Summary 1The fossil pollen record of Cañada de la Cruz in the Segura mountains of southern Spain yields insights into high-elevation vegetational dynamics over the last c . 8320 years. Phases of xerophytic grassland alternate with high-mountain open pine forests and expansion of deciduous forests and Mediterranean scrub at lower altitudes. 2 Longer-term stable vegetation patterns are interrupted by multidecadal to centuryscale shifts at about 7770, 3370, 2630, 1525 and 790 years BP. 3 Some of the vegetation types have no modern analogues and represent high-altitude remnants of widespread last-glacial xerophytic communities. Other species patterns, characteristic of current scrub associations, appeared only within the last 800 years. 4 The sequence fits within the regional context of a generally wet mid-Holocene ( c . 7700 -3300 years BP) characterized by spread of mesophilous vegetation, between drier conditions characterized by greater abundance of xerophytes. 5 The pollen record and current ecological studies on high-elevation vegetation of Mediterranean Spain suggest that control of vegetation is primarily climatic although grazing pressure, which would have pushed vegetation over a threshold for change, cannot be discounted.

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S U M MARYPercentage and concentration pollen diagrams are presented for two cores (taken 5 m apart) at an upper Pleistocene and Hoiocene site at Navarres (Valencia, eastern Spain). Chronological information is provided by an internally consistent radiocarbon dating series that extends from c. 20700 to 3075 yr BP. The results highlight the dangers of relying on a single core in interpreting the patterns of variation of particular taxa. Significant palynological differences, seemingly locational, are described between the two cores. The upper Pleistocene records accords well with the widely recognized European sequence of (a) upper Plenigiacial, (A) BoUing-Allerod warm period, and (c) Younger Dryas crisis. However, the sequence does not show-disruption of vegetation patterns following the commencement of the Hoiocene, and Pinus continues to be dominant up to c. 5500-6000 yr BP. Later, there is evidence for Ouercus forest, mesophilous trees, and xerosclerophyllous Mediterranean vegetation, which is coincident with eutrophication of the study site. These vegetation changes are discussed in the context of anthropogenic disturbance by Neolithic people, competitive exclusion, and climatic change.