Abstract
Summary: The post‐glacial pollen stratigraphies of two sequences of lake sediments (Hockham Mere and The Mere, Stow Bedon) are compared. Both suggest displacement of existing taxa when new taxa arrive from their cold‐stage refugia and expand their populations. Hockham Mere is within an area of sandy soils, while The Mere at Stow Bedon is within an area of calcareous till soils. There have been differences in the forest vegetation around the two sites for most of the last 10000 years, and the competitive interactions between the forest trees differ also.