Holocene tufa deposits in the Test valley, Hampshire, UK, have been examined as part of a wider project into prehistoric activity and landscape change in the central southern chalklands. Molluscan and ostracod analysis on three tufa sequences shows that the tufa began developing around 9300 BP in open marsh/open woodland environment. Although one of the sequences (Boss 10) demonstrates a wooded environment throughout, another sequence (Boss 360n/60e) indicates that the initial woodland is followed by reversion to more open conditions. Both profiles then show a short 'drier' woodland phase. Subsequent to this, one of the profiles then shows wetter woodland conditions developing (Boss 10), the other (Boss 360n/60e) more open wetland. Deposition rates are comparable to tufa deposits elsewhere and indicate that the short-lived 'drier' woodland phase perhaps lasted only a few hundreds of years. There are also indications of woodland clearance, associated with a charcoal peak, although no causal mechanism can be proposed. The formation of substantial portions of Holocene tufa deposits within open or only A lightly wooded landscapes has not previously been documented for southern Britain, where generally tufa HOLOCENE has been shown to have formed in densely wooded conditions. Through the tufa deposits the ostracod and RESEARCH molluscan evidence are in accord and provide detailed hydrological and environmental information respectively. Fine sampling (1 cm units) allowed a temporal resolution of perhaps around 20 years per sample. It is clear that the tufas studied here formed as groundwater-fed paludal deposits within the valley bottom.
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