Plant Life of the Quaternary Cold Stages

This 2000 book brings together the published information on the Quaternary cold stage flora of over 80 sites in Britain and Ireland to present a factual cold stage flora from the fossil record. The data provides a basis for an interpretation of the flora, vegetation and environments of some of the most extraordinary periods in the earth's most recent history, now only seen in the imperfect mirror of today's Arctic. This important study aims to reveal the nature of an environment, relatively stable, but totally different to that of today. As such it will be significant not only to those interested in the Quaternary, but also to a wider audience of those studying the present flora, fauna and environment, including climate and climatic change. "...an outstanding volume, synthesizing over a half-century of work by one of the senior statesman of Quaternary paleobotany and others, most of whom were influenced in one way or another by Professor West and his work. This book definitely should be on the shelf of every serious research library s well as in the personal collection of anyone seriously interested in glacial-age floras in the northern hemisphere." Artic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research "...a fine example of how interdisciplinary studies on a large scale can paint a bigger and better picture of life in the past." Jane Francis, PalaiosPreface; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; 2. Geological setting; 3. Sedimentary environments and taphonomy; 4. The data tables; 5. The sites; 6. Identification of the flora; 7. The flora; 8. Representation of taxa in the fossil record; 9. Biological aspects of the cold stage flora; 10. Habitats of the cold stages; 11. The present distribution of taxa found fossil; 12. The vegetation: types and their flora; 13. Evidence of climate; 14. A wider view of cold stage biota; 15. Origin and fate of the cold stage stadial flora; 16. A final word; References; Appendix - works consulted in the identification of macroscopic remains.