This paper focuses on past woodland changes and land uses in an ancient mining area of the Eastern Pyrenees (Ari ege, France). The area discussed is located at the western entrance of the Vicdessos, a valley with significant steel production, and it is crossed by the road used from the 14th c. to the end of the 18th c. for the iron-charcoal exchange with the forest Province of Couserans. The introduction of this singular exchange and the silver ore mining history of this border area raise the question of their impact on forest cover changes and changes in human practices and their link with anthropisation processes. To deal with this issue, we put in place an interdisciplinary approach involving archaeology, charcoal analysis, ecological history and geochemistry. The archaeological investigations and fourteen radiocarbon ages allowed characterising and dating of mining and charcoal-making remains. They situate the emergence of metal ore mining during the Second Iron Age and charcoal making activity between the 15th and 17th c. The geochemical analysis of 9 galena samples showed some different isotopic signatures between ores extracted in ancient times and those mined during the modern period. The charcoal analysis of (i) 2442 charcoals from 31 charcoal kilns (ii) 500 from one pedoarchaeological pit excavated in a waste heap related to firesetting, and (iii) 250 from two pedoanthracological sampling points carried out in the charcoal burning forest, permits a detailed reconstruction of the woodland cover changes from the Second Iron Age to the 19th c. Furthermore, the combination of data from different disciplines allows for a long-term reconstruction of human practices history and woodland management for different uses. In particular, the results show the transformation of the fir-beech forest, still dominated by fir around the turn of the Roman era, into pure beech wood managed on northern slopes for human daily needs, occasionally mining, lumber and mainly charcoal production until the 19th c. The elimination of fir dates back to the 17th c. This assumes the end of lumber activities in that period. Pedoanthracological and palynological data suggest that southern slopes, progressively deforested since the Bronze Age, were entirely devoted to permanent agropastoral activities probably at least since the end of the medieval period.
. Fecha de publicación on-line: 18/04/2017 Citation / Cómo citar este artículo: Gómez-Zotano, J., Olmedo-Cobo, J. A., Cunill-Artigas, R., Martínez-Ibarra, E. (2017). Descubrimiento y caracterización geográfica de una depresión ultramáfica en Sierra Bermeja: nuevos datos geomorfoedáficos, fitogeográficos y paleoecológicos. Pirineos, 172, e026. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3989/Pirineos.2017.172001 RESUMEN: Se presenta el reciente hallazgo y caracterización preliminar de una cuenca endorreica en la cumbre de la Sierra Palmitera, una abrupta estribación del macizo peridotítico de Sierra Bermeja (SW de España) que alcanza 1.473 m.s.n.m. Dada la naturaleza ultramáfica de esta montaña litoral, dicha cuenca se considera una excepcionalidad geomorfológica para el conjunto de los afloramientos peridotíticos conocidos. El trabajo de campo y la interpretación de fotografías, principales procedimientos metodológicos de la investigación, así como el uso de un SIG, han permitido un reconocimiento geográfico inicial y el cartografiado de los principales rasgos físicos a escala de detalle (1: 5.000). Los resultados obtenidos son: (1) un mapa topográfico (equidistancia de curvas de nivel 5 m) como base de la cartografía temática; (2) la identificación, caracterización y cartografiado a la escala señalada de las principales unidades geomorfo-edáficas; (3) la caracterización de la vegetación y la flora de la cuenca mediante el análisis fitosociológico, y el levantamiento de un mapa de vegetación a escala de detalle. Estos resultados arrojan luz a una serie de interrogantes en cuanto al origen de la cuenca, su funcionamiento y papel ecológico. Como rasgo sobresaliente, la acumulación de sedimentos en el fondo de la cuenca ha posibilitado el estudio paleo-ecológico de la vegetación a Copyright: © 2017 CSIC. Este es un artículo de acceso abierto distribuido bajo los términos de una licencia de uso y distribución Creative Commons Attribution (CC-by) España 3.0.1 Este trabajo tiene su origen en una comunicación presentada en el XXIV Congreso de la Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles celebrado en 2015 en Zaragoza.
tailié, et al.. A study of late Holocene local vegetation dynamics and responses to land use changes in an ancient charcoal making woodland in the central Pyrenees (Ariège, France), using pedoanthracology. Abstract Human activities have profoundly transformed mountain woodland landscapes, particularly in the Pyrenees where they have intensified and diversified since the Bronze Age. Quantification of the role played by past practices with regard to woodland cover is critical for accurate assessment of how ongoing global environmental change may affect its dynamics in the future. A local study was made of charcoal remains from an ancient charcoal-making woodland (ca. 30 ha), the forêt de Bernadouze, located on a north-facing slope in the Vicdessos valley in the French central Pyrenees. This valley is well known as having had a long history of human influence related to pastoralism, iron ore mining and smelting. A total of 1,695 charcoal pieces from soils in three sampling pits was extracted, identified, quantified and dated in order to identify tree canopy openings and patterns of change in the woodland driven by past human uses. The results provide new and original insights regarding 1, the past higher biodiversity and the ancient character of the forêt de Bernadouze, 2, the dynamics and history of the main trees and 3, successive phases of human activity. We show that the current woodland has resulted from several millennia of human activities such as pasturing and use of the wood for making charcoal. From the Bronze Age, humans have progressively transformed a natural fir-dominated wood into a managed beech-dominated one, and caused the elimination of Taxus baccata L. (yew). 2
SUMMARYThis paper presents the first paleoecological results of the study of soil charcoals in the ultramafic massif of Sierra Bermeja (Betic Cordillera, southern Iberian Peninsula). Through the pedoanthracological analysis, a charcoal fossil register of Abies sp. has been obtained -with high certainty belonging to Abies pinsapo-in a small endorheic basin at the summit of Sierra Palmitera, a littoral mountainous appendix of Sierra Bermeja where the fir forests are extinct at present. Analyses results confirm the existence of a distribution area of Abies sp. more extensive in the past than currently in the geographical context of the Serrania de Ronda (western end of the Betic Cordillera). Dating of Abies sp. and other species found in the area of study, such as Pinus pinaster and Quercus sp., allowed theorizing about the local paleobotanical dynamic between 8,100 and 5,600 BP, largely solving the encysted dynamic and successional-ecologic controversy between broadleaf trees and coniferous trees as potential vegetation over ultramafic substrates under Mediterranean climate that occurred to that moment. This information should be considered as essential for the proper management of Abies pinsapo to achieve their preservation in the future given its cataloguing as a relict endangered species. The data also support the possible restoration of fir forests in those enclaves considered as potential ecological niches for these coniferous forests in Sierra Bermeja and also in the whole of the Betic Cordillera.Key words: Abies pinsapo, soil charcoals, restricted distribution, paleoendemism, peridotites. RESUMENEn este trabajo se presentan los primeros resultados paleoecológicos del estudio de los carbones del suelo en el macizo ultramáfico de Sierra Bermeja (Cordillera Bética, sur de la Península Ibérica). Mediante el análisis pedoantracológico se ha obtenido un registro fósil de carbón de Abies sp. -con gran certeza perteneciente a Abies pinsapo-en una pequeña cuenca endorreica en la cumbre de Sierra Palmitera, un apéndice montañoso litoral de Sierra Bermeja en el que los abetales se encuentran actualmente extintos. Los resultados del análisis confirman la existencia, en el pasado, de un área de distribución de Abies sp. más extensa que la actual en el marco geográfico de la Serranía de Ronda (extremo occidental de la Cordillera Bética). Las dataciones de Abies sp. y de otras especies halladas en la localidad de estudio, como Pinus pinaster y Quercus sp., permiten teorizar sobre la dinámica paleobotánica local entre 8.100 y 5.600 AP, resolviendo en gran parte la enquistada controversia dinámica y sucesional-ecológica entre latifoliasconíferas como vegetación potencial sobre sustratos ultramáficos bajo clima mediterráneo que existía hasta ahora. Esta información debe ser considerada como esencial para la adecuada gestión de Abies pinsapo de cara a conseguir su preservación en el futuro dada su catalogación de especie relicta en peligro de extinción. Los datos obtenidos avalan, asimismo, la posible regeneración de los abet...
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