Post-glacial evolution of alpine environments in the western Mediterranean region: The Laguna Seca record

Laguna Seca sediments reveal environmental and climate change during the latest Pleistocene and Holocene in Sierra Nevada, southern Iberian Peninsula

“…In this study, we analyzed palynomorphs and charcoal abundance from the LS-01 alpine record, which represents so far, the longest and oldest sedimentary record in Sierra Nevada, southern Spain. Our goal is to document vegetational developments through palynological and charcoal data and join those to previously reported chronological, sedimentological and geochemical information by López-Avilés et al (2022). Furthermore, the comparison of the LS-01 record with detailed paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic records from the western Mediterranean allows us to obtain information on potential climatic and anthropogenic triggers for past environmental change in the study area.…”

“…In 2014 three sedimentary cores, LS-01, LS-02 and LS-03, were obtained from LS (López-Avilés et al, 2022;Fig. 1), still in the alpine area but at lower elevation than the previous studies.…”

“…Acronyms: TBS; pre-treated bulk sediment with HCl and HF, BS; bulk sediment. bottom (López-Avilés et al, 2022;Fig. 2).…”

“…On the right is a plot with down-core uncertainty ranges plotted on age. For more details about the lithology and age model see López-Avilés et al (2022). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)…”

“…1), still in the alpine area but at lower elevation than the previous studies. The age model for the 14 m-long sedimentary sequence, based on nine Accelerator Mass Spectometry (AMS) radiocarbon and four optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates, shows a continuous record of the last ~18 kyr and since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) (López-Avilés et al, 2022;Fig. 2).…”