Posterholt, a Late Pleistocene – Holocene record of the vegetation history in and around the valley of the Vlootbeek, a tributary of the river Meuse (southeastern Netherlands)

Abstract

The infill of an abandoned branch of the small river Vlootbeek, a tributary of the Meuse, revealed a record of the vegetation history from the Allerød to the Middle Ages, albeit with at least two hiatuses in its upper reach. Striking observations are the continuous presence of Pinus in a period long after this tree was absent elsewhere in the Dutch landscape, and the high percentages of Tilia pollen in the mid-Holocene. The former is explained by the sandy–gravelly subsoil in the valley of the Vlootbeek. The latter is ascribed to the short distance between the coring location and the plateau on which Tilia must have been the dominant tree. Anthropogenic influence is apparent from the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik farmers onwards.