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The management of the remainder of Europe’s once extensive forests is hampered by a poor understanding of the character of the vegetation and drivers of change before the onset of clearance for farming. Pollen data indicate a closed-canopy, mixed-deciduous forest, contrasting with the assertion that large herbivores would have maintained a mosaic of open grassland, regenerating scrub and forested groves. Coprophilous fungal spores from sedimentary sequences are increasingly used as a proxy for past herbivore impact on vegetation, but the method faces methodological and taphonomical issues. Using pollen trap data from a long-running experiment in Chillingham Wild Cattle Park, UK, we investigate the first steps in the mechanisms connecting herbivore density to the incorporation of fungal spores in sediments and assess the effects of environmental variables on this relationship. Herbivore utilisation levels correlate with dung fungal spore abundance. Chillingham is densely populated by large herbivores, but dung fungal spore influx is low. Herbivores may thus be present on the landscape but go undetected. The absence of dung fungal spores is therefore less informative than their presence. Dung fungal spores likely enter the sediment record through a different pathway from wind-borne pollen and thus dung fungal abundance is better expressed as influx rates than as percentage of total pollen. Landscape openness, vegetation type and site wetness do not distort the impact of utilisation levels on dung fungal spore representation. However, dung fungal spore influx varies markedly between seasons and years. Spores travel, leading to a background level of spore deposition across the landscape, and at times a depletion of spores, especially under wet weather conditions. Animal behaviour, as well as husbandry practices, can lead to the accumulation of dung, and thus fungal spores, in specific locations on the landscape that do not directly reflect grazing pressure.

Differential tectonic activity is a key factor responsible for variable relative sea-level (RSL) changes during the late Holocene in the Adriatic. Here, we compare reconstructions of RSL from the central-eastern Adriatic coast of Croatia with ICE-7G_NA (VM7) glacial-isostatic model RSL predictions to assess underlying driving mechanisms of RSL change during the past ~ 2700 years. Local standardized published sea-level index points (n ¼ 23) were combined with a new salt-marsh RSL reconstruction and tide-gauge measurements. We enumerated fossil foraminifera from a short salt-marsh sediment core constrained vertically by modern foraminiferal distributions, and temporally by radiometric analyses providing subcentury resolution within a Bayesian age-depth framework. We modelled changes in RSL using an ErrorsIn-Variables Integrated Gaussian Process (EIV-IGP) model with full consideration of the available uncertainty. Previously established index points show RSL rising from 1.48 m at 715 BCE to 1.05 m by 100 CE at 0.52 mm/yr (0.82-1.87 mm/yr). Between 500 and 1000 CE RSL was 0.7 m below present rising to 0.25 m at 1700 CE. RSL rise decreased to a minimum rate of 0.13 mm/yr (0.37-0.64 mm/yr) at ~1450 CE. The salt-marsh reconstruction shows RSL rose ~0.28 m since the early 18th century at an average rate of 0.95 mm/yr. Magnitudes and rates of RSL change during the twentieth century are concurrent with long-term tide-gauge measurements, with a rise of ~1.1 mm/yr. Predictions of RSL from the ICE-7G_NA (VM7) glacial-isostatic model (0.25 m at 715 BCE) are consistently higher than the reconstruction (1.48 m at 715 BCE) during the Late Holocene suggesting a subsidence rate of 0.45 ± 0.6 mm/yr. The new salt-marsh reconstruction and regional index points coupled with glacial-isostatic and statistical models estimate the magnitude and rate of RSL change and subsidence caused by the Adriatic tectonic framework.

The Valsequillo Basin in Central Mexico has been of interest due to the presence of megafauna and evidence for early human occupation, but research has been controversial. It has been suggested that extensive and deep lakes characterised the Early Pleistocene environment but sediment exposure is highly fragmentary and reliable dating has been difficult. Here we report, for the first time, Early Pleistocene palaeoenvironmental reconstructions using stable isotopes,diatoms, tephra and pollen. We studied several stratigraphic sections of mainly non-volcanic rocks, containing the 1.3 Ma Xalnene Ash as a stratigraphic marker. The isotope and other proxy data show that topographically low points in the basin were occupied by spring-fed, shallow water lakes during the Early – Mid Pleistocene, with a trend to drier conditions. The basin was a dynamic volcaniclastic environment during this period, with the production of the Toluquilla Volcano sequence and other rhyolitic-dacitic volcanic ashes interbedded with the lake sediments at the sections studied. There is no evidence from the sections for extensive and deep lakes before or after the Xalnene ash deposition. The presence of lakes in the basin during the Early Pleistocene would have made it attractive for megafauna.

The Valsequillo Basin in Central Mexico has been of interest due to the presence of megafauna and evidence for early human occupation, but research has been controversial. It has been suggested that extensive and deep lakes characterised the Early Pleistocene environment but sediment exposure is highly fragmentary and reliable dating has been difficult. Here we report, for the first time, Early Pleistocene palaeoenvironmental reconstructions using stable isotopes,diatoms, tephra and pollen. We studied several stratigraphic sections of mainly non-volcanic rocks, containing the 1.3 Ma Xalnene Ash as a stratigraphic marker. The isotope and other proxy data show that topographically low points in the basin were occupied by spring-fed, shallow water lakes during the Early – Mid Pleistocene, with a trend to drier conditions. The basin was a dynamic volcaniclastic environment during this period, with the production of the Toluquilla Volcano sequence and other rhyolitic-dacitic volcanic ashes interbedded with the lake sediments at the sections studied. There is no evidence from the sections for extensive and deep lakes before or after the Xalnene ash deposition. The presence of lakes in the basin during the Early Pleistocene would have made it attractive for megafauna.

The Valsequillo Basin in Central Mexico has been of interest due to the presence of megafauna and evidence for early human occupation, but research has been controversial. It has been suggested that extensive and deep lakes characterised the Early Pleistocene environment but sediment exposure is highly fragmentary and reliable dating has been difficult. Here we report, for the first time, Early Pleistocene palaeoenvironmental reconstructions using stable isotopes,diatoms, tephra and pollen. We studied several stratigraphic sections of mainly non-volcanic rocks, containing the 1.3 Ma Xalnene Ash as a stratigraphic marker. The isotope and other proxy data show that topographically low points in the basin were occupied by spring-fed, shallow water lakes during the Early – Mid Pleistocene, with a trend to drier conditions. The basin was a dynamic volcaniclastic environment during this period, with the production of the Toluquilla Volcano sequence and other rhyolitic-dacitic volcanic ashes interbedded with the lake sediments at the sections studied. There is no evidence from the sections for extensive and deep lakes before or after the Xalnene ash deposition. The presence of lakes in the basin during the Early Pleistocene would have made it attractive for megafauna.

The Valsequillo Basin in Central Mexico has been of interest due to the presence of megafauna and evidence for early human occupation, but research has been controversial. It has been suggested that extensive and deep lakes characterised the Early Pleistocene environment but sediment exposure is highly fragmentary and reliable dating has been difficult. Here we report, for the first time, Early Pleistocene palaeoenvironmental reconstructions using stable isotopes,diatoms, tephra and pollen. We studied several stratigraphic sections of mainly non-volcanic rocks, containing the 1.3 Ma Xalnene Ash as a stratigraphic marker. The isotope and other proxy data show that topographically low points in the basin were occupied by spring-fed, shallow water lakes during the Early – Mid Pleistocene, with a trend to drier conditions. The basin was a dynamic volcaniclastic environment during this period, with the production of the Toluquilla Volcano sequence and other rhyolitic-dacitic volcanic ashes interbedded with the lake sediments at the sections studied. There is no evidence from the sections for extensive and deep lakes before or after the Xalnene ash deposition. The presence of lakes in the basin during the Early Pleistocene would have made it attractive for megafauna.