Late Quaternary vegetational history at Navarrés, Eastern Spain. A two core approach

Abstract

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.

Pollen and mollusc records for environmental change in central Spain during the mid- and late Holocene

“…Conditions more wooded than today may have been widespread in central and southern Spain during the mid-Holocene. Carrión and Dupré (1996) describe the replacement of Pinus-dominated forest by Quercus scrub in eastern Spain after 5000 yr BP. Garcia Antón et al (1986) recorded high levels (Ͼ50%) of arboreal pollen, mainly Pinus and Quercus, in basal deposits from a site less than 120 km to the west of the Sierra de Alcaraz, and their results are also in accordance with the palaeoecological data from Alcaraz and El Jardin.…”

“…By comparison, the more continental and arid central and southern Spain has yielded little evidence. Exceptions are the records described by Pons and Reille (1988) from Padul at the eastern foot of the Sierra Nevada, close to Granada, and by Carrión and Dupré (1996) from Navarrés in Valencia province. Both the Padul and Navarrés sequences extend back into the last glacial.…”

“…Several of the records that are available cover relatively short timescales (e.g., Rodríguez-Ariza and Otero, 1988;Pérez-Obiol, 1988). A few extend into the last glacial period, although exceptions do exist (e.g., Pons and Reille, 1988;Pérez-Obiol and Juliá, 1994;Allen et al, 1996;Carrión and Dupré, 1996); while others are highly fragmented (e.g. Davis, 1994).…”

Expected trends and surprises in the Lateglacial and Holocene vegetation history of the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands

“…The colonisation by Fagus is generally time-transgressive, starting during the Lateglacial in Sierra de Neila, but delaying its arrival to c. 5700 cal. yr BP or even later in most of northern Spain (Peñalba et al, 1997;Ruíz-Zapata et al, 2002, 2003a, the Pyrenees (Montserrat, 1992), Cataluña in Banyoles (Pérez-Obiol and Julià, 1994), Sierra de Cabrera in La Roya, Sanabria Marsh (Allen et al, 1996), Sanguijelas and Lleguna (Muñoz-Sobrino et al, 2004), Central Spain in Burgomillodo (Díez et al, 2002), and CC-17 core in Tablas de Daimiel, La Mancha Plain Valdeolmillos, 2004); Navarrés (Carrión and Dupré, 1996;Carrión and van Geel, 1999), Villena , and Tossal de la Roca (Cacho et al, 1995) in eastern Spain, and characteristically Padul in the south (Pons and Reille, 1988). These, among other sites, represent a geographically wide spectrum of sensitive sites to the Younger Dryas cold-dry period.…”

Olive

“…Palynological, anthropological, and archeological evidences demonstrated the presence of some forms of olive during the last glaciation in the western and eastern Mediterranean regions 18 000 years BC (Carrion and Dupre, 1996;Watts et al, 1996). Numerous studies confirmed that olives have been present for several thousands of years before its domestication in the Mediterranean basin, particularly in the Middle East.…”