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Pollen analysis from Lago Alimini Piccolo provides the first record of mid- and late-Holocene vegetation history of a coastal area in the easternmost region of southern Italy (Salento-Peninsula). Terrestrial pollen taxa document expansions and declines of the Mediterranean forest, in relation to human activity and climate changes. Between 5200 and 4350 cal. BP a dense evergreen oak forest dominated the landscape; then a distinct opening of the forest is recorded (4350-3900 cal. BP). A new forest expansion (3900-2100 cal. BP) is characterized by an increase of Olea and evergreen shrubs, indicating a development of mediterranean climate conditions and increasing human disturbance. The Roman occupation period (2100-1500 cal. BP) shows a significant opening of the forest, expansion of halophytes and modest values of Olea. After 1500 cal. BP human impact causes a further decrease of the natural woodland in favour of an extraordinary expansion of Olea. The vegetation development at Lago Alimini Piccolo, interpreted in the light of other pollen records, provides new insights into climate evolution and evergreen vegetation development in the central Mediterranean region: (1) a temporary mid-Holocene deforestation at 4000 cal. BP involving many Italian sites south of 43 degrees N was possibly caused by drought associated with an expansion or northward displacement of the North African high pressure zone; (2) the Bronze Age increase of Olea, coupled with a widespread increase of Mediterranean shrubs, suggests management of wild trees, while the beginning of intensive cultivation of olive trees is only found after the Roman time

Palynological, sedimentological and geochemical analyses performed on the Villarquemado paleolake sequence (987 m a.s.1, 40 degrees 30'N; 1 degrees 18'W) reveal the vegetation dynamics and climate variability in continental Iberia over the last 13,500 cal yr BP. The Lateglacial and early Holocene periods are characterized by arid conditions with a stable landscape dominated by pinewoods and steppe until ca. 7780 cal yr BP, despite sedimentological evidence for large paleohydrological fluctuations in the paleolake. The most humid phase occurred between ca. 7780 and 5000 cal yr BP and was characterized by the maximum spread of mesophytes (e.g., Betula, Coorlus, Quercus faginea type), the expansion of a mixed Mediterranean oak woodland with evergreen Quercus as dominant forest communities and more frequent higher lake level periods. The return of a dense pinewood synchronous with the depletion of mesophytes characterizes the mid-late Holocene transition (ca. 5000 cal yr BP) most likely as a consequence of an increasing aridity that coincides with the reappearance of a shallow, carbonate wetland environment. The paleohydrological and vegetation evolution shows similarities with other continental Mediterranean areas of Iberia and demonstrates a marked resilience of terrestrial vegetation and gradual responses to millennialscale climate fluctuations. Human impact is negligible until the lbero-Roman period (ca. 2500 cal yr BP) when a major deforestation occurred in the nearby pine forest. The last 1500 years are characterized by increasing landscape management, mainly associated with grazing practices shaping the current landscap

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