Peter G Langdon
Biographic Data
| ID | 3604572 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Peter G Langdon |
| GIVEN NAMES | Peter G |
| FAMILY NAME | Langdon |
| SIGNATURE | LANGDON P G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Southampton |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2724-2643 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 168 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Modelling the impact of large-scale hydroclimate change on prehistoric Polynesian island life
The South Pacific was one of the last regions on earth to be colonised by humans and offers a unique opportunity to study early climate-human interactions in environments previously untouched by people. Palaeoclimate evidence suggests the South Pacific has experienced shifts between dry and wet periods throughout the past three thousand years, the broad period of colonisation, with extremes in both modes being prevalent. Drought has significant r…
Investigating the potential of oxygen-isotope records from anthropogenic lakes as tracers of 20th century climate change
Historical climate change in southern England was investigated using ostracod oxygen-isotope (δ 18 O) records from two anthropogenic lakes in Hampshire, southern England. A strong relationship is observed between δ 18 O ostracod , δ 18 O precipitation and δ 18 O lake_water in the contemporary environment and therefore δ 18 O ostracod from the sedimentary record of these systems has the potential to reflect past climate variability. The possibilit…
Climate and human exploitation have regulated Atlantic salmon populations in the River Spey, Scotland, over the last 2000 years
Historical salmon catch records suggest that climatic variability, and more recently human exploitation, control patterns of abundance in Atlantic salmon populations. We present the first long-term (2000-year) reconstruction of Atlantic Salmon population variations based on a Marine Derived Nutrient (MDN) lake sediment record. Our record is constructed from nitrogen isotopes (δ 15 N) measured from a lake sediment core, which we compare with an es…
New integrated molecular approaches for investigating lake settlements in north-western Europe
Lake settlements, particularly crannogs, pose several contradictions—visible yet inaccessible, widespread yet geographically restricted, persistent yet vulnerable. To further our understanding, we developed the integrated use of palaeolimnological (scanning XRF, pollen, spores, diatoms, chironomids, Cladocera, microcharcoal, biogenic silica, SEM-EDS, stable-isotopes) and biomolecular (faecal stanols, bile acids, sedaDNA) analyses of crannog cores…
First human impacts and responses of aquatic systems
Lake sediments constitute natural archives of past environmental changes. Historically, research has focused mainly on generating regional climate records, but records of human impacts caused by land use and exploitation of freshwater resources are now attracting scientific and management interests. Long-term environmental records are useful to establish ecosystem reference conditions, enabling comparisons with current environments and potentiall…
Chronology and glass chemistry of tephra and cryptotephra horizons from lake sediments in northern Alaska, USA
Holocene tephrostratigraphy in Alaska provides independent chronology and stratigraphic correlation in a region where reworked old (Holocene) organic carbon can significantly distort radiocarbon chronologies. Here, we present new glass chemistry and chronology for Holocene tephras preserved in three Alaskan lakes: one in the eastern interior and two in the southern Brooks Range. Tephra beds in the eastern interior lake-sediment core are correlate…
Climatic variability during the last millennium in Western Iceland from lake sediment records
The aim of this research was to create a decadal-scale terrestrial quantitative palaeoclimate record for NW Iceland from lake sediments for the last millennium. Geochemical, stable isotope and chironomid reconstructions were obtained from a lake sequence constrained by tephra deposits on the Snæfellsnes peninsula, western Iceland. Obtaining a quantitative record proved problematic, but the qualitative chironomid record showed clear trends associa…
Social-ecological systems in the Anthropocene
Understanding social-ecological system dynamics is a major research priority for sustainable management of landscapes, ecosystems and resources. But the lack of multi-decadal records represents an important gap in information that hinders the development of the research agenda. Without improved information on the long-term and complex interactions between causal factors and responses, it will be difficult to answer key questions about trends, rat…
Summer temperature gradients in northwest Europe during the Lateglacial to early Holocene transition (15–8 ka BP) inferred from chironomid assemblages
A palaeoenvironmental context for Terminal Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic activity in the Colne Valley
Multi-proxy analyses from floodplain deposits in the Colne Valley, southern England, have provided a palaeoenvironmental context for the immediately adjacent Terminal Upper Palaeolithic and Early Mesolithic site of Three Ways Wharf. These deposits show the transition from an open cool environment to fully developed heterogeneous floodplain vegetation during the Early Mesolithic. Several distinct phases of burning are shown to have occurred that a…
Chironomid-inferred environmental change over the past 1400 years in the shallow, eutrophic Taibai Lake (south-east China)
A sediment core from Taibai Lake, a shallow and eutrophic lake (SE China), was analysed for chironomids to track environmental changes in the lake. Nutrient dynamics over the past 1400 years were traced based on subfossil records and a regional chironomid-inferred total phosphorus (CI-TP) transfer function. Between ad 600 and 1370, the coexistence of several macrophyte-related taxa such as Dicrotendipes, Paratanytarsus and Endochironomus reflecte…
Safe and just operating spaces for regional social-ecological systems
Humanity faces a major global challenge in achieving wellbeing for all, while simultaneously ensuring that the biophysical processes and ecosystem services that underpin wellbeing are exploited within scientifically informed boundaries of sustainability. We propose a framework for defining the safe and just operating space for humanity that integrates social wellbeing into the original planetary boundaries concept (Rockström et al., 2009a,b) for …
Lake ecosystem dynamics and links to climate change inferred from a stable isotope and organic palaeorecord from a mountain lake in southwestern China (ca. 22.6–10.5 cal ka BP)
A detailed understanding of long-term climatic and environmental change in southwestern China is hampered by a lack of long-term regional palaeorecords. Organic analysis (%TOC, %TN, C/N ratios and δ 13 C values) of a sediment sequence from Lake Shudu, Yunnan Province (ca. 22.6–10.5 cal ka BP) indicates generally low aquatic palaeoproductivity rates over millennial timescales in response to cold, dry climatic conditions. However, the record is pun…
Chironomids can be reliable proxies for Holocene temperatures. A comment on Velle et al. (2010)
Velle et al. (2010) discussed discrepancies between Scandinavian Holocene chironomid-inferred temperature estimates, which they attribute to the response of chironomids to environmental variables other than temperature and to taxonomic shortcomings. They suggest ways in which the reliability of chironomid-based paleotemperature reconstructions could be improved by taking into account ecological complexity. While we agree with many of their recomm…
A chironomid-based reconstruction of summer temperatures in NW Iceland since AD 1650
Few studies currently exist that aim to validate a proxy chironomid-temperature reconstruction with instrumental temperature measurements. We used a reconstruction from a chironomid percentage abundance data set to produce quantitative summer temperature estimates since AD 1650 for NW Iceland through a transfer function approach, and validated the record against instrumental temperature measurements from Stykkishólmur in western Iceland. The core…
Lacustrine evidence of early-Holocene environmental change in northern Iceland
Early-Holocene warming in Iceland caused rapid glacial ice melt which led to exposed landscapes on which soils developed and floras quickly established. Our chironomid-based records from northern Iceland suggest temperatures were up to 2—2.5°C warmer than present throughout the first two millennia post deglaciation (~10 500 to 8500 cal. BP) while sedimentary and isotopic data indicate the development of soils within the local environment througho…
Dating the Glen Garry tephra
The distal Icelandic tephra known as the Glen Garry layer has been dated by AMS 14 C at eight ombrotrophic peat bogs from northern England and Scotland. The geochemistry of all the tephra layers is consistent with there being only one Glen Garry tephra, rather than two or more from eruptions of the same volcanic source. At seven of the sites, all in Scotland, the tephra layer was bracketed by 1 cm contiguous samples below, at and above the horizo…
Bronze Age upland settlement decline in southwest England
Compilation of non-annually resolved Holocene proxy climate records
A sediment-based multiproxy palaeoecological approach to the environmental archaeology of lake dwellings (crannogs), central Ireland
A multiproxy study of Ballywillin Crannog, Lough Kinale, central Ireland is presented. The methodology used reveals the wealth of information that a multiproxy approach can contribute in lake settlement studies. Plant macrofossils, pollen and spores, diatoms, chironomids and Coleoptera from a lake core are used to reconstruct local and regional vegetation change and lake history to establish the age and function of the crannog. The palaeoecologic…
Vegetation, landscape and human activity in Midland Ireland
The potential of chironomid (Insecta
Snapshots in time
Mid-Holocene tephra layers have been located and geochemically analysed from seven ombrotrophic bogs in Scotland. The tephras found in these Scottish peats occur as stratigraphically discrete horizons, not visible to the naked eye, and originate from volcanic activity in Iceland. Identifying and geochemically typing the tephra layers can enable precise correlations between sites on regional scales, depending on the spatial extent of the airfall e…
Mire-development pathways and palaeoclimatic records from a full Holocene peat archive at Walton Moss, Cumbria, England
Plant macrofossil data have been used to identify the successive mire communities occupying both central and marginal locations in the Walton Moss peatland complex, during the last 10 500 years. The reconstructed pathways of mire development indicate that early-Holocene fen and fen-carr communities were succeeded by species indicative of deep mire water tables and oligotrophic conditions. The character of the fen/bog transition (FBT) is compared …
Safe and just operating spaces for regional social-ecological systems
Humanity faces a major global challenge in achieving wellbeing for all, while simultaneously ensuring that the biophysical processes and ecosystem services that underpin wellbeing are exploited within scientifically informed boundaries of sustainability. We propose a framework for defining the safe and just operating space for humanity that integrates social wellbeing into the original planetary boundaries concept (Rockström et al., 2009a,b) for …
Bronze Age upland settlement decline in southwest England
Mire-development pathways and palaeoclimatic records from a full Holocene peat archive at Walton Moss, Cumbria, England
Plant macrofossil data have been used to identify the successive mire communities occupying both central and marginal locations in the Walton Moss peatland complex, during the last 10 500 years. The reconstructed pathways of mire development indicate that early-Holocene fen and fen-carr communities were succeeded by species indicative of deep mire water tables and oligotrophic conditions. The character of the fen/bog transition (FBT) is compared …
Social-ecological systems in the Anthropocene
Understanding social-ecological system dynamics is a major research priority for sustainable management of landscapes, ecosystems and resources. But the lack of multi-decadal records represents an important gap in information that hinders the development of the research agenda. Without improved information on the long-term and complex interactions between causal factors and responses, it will be difficult to answer key questions about trends, rat…
The potential of chironomid (Insecta
Dating the Glen Garry tephra
The distal Icelandic tephra known as the Glen Garry layer has been dated by AMS 14 C at eight ombrotrophic peat bogs from northern England and Scotland. The geochemistry of all the tephra layers is consistent with there being only one Glen Garry tephra, rather than two or more from eruptions of the same volcanic source. At seven of the sites, all in Scotland, the tephra layer was bracketed by 1 cm contiguous samples below, at and above the horizo…
A sediment-based multiproxy palaeoecological approach to the environmental archaeology of lake dwellings (crannogs), central Ireland
A multiproxy study of Ballywillin Crannog, Lough Kinale, central Ireland is presented. The methodology used reveals the wealth of information that a multiproxy approach can contribute in lake settlement studies. Plant macrofossils, pollen and spores, diatoms, chironomids and Coleoptera from a lake core are used to reconstruct local and regional vegetation change and lake history to establish the age and function of the crannog. The palaeoecologic…
Vegetation, landscape and human activity in Midland Ireland
Climatic variability during the last millennium in Western Iceland from lake sediment records
The aim of this research was to create a decadal-scale terrestrial quantitative palaeoclimate record for NW Iceland from lake sediments for the last millennium. Geochemical, stable isotope and chironomid reconstructions were obtained from a lake sequence constrained by tephra deposits on the Snæfellsnes peninsula, western Iceland. Obtaining a quantitative record proved problematic, but the qualitative chironomid record showed clear trends associa…
Snapshots in time
Mid-Holocene tephra layers have been located and geochemically analysed from seven ombrotrophic bogs in Scotland. The tephras found in these Scottish peats occur as stratigraphically discrete horizons, not visible to the naked eye, and originate from volcanic activity in Iceland. Identifying and geochemically typing the tephra layers can enable precise correlations between sites on regional scales, depending on the spatial extent of the airfall e…
New integrated molecular approaches for investigating lake settlements in north-western Europe
Lake settlements, particularly crannogs, pose several contradictions—visible yet inaccessible, widespread yet geographically restricted, persistent yet vulnerable. To further our understanding, we developed the integrated use of palaeolimnological (scanning XRF, pollen, spores, diatoms, chironomids, Cladocera, microcharcoal, biogenic silica, SEM-EDS, stable-isotopes) and biomolecular (faecal stanols, bile acids, sedaDNA) analyses of crannog cores…
A palaeoenvironmental context for Terminal Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic activity in the Colne Valley
Multi-proxy analyses from floodplain deposits in the Colne Valley, southern England, have provided a palaeoenvironmental context for the immediately adjacent Terminal Upper Palaeolithic and Early Mesolithic site of Three Ways Wharf. These deposits show the transition from an open cool environment to fully developed heterogeneous floodplain vegetation during the Early Mesolithic. Several distinct phases of burning are shown to have occurred that a…
Chironomid-inferred environmental change over the past 1400 years in the shallow, eutrophic Taibai Lake (south-east China)
A sediment core from Taibai Lake, a shallow and eutrophic lake (SE China), was analysed for chironomids to track environmental changes in the lake. Nutrient dynamics over the past 1400 years were traced based on subfossil records and a regional chironomid-inferred total phosphorus (CI-TP) transfer function. Between ad 600 and 1370, the coexistence of several macrophyte-related taxa such as Dicrotendipes, Paratanytarsus and Endochironomus reflecte…
Lacustrine evidence of early-Holocene environmental change in northern Iceland
Early-Holocene warming in Iceland caused rapid glacial ice melt which led to exposed landscapes on which soils developed and floras quickly established. Our chironomid-based records from northern Iceland suggest temperatures were up to 2—2.5°C warmer than present throughout the first two millennia post deglaciation (~10 500 to 8500 cal. BP) while sedimentary and isotopic data indicate the development of soils within the local environment througho…
Mire-development pathways and palaeoclimatic records from a full Holocene peat archive at Walton Moss, Cumbria, England
Plant macrofossil data have been used to identify the successive mire communities occupying both central and marginal locations in the Walton Moss peatland complex, during the last 10 500 years. The reconstructed pathways of mire development indicate that early-Holocene fen and fen-carr communities were succeeded by species indicative of deep mire water tables and oligotrophic conditions. The character of the fen/bog transition (FBT) is compared …
Snapshots in time
Mid-Holocene tephra layers have been located and geochemically analysed from seven ombrotrophic bogs in Scotland. The tephras found in these Scottish peats occur as stratigraphically discrete horizons, not visible to the naked eye, and originate from volcanic activity in Iceland. Identifying and geochemically typing the tephra layers can enable precise correlations between sites on regional scales, depending on the spatial extent of the airfall e…
A sediment-based multiproxy palaeoecological approach to the environmental archaeology of lake dwellings (crannogs), central Ireland
A multiproxy study of Ballywillin Crannog, Lough Kinale, central Ireland is presented. The methodology used reveals the wealth of information that a multiproxy approach can contribute in lake settlement studies. Plant macrofossils, pollen and spores, diatoms, chironomids and Coleoptera from a lake core are used to reconstruct local and regional vegetation change and lake history to establish the age and function of the crannog. The palaeoecologic…
Vegetation, landscape and human activity in Midland Ireland
The potential of chironomid (Insecta
Compilation of non-annually resolved Holocene proxy climate records
Bronze Age upland settlement decline in southwest England
Dating the Glen Garry tephra
The distal Icelandic tephra known as the Glen Garry layer has been dated by AMS 14 C at eight ombrotrophic peat bogs from northern England and Scotland. The geochemistry of all the tephra layers is consistent with there being only one Glen Garry tephra, rather than two or more from eruptions of the same volcanic source. At seven of the sites, all in Scotland, the tephra layer was bracketed by 1 cm contiguous samples below, at and above the horizo…
Lacustrine evidence of early-Holocene environmental change in northern Iceland
Early-Holocene warming in Iceland caused rapid glacial ice melt which led to exposed landscapes on which soils developed and floras quickly established. Our chironomid-based records from northern Iceland suggest temperatures were up to 2—2.5°C warmer than present throughout the first two millennia post deglaciation (~10 500 to 8500 cal. BP) while sedimentary and isotopic data indicate the development of soils within the local environment througho…
A chironomid-based reconstruction of summer temperatures in NW Iceland since AD 1650
Few studies currently exist that aim to validate a proxy chironomid-temperature reconstruction with instrumental temperature measurements. We used a reconstruction from a chironomid percentage abundance data set to produce quantitative summer temperature estimates since AD 1650 for NW Iceland through a transfer function approach, and validated the record against instrumental temperature measurements from Stykkishólmur in western Iceland. The core…
Lake ecosystem dynamics and links to climate change inferred from a stable isotope and organic palaeorecord from a mountain lake in southwestern China (ca. 22.6–10.5 cal ka BP)
A detailed understanding of long-term climatic and environmental change in southwestern China is hampered by a lack of long-term regional palaeorecords. Organic analysis (%TOC, %TN, C/N ratios and δ 13 C values) of a sediment sequence from Lake Shudu, Yunnan Province (ca. 22.6–10.5 cal ka BP) indicates generally low aquatic palaeoproductivity rates over millennial timescales in response to cold, dry climatic conditions. However, the record is pun…
Chironomids can be reliable proxies for Holocene temperatures. A comment on Velle et al. (2010)
Velle et al. (2010) discussed discrepancies between Scandinavian Holocene chironomid-inferred temperature estimates, which they attribute to the response of chironomids to environmental variables other than temperature and to taxonomic shortcomings. They suggest ways in which the reliability of chironomid-based paleotemperature reconstructions could be improved by taking into account ecological complexity. While we agree with many of their recomm…
Summer temperature gradients in northwest Europe during the Lateglacial to early Holocene transition (15–8 ka BP) inferred from chironomid assemblages
A palaeoenvironmental context for Terminal Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic activity in the Colne Valley
Multi-proxy analyses from floodplain deposits in the Colne Valley, southern England, have provided a palaeoenvironmental context for the immediately adjacent Terminal Upper Palaeolithic and Early Mesolithic site of Three Ways Wharf. These deposits show the transition from an open cool environment to fully developed heterogeneous floodplain vegetation during the Early Mesolithic. Several distinct phases of burning are shown to have occurred that a…
Chironomid-inferred environmental change over the past 1400 years in the shallow, eutrophic Taibai Lake (south-east China)
A sediment core from Taibai Lake, a shallow and eutrophic lake (SE China), was analysed for chironomids to track environmental changes in the lake. Nutrient dynamics over the past 1400 years were traced based on subfossil records and a regional chironomid-inferred total phosphorus (CI-TP) transfer function. Between ad 600 and 1370, the coexistence of several macrophyte-related taxa such as Dicrotendipes, Paratanytarsus and Endochironomus reflecte…
Safe and just operating spaces for regional social-ecological systems
Humanity faces a major global challenge in achieving wellbeing for all, while simultaneously ensuring that the biophysical processes and ecosystem services that underpin wellbeing are exploited within scientifically informed boundaries of sustainability. We propose a framework for defining the safe and just operating space for humanity that integrates social wellbeing into the original planetary boundaries concept (Rockström et al., 2009a,b) for …
Social-ecological systems in the Anthropocene
Understanding social-ecological system dynamics is a major research priority for sustainable management of landscapes, ecosystems and resources. But the lack of multi-decadal records represents an important gap in information that hinders the development of the research agenda. Without improved information on the long-term and complex interactions between causal factors and responses, it will be difficult to answer key questions about trends, rat…
Climatic variability during the last millennium in Western Iceland from lake sediment records
The aim of this research was to create a decadal-scale terrestrial quantitative palaeoclimate record for NW Iceland from lake sediments for the last millennium. Geochemical, stable isotope and chironomid reconstructions were obtained from a lake sequence constrained by tephra deposits on the Snæfellsnes peninsula, western Iceland. Obtaining a quantitative record proved problematic, but the qualitative chironomid record showed clear trends associa…
Chronology and glass chemistry of tephra and cryptotephra horizons from lake sediments in northern Alaska, USA
Holocene tephrostratigraphy in Alaska provides independent chronology and stratigraphic correlation in a region where reworked old (Holocene) organic carbon can significantly distort radiocarbon chronologies. Here, we present new glass chemistry and chronology for Holocene tephras preserved in three Alaskan lakes: one in the eastern interior and two in the southern Brooks Range. Tephra beds in the eastern interior lake-sediment core are correlate…
First human impacts and responses of aquatic systems
Lake sediments constitute natural archives of past environmental changes. Historically, research has focused mainly on generating regional climate records, but records of human impacts caused by land use and exploitation of freshwater resources are now attracting scientific and management interests. Long-term environmental records are useful to establish ecosystem reference conditions, enabling comparisons with current environments and potentiall…
Climate and human exploitation have regulated Atlantic salmon populations in the River Spey, Scotland, over the last 2000 years
Historical salmon catch records suggest that climatic variability, and more recently human exploitation, control patterns of abundance in Atlantic salmon populations. We present the first long-term (2000-year) reconstruction of Atlantic Salmon population variations based on a Marine Derived Nutrient (MDN) lake sediment record. Our record is constructed from nitrogen isotopes (δ 15 N) measured from a lake sediment core, which we compare with an es…
New integrated molecular approaches for investigating lake settlements in north-western Europe
Lake settlements, particularly crannogs, pose several contradictions—visible yet inaccessible, widespread yet geographically restricted, persistent yet vulnerable. To further our understanding, we developed the integrated use of palaeolimnological (scanning XRF, pollen, spores, diatoms, chironomids, Cladocera, microcharcoal, biogenic silica, SEM-EDS, stable-isotopes) and biomolecular (faecal stanols, bile acids, sedaDNA) analyses of crannog cores…
Investigating the potential of oxygen-isotope records from anthropogenic lakes as tracers of 20th century climate change
Historical climate change in southern England was investigated using ostracod oxygen-isotope (δ 18 O) records from two anthropogenic lakes in Hampshire, southern England. A strong relationship is observed between δ 18 O ostracod , δ 18 O precipitation and δ 18 O lake_water in the contemporary environment and therefore δ 18 O ostracod from the sedimentary record of these systems has the potential to reflect past climate variability. The possibilit…
Modelling the impact of large-scale hydroclimate change on prehistoric Polynesian island life
The South Pacific was one of the last regions on earth to be colonised by humans and offers a unique opportunity to study early climate-human interactions in environments previously untouched by people. Palaeoclimate evidence suggests the South Pacific has experienced shifts between dry and wet periods throughout the past three thousand years, the broad period of colonisation, with extremes in both modes being prevalent. Drought has significant r…
Geography (23 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (22 works) · Archaeology (18 works) · Geology (16 works) · Physical geography (16 works) · Holocene (15 works) · Ecology (10 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (9 works) · Climate change (9 works) · Oceanography (9 works)