Derbyshire fossil study reveals insights into Peak District’s 12 million year-old climatic past

Although first studied over 10 years ago, the most recent investigation into geological deposits near Brassington was initiated in 2019, with an international team of researchers from Northumbria University, the British Geological Survey, Morehead State University in the USA and CONICET in Argentina now assessing their latest findings.

Anna Badcock, Team Leader for Cultural Heritage at the Peak District National Park said: “This work is incredibly powerful in helping us communicate ideas about landscape change. Researchers use fossil pollen for reconstructing past environments and understanding human impacts on landscape, but this is recent in geological terms.

“It’s wonderful that advances in this kind of analysis can also be used to help us understand climate and environments millions of years ago – we still have such an extraordinary amount to learn from fungi and plants, and about how our environments adapt.”

Results from the Derbyshire site and similar studies suggest that the UK may get wetter with climate change. Today Derbyshire has a mean annual temperature of around 8°C with up to 1000mm of rain a year, 12 million years ago it was 12-18°C with 1200-1400mm of rain.

This doubling of temperature was with atmospheric carbon dioxide levels similar to those predicted for 2060. These differences in temperature and rainfall would fundamentally change the entire landscape. This highlights how important carbon capture is to avoid extreme changes in climate.

With some of the most extensive upland landscapes and peat bogs in the UK and globally, the Peak District is already at the forefront of carbon capture or ‘sequestration’ through conservation management and restoration programmes, but also has a role to play in mitigating the potential localised impacts of climate change through natural flood management.

Dr. Matthew Pound from Northumbria University, said: “The study suggests an anticipated warmer climate for the UK and therefore a wetter UK, which of course has implications for all of us; but also provides an opportunity to ensure landscapes like the Peak District and Derbyshire can be part of that resilience, not just for local communities but at scale as we manage the carbon in our environment.”