ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the Neogene, the British Isles were subject to major orogenic uplift, as Europe reeled under the intense compressional forces brought about by the northward drift of the African plate. In the British Isles, on the western edge of the outer zone, temperatures were probably a few degrees lower. The Quaternary Period is characterized by an alternation of cold and temperate climatic episodes. Dining cold episodes, flora and fauna migrated to refugia, mainly in mainland Europe, to await the return of warmer conditions, when some were able to disperse back into the British Isles. This repeated, forced movement of the British flora and fauna over obstacles such as water bodies and mountain ranges has led to its progressive impoverishment, as compared with that of Europe. In the British Isles, one widely used biozonation has been that of H. Godwin who described eight pollen zones and sub-zones for the Holocene Stage of England and Wales.
