Climatic control of peat erosion in a North Wales blanket mire

. This study investigates the palaeoecology of a hammock-and-hollow complex from a partially eroded upland blanket mire at the Migneint, north Wales, UK. . Three peat cores were collected and analysed for pollen and botanical mac rofossils, two for peat humification and a third was radiocarbon-dated. In the interpretation of the palaeoecological record particular attention was paid to the ecology of the moss Racomitrium lanuginosum. . We delimit two periods in the development of the hummock-hollow complex: an earlier period of climatically controlled blanket-mire development; and a later period of mire erosion (initiated between c. 2000 and 1350 Cal. yea r BID) when 'natural' climatically controlled mire development was modified by excessive drying of the mire surface. . The data support recent studies in suggesting that the development of Bri tish blanket mires is sensitive to climate change. However, climatically co ntrolled blanket-mire development appears to have been pre-empted at the Mi gneint by the development of the erosion-complex, the initiation of which c oincides with the zenith of an extensive deforestation during the Late Bron ze Age, Iron Age and Romano-British periods.