The dialectic between deciduous and coniferous forests in central Iberia: A palaeoenvironmental perspective during the late Holocene in the Gredos range

Humans take control of fire-driven diversity changes in Mediterranean Iberia’s vegetation during the mid–late Holocene

“…Fire has played an undeniably important role in shaping the Holocene vegetation of Mediterranean Iberia (Carrión et al, 2010;López-Sáez et al, 2017). Critical aspects for Holocene vegetation development include fire frequency and the combined impacts of fire and human activity or climatic change (Carrión et al, 2003;Morales-Molino et al, 2017b.…”

“…Researchers have related this increase to human impact (Franco-Múgica et al, 2001;Morales-Molino et al, 2017b;Servera-Vives et al, 2018), reductions in local fire frequency/magnitude and the expansion of grazing (Jouffroy-Bapicot et al, 2016), increases in regional fire activity (Colombaroli et al, 2009;Colombaroli and Tinner, 2013), increased landscape openness (e.g. Anderson et al, 2011;Gil-Romera et al, 2014;Morales-Molino, García-Antón, 2014;Muller et al, 2015;Noti et al, 2009;Vescovi et al, 2010), catchment erosion events (Robles-López et al, 2017) and changes in the evenness of plant communities (Beffa et al, 2016).…”

“…Charcoal records have revealed Holocene fire trends characteristic of latitudinal and altitudinal belts (Vannière et al, 2011), but these trends are less coherent on a regional scale and their drivers are contested (e.g. Burjachs and Expósito, 2015;Carracedo et al, 2018;López-Sáez et al, 2017). Climatic interpretations are weakened by a lack of regional coherence in inferred aridity phases (the entire Holocene is 'arid' according to different authors: see Fig.…”

57. Manantial de las Queseras, Gregos Range (central Spain)

“…Weak human impact is suggested by the continuous presence of anthropogenic pollen indicators (Astertype, Cardueae, Cichorioideae), while signs of pastoral pressure noted in the earlier pollen zone remain and even increase slightly. This abrupt change in forest vegetation can be related to the use of local fires, as shown by the continued presence of macrocharcoal particles, suggesting that recurrent fires could be triggering the maritime pine colonisation (Robles-López et al 2018).…”

Recent coastal anthropogenic impact recorded in the Basque mud patch (southern Bay of Biscay shelf)

“…Taxonomic classification was performed following Goeury and de Beaulieu (1979), Moore et al (1991), Reille (1992) and Cugny et al (2010). A minimum of 500 pollen grains were counted per sample while aquatic taxa, fungal spores and other NPPs were excluded from the terrestrial pollen sum (Robles-López et al, 2018).…”