31 Mediterranean mountainous environments are biodiversity hotspots and priority areas in 32 conservation agendas. Although they are fragile and threatened by forecasted global 33 change scenarios, their sensitivity to long-term environmental variability is still 34 understudied. The Sierra Nevada range, located in southern Spain on the north-western 35 European flanks of the Mediterranean basin, is a biodiversity hotspot. Consequently, 36 Sierra Nevada provides an excellent model system to apply a palaeoecological approach 37 to detect vegetation changes, explore the drivers triggering those changes, and how 38 vegetation changes link to the present landscape in such a paradigmatic mountain system. 39 A multi-proxy strategy (magnetic susceptibility, grain size, loss-on-ignition, macroremains, 40 charcoal and palynological analyses) is applied to an 8400-year long lacustrine 41 environmental archive from the Laguna de la Mosca (2889 masl). The long-term ecological 42 data show how the Early Holocene pine forests transitioned towards mixed Pinus-Quercus 43 submediterranean forests as a response to a decrease in seasonality at ~7.3 cal. kyr BP. 44 The mixed Pinus-Quercus submediterranean forests collapsed drastically giving way to 45 open evergreen Quercus formations at ~4.2 cal. kyr BP after a well-known aridity crisis. 46 Under the forecasted northward expansion of the Mediterranean area due to global 47 change-related aridity increase, mountain forests inhabiting territories adjacent to the 48 Mediterranean Region could experience analogous responses to those detected in the 49 Sierra Nevada forests to the Mid to Late Holocene aridification, moving from temperate to 50 submediterranean and then Mediterranean formations. 51 52 53
Global change in its various expressions has impacted the structure and function of ecosystems worldwide, compromising the provision of fundamental ecosystem services and creating a predicament for the societies that benefit from them. Restoration ecology plays a key role in securing ecological integrity and societal well-being, and hence represents a global priority. However, human perception seldom goes back to the beginning of significant ecosystem degradation, making ecosystem assessment and restoration practices difficult. Long-term data, historical records, and paleoecological information can increase our understanding of ecological responses to natural or anthropogenic impacts and can directly contribute to the understanding and design of effective restoration practices. Here, examples from different ecosystems (drylands, grasslands, shrublands, savannas, forests, coastal environments, and wetlands) brought together from around the world illustrate (1) how to develop appropriate restoration references under the current uncertain global change scenario; (2) how long-term perspectives on drivers of change can help to identify critical ecological elements, thus contributing to defining restoration goals; and (3) how to incorporate information from the past as guidance for present interventions and landscape management. The building of community and the specificity of paleoecological and historical records of ecological change over time will be key in facilitating the translation of long-term information into the living process of ecological restoration practice.
Early to Mid-Holocene spatiotemporal vegetation changes and tsunami impact in a paradigmatic coastal transitional system (Doñana National Park, Southwestern Europe)
Mediterranean mountains played an essential role during glacial periods as vegetation refugia. The SE Iberia Late Pleistocene woody angiosperm fossil and floristic evidences are reviewed in the context of phylogeographical studies aiming to identify (i) spatial patterns related to woody angiosperms glacial survival, (ii) structural and functional characteristics of montane refugia, and (iii) gaps in knowledge on the woody angiosperm patterns of survival in Mediterranean mountains. The distribution of palaeobotanical data for SE Iberia refugia has been found to be taphonomically biased due to the scarcity of available and/or studied high-altitude Late Pleistocene sites. However, Siles Lake data together with floristic inference provide evidences for woody angiosperms' survival in a high-altitude Mediterranean area. The main features boosting survival at montane contexts are physiographic complexity and water availability. Phylogeography studies have mainly been conducted at a continental scale. Although they cohere with palaeobotanical data to a broad scale, a general lack of sampling of SE Iberian range-edge populations, as well as misconceptions about the origin of the populations sampled, impede to infer the proper location of woody angiosperms' mountain refugia and their importance in the post-glacial European colonisation. We conclude that floristic, geobotanical, palaeobotanical, ethnographical and genetic evidence should be merged to gain a deeper understanding on the role played by Mediterranean mountains as glacial refugia in order to explain the current distribution of many plants and the large biodiversity levels encountered in Mediterranean mountain areas. This is hallmark for effective and efficient conservation and management.
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