Reconstructing past arboreal cover based on modern and fossil pollen data: A statistical approach for the Gredos Range (Central Spain)

Broothaerts, Nils; Robles-López, Sandra; Schaad, Daniel Abel; Pérez-Díaz, Sebastián; Sánchez, Francisca Alba; Luelmo-Lautenschlaeger, Reyes; Glais, Arthur; López‐Sáez, José Antonio

doi:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2018.04.007

Cited by 25 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…The data from Serranillos reflect the presence of more extensive pine forests from the mid-18th to the mid-19th centuries as inferred from the changes in pollen percentage; while a reduction of pollen record there and in the Puerto del Pico along its chronological trajectory would denote the existence of isolated high-mountain pines or scattered stands [38]. These data seem to suggest that the increase of human-mediated fires and livestock grazing was connected to the decline of Scots pine in high-elevation sites [9,20].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Historical Fires Induced Deforestation in Relict Scots Pine Forests during the Late 19th Century

Camarero

Sangüesa‐Barreda

Molina

et al. 2021

Fire

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Mountain forests are subjected to several pressures including historical land-use changes and climate warming which may lead to shifts in wildfire severity negatively impacting tree species with low post-fire growth resilience. This is the case of relict Mediterranean Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) forests in the Sierra de Gredos mountains (central Spain). We reconstructed the historical fire regime of these forests since 1700 by using paleoecology, historical ecology and dendroecology. We detected an increase in charcoal accumulation rate and coprophilous fungi in peat bogs during the late 19th century when the pine pollen percentage sharply decreased, historical records of fire peaked and many trees showed growth suppressions. We inferred an increased wildfire incidence during the late 19th century, which could have shaped the current distribution of Scots pine forests. This shift in fire-forest interactions can be explained by the uncontrolled use of mountain forests and grasslands due to the dissolution of “Mesta”, one of the major and lasting transhumance livestock associations in Europe. Integrating historical human and climate influences on fire regimes allows decomposing the resilience and conservation components of relict forests.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Historical Fires Induced Deforestation in Relict Scots Pine Forests during the Late 19th Century

Camarero

Sangüesa‐Barreda

Molina

et al. 2021

Fire

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“…These zones denote significant changes in the pollen composition and represent major changes in vegetation. LPAZ-1 is largely dominated by Pinus nigra (31.5–35.2%) indicating a Spanish black pine forest in the vicinity 70 – 72 , which represents trees that, nowadays, grow in the higher mountains of Mediterranean central Iberia under supramediterranean climatic conditions (mean annual temperature of 8.13 °C and 400–1000 mm of annual rainfall) 73 , 74 . Quercus ilex/coccifera (9.4–13.1%) and Juniperus (7.4–9.9%) show continuous high values, concomitant with those of Berberis vulgaris (1.1–2.2%), Linum (1.1–1.7%) and Rhamnus (2.3–3.3%), suggesting the regional presence of holm oak ( Quercus ilex subp.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

First modern human settlement recorded in the Iberian hinterland occurred during Heinrich Stadial 2 within harsh environmental conditions

Alcaraz‐Castaño

Alcolea-González

Andrés-Herrero

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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As the south-westernmost region of Europe, the Iberian Peninsula stands as a key area for understanding the process of modern human dispersal into Eurasia. However, the precise timing, ecological setting and cultural context of this process remains controversial concerning its spatiotemporal distribution within the different regions of the peninsula. While traditional models assumed that the whole Iberian hinterland was avoided by modern humans due to ecological factors until the retreat of the Last Glacial Maximum, recent research has demonstrated that hunter-gatherers entered the Iberian interior at least during Solutrean times. We provide a multi-proxy geoarchaeological, chronometric and paleoecological study on human–environment interactions based on the key site of Peña Capón (Guadalajara, Spain). Results show (1) that this site hosts the oldest modern human presence recorded to date in central Iberia, associated to pre-Solutrean cultural traditions around 26,000 years ago, and (2) that this presence occurred during Heinrich Stadial 2 within harsh environmental conditions. These findings demonstrate that this area of the Iberian hinterland was recurrently occupied regardless of climate and environmental variability, thus challenging the widely accepted hypothesis that ecological risk hampered the human settlement of the Iberian interior highlands since the first arrival of modern humans to Southwest Europe.

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“…In this study, data on human impact in the Dijle and Mombeek catchments are extracted from the regional pollen signal based on non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS), a statistical ordination technique. NMDS has successfully been applied to pollen data in previous studies (Ghilardi and O 0 Connell, 2013;Broothaerts et al, 2014cBroothaerts et al, , 2018Woodbridge et al, 2019). Full explanation of NMDS can be found in Legendre & Legendre (1983) and McCune & Grace (2002).…”

Section: Reconstructing Vegetation Changes and Human Impactmentioning

confidence: 98%

Changes in floodplain geo-ecology in the Belgian loess belt during the first millennium AD

Broothaerts

Swinnen

Hoevers

et al. 2021

Netherlands Journal of Geosciences

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Variation in human activities has greatly impacted the processes and intensities of erosion, sediment transport and storage throughout the Late Holocene, and many lowland rivers around the world have responded to these variations. Although this long-term process–response relationship has been established before, the effects of short-term (c.200-year) changes in human impact on lowland rivers are less well studied. Here, we followed an integrated approach whereby observations of floodplain changes are evaluated against detailed data on human impact for three lowland rivers in the Belgian loess belt: Dijle, Mombeek and Gete rivers. Pollen data were used to reconstruct changes in local and regional vegetation and to calculate human impact scores. Corings along transects and a database of c.160 radiocarbon ages were used to reconstruct geomorphic changes in the river valleys. Our results show a decrease in human impact between 200 and 800 AD, which can be related to the decreased population density in Europe during the first millennium AD. During this period, forests in the studied catchments regenerated, soil erosion decreased, hillslope–floodplain connectivity decreased due to the regeneration of valley-side vegetation barriers, and sediment input in the floodplain decreased. A reaction to this decreased human impact can be observed in the river valleys during the first millennium AD, with a regrowth of the alder carr forest and an increase in the organic matter content of the alluvial deposits with a local reactivation of peat growth. The observed trajectories of Belgian river valleys during the first millennium AD provide more insight into the sensitivity of these river valleys to short-term variations in human impact. These results can in turn be used to better estimate the effects of future changes in the catchments on the fluvial system.

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Reconstructing past arboreal cover based on modern and fossil pollen data: A statistical approach for the Gredos Range (Central Spain)

Cited by 25 publications

References 67 publications

Historical Fires Induced Deforestation in Relict Scots Pine Forests during the Late 19th Century

Historical Fires Induced Deforestation in Relict Scots Pine Forests during the Late 19th Century

First modern human settlement recorded in the Iberian hinterland occurred during Heinrich Stadial 2 within harsh environmental conditions

Changes in floodplain geo-ecology in the Belgian loess belt during the first millennium AD

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