New research led by the University of Warwick shows that forests were already growing across Doggerland, now submerged under the North Sea, much earlier than scientists previously thought. The discovery suggests that this lost landscape may have served as a welcome haven for plants, animals, and perhaps humans, long before forests became commonplace in Britain and across northern Europe.
This research Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)used deposited ancient DNA to discover evidence of temperate trees such as oak, elm and hazel that are more than 16,000 years old. The researchers also detected DNA from a genus of trees that are thought to have disappeared from the area about 400,000 years ago. Furthermore, the results suggest that parts of Doggerland survived large-scale flooding events, such as the Strega tsunami about 8,150 years ago, and that some areas remained above water until about 7,000 years ago.
The study’s lead author, Professor Robin Araby from the University of Warwick, said: “By analyzing Seda DNA from southern Doggerland on a scale never before seen, we reconstructed the environment of this lost land from the end of the last Ice Age until the arrival of the North Sea. We unexpectedly discovered trees thousands of years earlier than anyone had expected, and found evidence that the full formation of the North Sea was later than previously thought.”
“From a human perspective, this is the best evidence that the forest environment of Doggerland may have supported Early Mesolithic communities before the Flood, and may help explain why relatively little Early Mesolithic evidence remains on mainland Britain today.”
Reconstructing the lost landscape of Doggerland
Doggerland once formed a land bridge connecting Britain with mainland Europe, but rising sea levels submerged the bridge and formed what is now the North Sea. Scientists have long known that the area eventually became forested, but it remains unclear when trees first became established or how suitable the environment was for early humans.
For the study, the researchers analyzed ancient DNA deposited from 252 samples taken from 41 marine cores along the prehistoric Southern River (chosen because the sediments are well-preserved and have the potential to reveal past habitats). This approach allowed us to trace Doggerland’s ecological history from about 16,000 years ago until it disappeared into the ocean.
Their findings show that temperate forest species such as oak, elm and hazel were present much earlier than suggested by Britain’s pollen record. Lime (Tilia), a warm-weather tree, also appeared about 2,000 years earlier than previously recorded on mainland Britain, indicating that parts of Doggerland may have served as a northern refuge during the last ice age.
In another unexpected result, the researchers identified DNA from Pterocarya, a close relative of the walnut that appears to have disappeared from northwestern Europe about 400,000 years ago. This suggests that the species has persisted in the region for much longer than previously thought.
New insights into Ice Age Europe and early humans
The discovery adds to the evidence that small protected areas known as ‘microrefugia’ allowed temperate plant species to survive under harsh Ice Age conditions in northern Europe. These refugia may help explain Reid’s paradox: how forests were able to spread rapidly across the region after the last ice age ended.
The existence of a forest ecosystem in southern Doggerland 16,000 years ago suggests that the area supported abundant wildlife and may have provided valuable resources to humans, including animals such as wild boars. This would have given the region a rich environment thousands of years before early populations like the Magremosian culture emerged around 10,300 years ago.
Co-author Professor Vincent Gaffney, from the University of Bradford, said: “For many years Doggerland has often been described as a land bridge, but it was only important as a prehistoric settlement route in the British Isles. Today we know that Doggerland “We understand that not only was the continent a center of early human settlement, but the presence of a land mass may have provided a refuge for plants and animals, and served as a fulcrum for prehistoric communities to settle and resettle northern Europe over thousands of years.”
