the immediate area formerly
covered by vegetation.
Fig. 2. Extract from Caislain pollen diagram. * indicates the pollen data used in the modelling approach.
137
(4) The prevailing wind systems are from the west,
and often extremely vigorous, and there is little
evidence to suggest that this may have varied
significantly in the past. This means that the
amount of pollen deriving from outside the area
can be minimised (but see later discussion), as the
nearest source to the west is the western seaboard
of the USA and Canada.
(5) A limited number of taxa in the pollen record have
dominated the vegetation, both in the past and
currently (Pinus, Quercus, Ulmus, Corylus, Poa-
ceae and Calluna).
(6) Radiocarbon dating and stratigraphical observa-
tions carried out during the project show that a
large part of the flattest area in the study region
was covered by ombrotrophic peat as early as the
Middle Holocene with peat initiation taking place
as early as 9000 cal. yr BP (Caseldine et al.,
2005). This means that the absolute location of
dryland vegetation communities can be placed
with certainty within the landscape.
Pollen data from adjacent peat profiles at Caislean
covering most of the Holocene are available for the area
(Caseldine et al., 2005; unpublished data) and provide
assemblages for the Early Neolithic at ca 5500 cal. yr
BP. These sequences are in close proximity to each
other, and have very similar pollen assemblages. One of
these assemblages derived from a peat section dated to
138 C. Caseldine et al. / Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 144 (2007) 135–144

5500 cal. yr BP, immediately prior to significant de- Table 1

creases in woodland cover was chosen as representative Landscape units defined through combining height, slope and
elevation data derived from the DEM, and taxa assignment to these
of the pre-clearance woodland. Only the six main pollen units in model 2b
taxa are used within the modelling approach. The taxon-
Unit Height Slope Aspect Context Vegetation
specific input parameters for the Prentice/Sugita model composition
for these taxa (PPE and pollen fall speed) follow Sugita
– b0 Any NSEW Sea
et al. (1999) and Broström et al. (2004). An extract from
1 0–20 Any NSEW Low-lying Ulmus (45%),
the pollen diagram from the peat basin used for the coastal areas Pinus (50%),
modelling is given in Fig. 2. Further pollen data from the Corylus (5%)
area is presented in Caseldine et al. (2005). 2 20–400 1–10 NSEW Peat Calluna (75%)
To facilitate modelling of a faithful physical land- Poaceae (25%)
3 20–400 10–20 NSEW All gentle slopes Ulmus (45%),
scape for the western extent of Achill Island, a digitial
Pinus (50%),
elevation model (DEM) was constructed for an area of Corylus (5%)
6.5 × 4 km (26 km2). Following Fyfe (2006) the DEM 4 20–400 20–50 S South-facing Ulmus (45%),
was constructed with the aim of generating a range of moderate slopes Pinus (50%),
topographic units into which vegetation communities Corylus (5%)
5 20–400 20–50 EW East- and Quercus (25%),
could be placed. Spot height data at 50 m intervals were
west-facing Ulmus (40%),
interpolated within ArcGIS v.8.3 to create a DEM with moderate slopes Pinus (30%),
a pixel size of 25 m. The DEM was reclassified by slope Corylus (5%)
angle and aspect, and the resultant grids combined 6 20–400 20–50 N North-facing Quercus (45%),
and simplified to provide 10 individual landscape units moderate slopes Pinus (50%),
Corylus (5%)
(Table 1, Fig. 3). Pollen taxa were then assigned to each
7 20–400 50–60 NSEW Steep slopes Quercus (45%),
topographic unit on the basis of autoecological data Pinus (50%),
sets (Carlisle and Brown, 1968; Grime et al., 1988). Corylus (5%)
These data sets allow individual taxa to be placed in 8 20–400 N60 NSEW Very steep slopes Pinus (100%)
their favoured position, under the assumption that taxa 9 N400 b40 NSEW Above tree-line Poaceae (100%)
moderate slopes
follow ideal spatial distributions in prehistory. These
10 N400 N40 NSEW Above tree-line No pollen-
data sets suggest that: Quercus will favour north-facing steep slopes producing taxa
slopes up to an altitude of 460 m; Ulmus will favour
south-facing slopes up to an altitude of 300 m; Calluna
will favour low angle slopes; and Pinus will not be
competitive with deciduous species except upon steeper (2004). Central to applying such models is establishing
slopes. quantitative pollen productivity estimates (PPEs) for the
different taxa and defining the relevant source area of
4. Modelling and results pollen (RSAP).
Hypothetical landscapes can now be constructed
The relationship between pollen loading at a site and using MOSAIC (Middleton and Bunting, 2004) based on
surrounding vegetation abundance, when weighted ac- vegetation communities of taxa for which estimates of
cording to distance from the site can be assumed to be pollen productivity are available. MOSAIC creates the
linear and forms the basis of the Extended R-value input into POLLFLOW (Bunting and Middleton, 2005)
(ERV) model (Parsons and Prentice, 1981; Sugita, 1993, that uses the Prentice (1985) model to generate pollen
1994). This relationship is dependent on a number of assemblages at specific points within the landscape. By
factors, notably relative pollen productivity of different changing the simulated landscape it is possible to eval-
species and background pollen input (Broström et al., uate the impact of altering vegetation structures, com-
2004). The vegetation abundance should be distance munity composition and species distributions on pollen
weighted to reflect pollen dispersal and deposition, deposition at these specified points, thus providing a
which is here assumed to follow principles of small means to estimate the most likely character of former
particle transfer (Sutton, 1953), as applied to pollen by landscapes by comparing simulated and observed pollen
Prentice (1985). Prentice's model was modified by assemblages.
Sugita (1993, 1994), to be applicable to lake sediments. The modelling approach adopted for Achill Island
This model (POLLSCAPE) has subsequently been tested has followed a twofold procedure. First a series of
in simulation studies by Sugita et al. (1999) and Nielsen simple theoretical landscape models were constructed
 C. Caseldine et al. / Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 144 (2007) 135–144
Fig. 3. Construction of the DEM. Size of DEM is 6.5 × 4 km. A. visualisation of the DEM (looking to the north west), B. DEM reclassified into height
classes (in m OD), C. DEM reclassified into aspect classes, D. DEM reclassified into slope classes.
without use of the DEM, as a gross simplification of the
landscape to examine the likely impact of the inferred
gross vegetation structure at the time, especially the
extensive nature of the peat cover and the high pollen
values for taxa with contrasting requirements (notably
Pinus and Ulmus). One of the principal problems facing
landscape reconstruction in this area is that the pollen
assemblages recovered from earlier parts of the Holo-
cene principally comprise taxa for which it is difficult to
estimate habitats/dominance given our current under-
standing of the landscape as it is today. This was fol-
lowed by the use of a much more complex model
utilising the DEM and assigning likely vegetation com-
munities to specific landscape elements based on aspect,
slope and altitude. Topographic control has been shown
to be an important factor within vegetation patterning in
a range of contrasting environments (e.g. Bolstad et al.,
1998; Pfeffer et al., 2003; Palo et al., 2005). This more
complex landscape model was then varied to examine
the effect of differing amounts of background pollen
entering the system. Wind speed was set to 3 ms− 1 and
atmospheric conditions assumed to be neutral through-
out all landscape model runs.
4.1. Landscape model 1
The simplest landscape model is outlined in Fig. 4A
and is based on dividing a two-dimensional represen-
139
tation of the surface into 4 blocks within a 1 km square
around the sample site:
(1) Peat (50% Calluna: 50% Poaceae) — the sampling
site lies within the area of peat already extensive by
5800 cal. yr BP and assumed for the model to be
equally covered by these two taxa.
(2) A block dominated by Pinus.
(3) A block dominated by Quercus.
(4) A block dominated by Ulmus.
(5) The remaining area surrounding these blocks is
water and is non-pollen productive.
Blocks 2–4 were distributed in an arbitrary form
around Caislean.
Running the model using this landscape produced a
pollen assemblage shown in Table 2. Perhaps remark-
ably this gives a close fit to the empirical data but is
highly unlikely on ecological grounds to have repre-
sented the landscape. However its value lies in demon-
strating the sort of spatial contribution required of some
of the taxa to produce a relative pollen signal com-
parable to that found at Caislean and thus informs the
later more complex modelling. Attempts were also made
using the simple landscape model to replace the block
structure with a mosaic form to more approach ‘reality’
using more continuous mixed communities as shown in
Fig. 4B,C. In Fig. 4B this is achieved by keeping the
140 C. Caseldine et al. / Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 144 (2007) 135–144

Fig. 4. MOSAIC-generated images for model 1, as simple 1 km2 blocks. A. blocks of communities, B. homogenous mix of species in non-peat block,
C. stands of species within non-peat block.

peat area constant and the area to the north assigned a complex ‘real’ landscape simulations undertaken in land-
homogeneous mix of taxa in equal proportions, and in scape model 2.
Fig. 4C the non-peat area is structured as a mosaic of
small circular patches of different taxa of 100 m radius. 4.2. Landscape model 2
Analysis of these results showed a varying degree
of comparability with the observed pollen assemblage Landscape model 1 provides encouraging results in
(Table 2). Perhaps surprisingly the most unrealistic block terms of comparability with observed pollen data and
landscape provides the nearest fit to the sub-fossil data, reveals that taxa not considered necessarily significant
only failing to fit the values for Pinus and Quercus. It does in terms of landscape coverage in the past given the soil/
however give a good representation for the NAP elements, climatic conditions (e.g. Ulmus) must have been a part
as do most of the simulations. The homogeneous mix of the landscape. However, the simple landscape model
seems of less predictive value, but overall the results takes no account of the reality of a diverse topography
reveal the need to look closely at the relative importance of and of local ecological variability. Landscape model 2
two of the higher pollen producers, Pinus and Quercus, as therefore utilised the DEM to break up the area into
the former is underrepresented and the latter overrepre- landscape units and uses predictive spatial modelling to
sented in the simulations. The understanding gained from assign vegetation types to these units, using a set of
this simplistic approach can then be fed into the more species distribution rules. The landscape was divided up
according to aspect, slope and elevation (Fig. 3) and
these two then synthesised into 10 units (Table 1). The
Table 2
Results of model 1 (a,b,c) simulated pollen loading, compared with
areas of peat and water were assigned as before except
empirical data now according to the precise mapping of the area.
Vegetation categories were assigned to these units
Calluna Poaceae Pinus Quercus Corylus Ulmus
following tolerances taken mainly from Grime et al.
Actual 79.47 7.80 6.98 1.54 0.51 0.92
(1988) and described above, separating the main taxa
Block 68.02 1.67 26.34 2.91 0.54 0.51
(Fig 4A) found in the pollen record as far as possible. Using this
Homogenous 73.14 2.58 20.54 2.9 0.54 0.3 approach the taxa were assumed therefore to have oc-
(Fig. 4B) curred in patch sizes reflecting the landscape structure.
Circle 71.74 2.53 24.74 0.77 0.11 0.1 Bunting et al. (2004) have shown the importance of
(Fig. 4C)
patch size and vegetation structure on relevant source
 C. Caseldine et al. / Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 144 (2007) 135–144
Table 3
Results of model 2 ‘realistic’ simulations (based in autoecological
distribution of taxa) compared to empirical data
Calluna Poaceae Pinus Quercus Corylus
Empirical 79.47 7.80 6.98 1.54 0.51
Model 2a 89.1 9.05 0.42 0.70 0.31
Model 2b 79.2 5.75 10.78 3.01 0.27
area of pollen (RSAP) and this aspect also emerged as
important in the simple landscape modelling. In this
instance it is necessary to assume that the nature of the
underlying physical landscape will determine the likely
patch sizes.
At this stage it would be possible to derive a wide
range of plausible landscape/vegetation units; hence,
deciding on the precise approach to follow is somewhat
arbitrary. It is however a feature of the modelling ap-
proach that this stage can be revisited depending upon
the ensuing output. Any number of structures can be
tested and either accepted as plausible, or more likely,
and in many ways more usefully, rejected. Underlying
this must however be a respect for physical landscape
patterning such that any revisions of the assigned units
should amalgamate or subdivide the physically deter-
mined units rather than impose arbitrary structures.
The approach used in this example was to run the
model with a distribution thought to reflect likely ecolo-
gical determinants. This produced a pollen assemblage
which for some taxa were very similar to that observed at
Caislean (model 2a: Table 3). However, this underrep-
resented the importance of Pinus in the area and implies
a greater significance to the importance of open areas of
peat dominated by Calluna. Based on ecological tol-
erances (Carlisle and Brown, 1968), pine had been
restricted to steeper and more exposed sites, but the
species must have been represented more widely through
Fig. 5. Results of varying background pollen component, compared with the empirical data.
141
the past landscape, to account for the high pollen pro-
portions found in the fossil record. Keeping the structural
units made a revised ecologically-driven model difficult
Ulmus as deciding on aspect/slope combinations within which
0.92 pine would have been likely to out compete other
0.42 woodland could not be consistently argued. As a solution
1.00
it was decided to disperse pine throughout all the wood-
land communities assuming that it would take advantage
of smaller pockets within each of the landscape elements
where, for instance, soils were particularly shallow. The
success of pine after this period in extending onto areas
of peat (Caseldine et al., 2005) implies an extensive local
presence and potential ubiquity in an acid landscape
where deciduous elements may not have always been
able to compete successfully. Running the model with
the revised approach provided a very good fit to the
observed sub-fossil data (model 2b: Table 3) suggesting
a potential or plausible landscape structure with pine
well distributed throughout the landscape.
All the simulations discussed so far have assumed no
background pollen from outside the area, an assumption
considered extremely likely given the nature of the area.
It is however possible to build in different assumptions
about background inputs and assess the impact on the
resultant pollen record. Fig. 5 shows the effect of adding
three different background assumptions to model runs,
ranging from a background of 100% pine to one that
mimicked the actual sub-fossil counts, compared to re-
sults when assuming no background pollen. Most telling
is the impact of a 100% Pinus component that despite the
openness of the immediate landscape transforms the
pollen assemblage to over 75% Pinus, as would be found
in open landscapes away from latitudinal treelines in
arctic environments such as northern Scandinavia
(Fig. 5: 100% Pinus background). Reducing the back-
ground to an even distribution of all represented taxa
142 C. Caseldine et al. / Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 144 (2007) 135–144
(20%) still tends to inadequately reflect the immediate
openness, this time favouring both Quercus and Pinus
(Fig. 5: mixed background). Using a background that
mirrors the contemporary distribution of taxa excluding
Calluna (i.e. reflecting a non-peat background but with
some openings) similarly appears to suggest a much
greater importance for woodland taxa (Fig. 5: varied
background). Overall the variability in these results
reinforces the importance of making careful assumptions
about the background component, especially in relative-
ly open environments, and justifies the use of an area
such as Achill Island for testing landscape reconstruc-
tions, as it is considered very unlikely that pollen from
the mainland to the east would ever have had a signi-
ficant input into the area given the dominance of westerly
airstreams with far distant neighbouring landmasses.
5. Discussion
Any form of modelling reduces complex situations to
simplified approximations of reality, and in doing so
cannot be used to reconstruct accurately exactly how
things were. This is especially true of landscapes as
complex as that of Achill Island. However, the value of
the approach is that it does offer insights into potential
characteristics that either may not have been previously
considered or run counter to established thinking. Thus
the landscape reconstructions detailed here present po-
tential scenarios that are based on a more quantitative
basis than previously and provide the foundation for
future thinking, especially by other specialists such as
archaeologists who require more objective data than
previously available when trying to understand human–
environment interactions.
The principal weaknesses of the current modelling lie
in a number of areas:
(1) The models are purely two-dimensional and take
no account of the actual topography. Uneven sur-
faces and air movements up and down slope, plus
the impact of land barriers on pollen transport are
well established (Price and Moore, 1984), as is the
variable height at which pollen is dispersed into
the atmosphere (Tauber, 1965). Models are being
developed to try to address these issues; however,
there is a danger in trying to mimic individual
landscapes in too much detail and provide a series
of unique solutions.
(2) The PPEs for individual species used for Ireland
are not based on Irish but on Scandinavian data.
Reliable PPEs for the taxa involved cannot be
effectively determined for Achill Island from the
present day flora so any PPEs used will have to be
derived from a non-comparable environment. It is
possible that this process will result in spurious
model data; however, both southern Sweden and
western Ireland are well within the (modern) geo-
graphic range of the taxa used in the modelling
approach, so differences in PPEs are anticipated to
be small. The predominant controls on PPEs are
likely to relate to climatic factors, but until a
greater number of PPEs from across the geo-
graphic range of taxa are available, the only op-
tion is to apply the most reliable PPEs available
for north-west Europe.
(3) Running simulations has the potential to be an
unending process as it is always possible to change
parameters. Choosing the parameters within which
to operate presents an important methodological
issue. For Achill Island a number of parameters
were set that were believed to be grounded on
reasonable assumptions about the species involved,
and also that offered the potential to provide a range
of outcomes, setting a plausible envelope for the
study as a whole.
On the basis of the results presented, a number of
issues of importance for understanding the Middle Holo-
cene landscape of this area characteristic of the north-
western seaboard can be discussed. It is highly plausible
that except for the areas already covered by peat, most of
the landscape of Achill Island was covered by a range of
tree species. Given the variability in slope and aspect and
their influence on soil development it seems possible that
although there was some ecological variability the wood-
land itself followed the pattern reconstructed here. Thus
the slopes immediately surrounding the flatter bog areas
would have been dominated by deciduous trees such as
oak and elm with pockets of pine rather than a dominantly
pine woodland with small pockets of elm and oak on the
most favoured locations. Assuming that this was the
nature of the landscape that faced the earliest Neolithic
communities clearance could have affected large parts of
the landscape. The areas affected may have been deter-
mined by proximity to settlement as much as by seeking
out preferred areas, at least for large areas of dominantly
southern facing slopes.
6. Conclusions
The modelling exercise carried out here has demon-
strated the potential of pollen modelling to landscape
reconstruction and identified some important methodo-
logical and interpretational issues. Despite recognising
 C. Caseldine et al. / Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 144 (2007) 135–144
the potential importance of variable pollen productivity
between major tree and herb taxa, intuitive landscape
reconstruction still tends to be influenced by a view of
the landscape seen from the present. Where, as in Achill
Island, these landscapes are now probably covered by
ecosystems very different from those facing Neolithic
communities, the modelling clearly demonstrates how
trees such as pine, oak and elm would have had to be
growing, i.e. in what locations and in what proportions,
to produce assemblages comparable to those in the sub-
fossil record. Despite the large areas of peat that had
already spread across lower and flatter ground by the
Neolithic the western seaboard of Ireland, as represented
here by Achill Island, would have had extensive wood-
land cover dominated by relatively nutrient-demanding
trees such as elm and oak. Thus in the first phase of
woodland clearance at least the soil resource, assuming
some degree of local protection from wind and storm
events would have proved relatively attractive on lower
and gently sloping land not yet affected by peat-en-
croachment. The attractiveness may have declined
quickly as woodland loss and peat expansion allowed
waterlogging and acidification to become more preva-
lent, but at the initial transition period the area would
have been by no means as unattractive to agriculture as it
may appear today.
Acknowledgements
This paper is a contribution to the POLLANDCAL
(POLlen-LANDscape CALibration) network sponsored
by NordFORSK (Nordic Research Board) and co-
ordinated by M.-J. Gaillard (University of Kalmar,
Sweden) (network website: www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/ecrc/
pollandcal/). We are very thankful to all POLLANDCAL
members for their useful and inspiring discussions du-
ring the numerous network workshops held between
2002 and 2005, and in particular to Shinya Sugita
(University of Minnesota, USA) for providing us with
the basic research approaches of POLLANDCAL, and
for allowing access to his numerous computer programs,
and to Jane Bunting and Dick Middleton (University of
Hull, U.K.) for developing excellent user-friendly soft-
ware (the HUMPOL suite of programs) for use in net-
work research activities. The comments of Kari Hjelle
and an anonymous referee improved this paper.
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