Last Glacial to Holocene palaeoenvironmental evolution at Lago di Pergusa (Sicily, Southern Italy) as inferred by pollen, microcharcoal, and stable isotopes

Sadori, Laura; Zanchetta, Giovanni; Giardini, Marco

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2007.02.024

Cited by 108 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Magri and Sadori, 1999;Allen et al, 2002;Sadori et al, 2004Sadori et al, , 2011Zanchetta et al, 2007a, b;Colonese et al, 2011;Finne et al, 2011;Giraudi et al, 2011;Zhornyak et al, 2011;Magny et al, 2009Magny et al, , 2011Magny et al, , 2012aDi Rita et al, 2013;Calo et al, 2012). These data show a complex pattern of climatic change across the Mediterranean during the Holocene, with strong spatial and temporal variability (e.g.…”

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“…The Lake Pergusa pollen record (southern Italy, Sicily) shows the opposite pattern: maximum winter and summer precipitation during the early to mid-Holocene and a very moderate drying trend towards modern climatic conditions during the late Holocene (Magny et al, 2012b). The Sicilian record is supported by isotopic evidence from snail shells (Colonese et al, 2011), lacustrine records (Zanchetta et al, 2007a;Sadori et al, 2008) and stalagmites (Frisia et al, 2006). The Sicilian record also shows similarities to records from the eastern Mediterranean (Bar-Matthews and Ayalon, 2011;Bar-Matthews et al, 1998;Kouli et al, 2012) and the western Mediterranean (Pérez-Obiol and Sadori, 2007).…”

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Contrasting patterns of climatic changes during the Holocene across the Italian Peninsula reconstructed from pollen data

et al. 2013

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Lake-level records from Italy suggest that patterns of precipitation in the central Mediterranean during the Holocene were divided between the north and south, but a scarcity of reliable palaeoclimatic records in the north and central-southern Mediterranean means new evidence is needed to validate this hypothesis. We provide robust quantitative estimates of Holocene climate in the Mediterranean region using four high-resolution pollen records from northern (Lakes Ledro and Accesa) and southern (Lakes Trifoglietti and Pergusa) Italy. Multiple methods are used to provide an improved assessment of the palaeoclimatic reconstruction uncertainty. The multi-method approach uses the pollenbased weighted averaging, weighted-average partial leastsquares regression, modern analogue technique, and the nonmetric multidimensional scaling/generalized additive model methods. We use independent lake-level data to validate the precipitation reconstructions. Our results support a climatic partition between northern and southern Italy during the Holocene, confirming the hypothesis of opposing mid-Holocene summer precipitation regimes in the Mediterranean. The northern sites (Ledro, Accesa) are characterized by minima for summer precipitation and lake levels during the early to midHolocene, while the southern sites (Trifoglietti, Pergusa) are marked by maxima for precipitation and lake levels at the same time. Both pollen-inferred precipitation and lake levels indicate the opposite pattern during the late Holocene, a maximum in northern Italy and a minimum in southern Italy/Sicily. Summer temperatures show the same partitioning, with warm conditions in northern Italy and cool conditions in Sicily during the early/mid-Holocene, and a reversal during the late Holocene. Comparison with marine cores from the Aegean Sea suggests that climate trends and gradients observed in Italy show strong similarities with those recognized from the Aegean Sea, and more generally speaking in the eastern Mediterranean

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Contrasting patterns of climatic changes during the Holocene across the Italian Peninsula reconstructed from pollen data

et al. 2013

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“…Here, we investigated a soil climosequence along the slopes of Mt. Etna (Sicily), 5 the largest volcano in Europe. A strong effect of the altitude on pedogenesis on the flanks of the 6 volcano was assessed, even when covered by the same vegetation (Fernández Sanjurjo et al, 2003).…”

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Charcoal and stable soil organic matter as indicators of fire frequency, climate and past vegetation in volcanic soils of Mt. Etna, Sicily

Egli

Mastrolonardo

Seiler

et al. 2012

CATENA

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Charcoal fragments in soils are useful to reconstruct past vegetation because the level of preservation is often good enough to determine the tree genus. All forest ecosystems have the potential to burn as a result of naturally occurring or human-induced fires. Forest fires are coupled to climate and are a not-negligible factor of pedogenesis in Mediterranean areas, where they occur frequently. Furthermore, soil organic matter (SOM) is prone to undergo peculiar changes due to forest fires, both in terms of quantity and quality. A soil sequence along an elevational gradient ranging from Mediterranean to subalpine climate zones on slopes of Mt. Etna (Sicily, Italy) was investigated in respect of soil organic C and charcoal. The amount of charcoal and the identification of charred species gave an indication of the fire frequency and vegetation changes that have occurred in the past. The distribution into labile and stable organic fractions provided insight into the stabilisation and turnover mechanisms of SOM. The stable organic matter fraction was measured as the residue of a H2O2 treatment. The soils along the altitudinal sequence are variations of Vitric Andosols that developed on a single trachy-basaltic lava flow having an age of 10-15 ky BP. Maquis vegetation dominates at the lower sites of the toposequence, followed by oak-and chestnut-forests at mid elevations, and pine-forest at the highest-elevated sites. Charcoals are older at higher elevations (ages of up to 1.5 ky cal BP). Here, the vegetation type has not changed over the last > 1000 years, as all charcoal pieces were identified as Pinus nigra. Charred material at the lower sites could be identified as particles of deciduous shrubs, Quercus, Castanea sativa, Lonicera implexa and Cytisus spp. with mostly a modern age up to about 300 y cal BP. A similar finding was obtained for the stable (H2O2 resistant) SOM. Very high ages for this fraction were found at the highest elevations where it had an age of up to 8.2 ky BP -an age that is close to the start of soil formation. At the lower sites, where frequent bush fires often destroyed a part of the stable fraction, the stable SOM fraction had a maximum age of 1 ky. The studied soils have recorded the signals of the interrelated factors fire frequency, climatic effects and vegetation whose role cannot always be clearly distinguished. With decreasing altitude and with a warmer climate, vegetation changes and fire frequency, org. C and especially nitrogen abundance and the amount of labile SOM increases. At the lower sites, charcoal particles reflect the more recent vegetation probably because the repeated fires here hindered their preservation. Our findings hence suggest that a high fire frequency is a powerful rejuvenating factor for soil organic matter, removing part of the old SOM and promoting plant recolonisation that is a source of young SOM. Fire frequency and intensity on Mt. Etna is, however, moderate enough even at the lowest altitudes for the organic matter pool to be high and not deplete...

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“…The existence of long-term fire activity patterns in the Mediterranean Basin has been proved in different local and regional approaches (Wick et al, 2003;Sadori and Giardini, 2007;Colombaroli et al, 2007;Sadori et al, 2008;Turner et al, 2008;Tinner et al, 2009;Vannière et al, 2008). These approaches show in some cases synchronous trends but also many unexpected ecosystem responses due to particular physical settings, microclimatic aspects and different models of human agency.…”

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“…Thus during this period fires would have been limited to the understory level. The Holocene temperature rise in the Mediterranean Basin has been widely discussed across different regions (Cheddadi et al, 1996;Prentice and Webb, 1998;Sadori et al, 2008;Tinner, et al, 2009) as well as in the Iberian Peninsula (García Antón et al, 1995Franco Múgica et al, 1998, 2001Carrión et al, 2001aCarrión et al, , 2001bBenito Garzón et al, 2007;Gil García et al, 2007;Morellón et al, 2008). These studies report a more benign climate with a shorter drought season between ca.…”

Section: Fire Activity Anomalies and Vegetation Response: The Role Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene fire activity and vegetation response in South-Eastern Iberia

Gil‐Romera

2012

Quaternary International

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Since fire has been recognised as an essential disturbance in Mediterranean landscapes, the study of long-term fire ecology has developed rapidly. We have reconstructed a sequence of vegetation dynamics and fire changes across south-eastern Iberia by coupling records of climate, fire, vegetation and human activities. We calculated fire activity anomalies (FAAs) in relation to 3 kyr cal BP for 10-8 kyr cal BP, 6 kyr cal BP, 4 kyr cal BP and the present. For most of the Early to the Mid-Holocene uneven, but low fire events were the main vegetation driver at high altitudes where broadleaved and coniferous trees presented a highly dynamic post-fire response. At mid-altitudes in the mainland Segura Mountains, fire activity remained relatively stable, at similar levels to recent times. We hypothesize that coastal areas, both mountains and lowlands, were more fire-prone landscapes as biomass was more likely to have accumulated than in the inland regions, triggering regular fire events. The wet and warm phase towards the Mid-Holocene (between ca. 8 and 6 kyr cal BP) affected the whole region and promoted the spread of mesophytic forest co-existing with Pinus, as FAAs appear strongly negative at 6 kyr cal BP, with a less important role of fire. Mid and Late Holocene landscapes were shaped by an increasing aridity trend and the rise of human occupation, especially in the coastal mountains where forest disappeared from ca. 2 kyr cal BP. Mediterranean-type vegetation (evergreen oaks and Pinus pinaster-halepensis types) showed the fastest post-fire vegetation dynamics over time.

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Last Glacial to Holocene palaeoenvironmental evolution at Lago di Pergusa (Sicily, Southern Italy) as inferred by pollen, microcharcoal, and stable isotopes

Cited by 108 publications

References 27 publications

Contrasting patterns of climatic changes during the Holocene across the Italian Peninsula reconstructed from pollen data

Contrasting patterns of climatic changes during the Holocene across the Italian Peninsula reconstructed from pollen data

Charcoal and stable soil organic matter as indicators of fire frequency, climate and past vegetation in volcanic soils of Mt. Etna, Sicily

Holocene fire activity and vegetation response in South-Eastern Iberia

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