Mid-Late Holocene Vegetational History and Land-Use Dynamics in County Monaghan, Northeastern Ireland—The Palynological Record of Lough Muckno

We conducted high-resolution palynological analysis on a sediment core obtained from Lough Muckno, County Monaghan, Ireland. The results presented represent the first paleoecological account of Mid-Late Holocene vegetational change and land-use dynamics in the study region. Human activity and agriculture is first recorded during the Early Neolithic (ca. 3870–3500 B.C.). After a period of undiscernible human activity of ∼900 years, farming resumes during the Early Bronze Age (ca. 2600 B.C.). Henceforth, human presence on the landscape is constant with fluctuating levels of intensity. During the Bronze Age, anthropogenic activity is most pronounced during ca. 2000–1750 B.C. and ca. 1500–1300 B.C. followed by a phase of reduced intensity in the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1000–650 B.C.). Farming activity increases during the Iron Age and is disrupted with the onset of a period of rapid woodland regeneration from ca. 200 B.C. to A.D. 200. During the prehistorical period agriculture has a strong focus on pas...