The
swamps of eastern Engand, a low and extremely flat landscape dominated by agricultural
fields, were once a vast forest full of huge yedes
Scientists at Cambridge University studied hundreds
of tree trunks unearthed by farmers as they plowed their fields. The team
discovered that most of the old wood came from yedes that died suddenly about
4,200 years ago, when the trees fell under the peat and were preserved to this
day.
In a study published in the Quaternary Science Review,
researchers hypothesize that a rapid rise in sea levels in the North Sea flooded
the area with salt water, causing large forests to disappear.
The yave trees (Taxus baccata) are one of the
longest species in Europe and can reach up to 20 meters high. Analysis by the Cambridge
Tree Rings Unit (TRU) showed that the yeys unearthed in the fields of Fenland
(the local name of the swamps) were very old: some of these ancient trees were
400 years old when they died.
Much of the swamps in eastern England formed a wetland
until it was drained between the 17th and 19th centuries
through artificial drainage and flood protection. Today, the area is one of the
UK’s most productive agricultural land, thanks to its rich peat soil.
The climate and environmental information contained
in these unearthed trees could be a valuable clue to whether this weather event
could be related to other events that occurred in other parts of the world at
the same time, including a mega-dry in the Middle East that may have been a
factor in the collapse of the ancient Kingdom of Egypt.
