Microfaunas, microfloras and the environmental stratigraphy of the Late Glacial and Holocene in Cardigan Bay

Abstract

Abstract The distribution of foraminifers, ostracods, diatoms and pollen is studied in cores from submarine boreholes. This reveals that the history of the Flandrian transgression is largely the record of the infilling of meltwater channels cut during the early Late Glacial with transgressive estuarine and finally marine deposits. It also supports the idea of the ‘climatic earliness’ of the Welsh seaboard at all stages. Estuarine deposits in excess of —51 m O.D. suggest that Late Glacial sea levels were initially as low as —60 m O.D. and support the idea that the Welsh ice withdrew before 14,000 years B.P. The sea‐level rise plots as a smooth curve but was probably episodic in its early phases.