The H olocene tufa at D aours ( S omme V alley, northern F rance): Malacological succession and palaeohydrological implications

One of the thickest and most extensive tufa deposits in northern F rance occurs at D aours, about 8 km upstream of A miens at the confluence of the R iver S omme and its tributary the H allue. It covers an area of about 80 ha and reaches 10 m above the level of the present valley, probably owing to the construction of a tufa barrage, which caused periodic damming of the valley. The molluscan succession from a 4‐m section through the D aours tufa provides an unusually detailed record of environmental change during the H olocene. The faunal record, supported by four radiocarbon dates, indicates that the tufa sequence at this location does not extend back to the early Holocene but began c. 7340 cal. a BP and ceased to form shortly after c.  4938 cal. a BP , consistent with the notion of a NW E uropean ‘late H olocene tufa decline’. The molluscan record is divisible into six zones that define three aquatic phases separated by three terrestrial episodes, when the tufa surface dried out sufficiently to allow colonization by dry‐ground species, including some shade‐demanding elements. These events are also reflected by differences in the lithology of the tufa. The earliest aquatic phase at the base of the sequence represents the most stable and permanent water‐body. The two subsequent aquatic phases appear to represent smaller, more ephemeral, water‐bodies surrounded by marsh. The land snail assemblages show ecological changes within each terrestrial episode, as well as faunal differences between them. These events, which reflect changes in the local hydrology, were short‐lived, each lasting for only a few hundred years. The tufa at D aours has also yielded flint artefacts and pottery, but it seems unlikely that the dynamic environmental record of the site results from anthropogenic activity.