Three Millennia of Vegetation, Land-Use, and Climate Change in SE Sicily

Abstract

This study presents the first Late Holocene marine pollen record (core ND2) from SE Sicily. It encompasses the last 3000 years and is one of the most detailed records of the south-central Mediterranean region in terms of time resolution. The combined approach of marine palynology and historical ecology, supported by independent palaeoclimate proxies, provides an integrated regional reconstruction of past vegetational dynamics in relation to rapid climatic fluctuations, historical socio-economic processes, and past land-use practices, offering new insights into the vegetation history of SE Sicily. Short-term variations of sparse tree cover in persistently open landscapes reflect rapid hydroclimatic changes and historical land-use practices. Four main phases of forest reduction are found in relation to the 2.8 ka BP event, including the Late Antique Little Ice Age, the Medieval Climate Anomaly, and the Little Ice Age, respectively. Forest recovery is recorded during the Hellenistic and Roman Republican Periods, the Early Middle Ages, and the last century. Agricultural and silvicultural practices, as well as stock-breeding activities, had a primary role in shaping the current vegetational landscape of SE Sicily.

Northern Adriatic environmental changes since 500 AD reconstructed at Aquileia (Italy)

“…At Aquileia, the same pattern was found, but agriculture was however limited as taxa associated with anthropogenic activities never exceed 15% of the pollen sum during this period. The olive trees never reached values equivalent to those recorded at the Lago Alimini Piccolo in southern Italy (Di Rita and Magri, 2009) and are closer to the values identified at Lago Lungo (Mensing et al, 2015) and in the core ND2 (Michelangeli et al, 2022). Similarly, fire events are mainly recorded during the reintroduction of cultivated species (Fig.…”

“…At other sites, this period is inversely associated with a marked human impact on the environment (e.g. Lago Lungo; Mensing et al, 2015;core ND2;Michelangeli et al, 2022). The core AQ III suggests a cold and wet northern Adriatic from 508 ± 80 to 660 ± 55 AD consistent with Mediterranean Sea Surface Temperatures at this time (Marriner et al, 2022).…”

A high-resolution record of landscape changes and land use over the last 5000 years in western Calabria (S. Eufemia Gulf, southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy)

“…The clear climatic character of this forest decline is also attested in the Gulf of Gaeta, where a marked AP reduction, following the Bond event 2 (Bond et al, 1997), is coupled with a negative NAO oscillation (Di Rita et al, 2018), in the Gulf of Salerno, where the lowering in deciduous trees is coupled with the increase in Mediterranean taxa (Russo Ermolli and di Pasquale, 2002) and in south-eastern Sicily where this phase is correlated to the so-called “2.8 event” (Michelangeli et al, 2022).…”

The Entangled Phenology of the Olive Tree: A Compiled Ecological Calendar ofOlea EuropaeaL. Over the Last Three Millennia With Sicily as a Case Study

“…Local olive cultivation in Sicily has been cross‐referenced by evidence from archeological sites of different periods: Prehistory (Dolce, 2008; Fitzjohn, 2013; Stika et al., 2008; van Dommelen & Bellard, 2008), Hellenistic (Reitsema et al., 2020; Wilson & Leonard, 1980), Roman (Montecchi & Mercuri, 2018) and Medieval (Carver et al., 2019; Montecchi & Mercuri, 2018; Primavera, 2018). As cross‐reference we included also the only available published botanical surveys, dating to the 19th century (Cleghorn, 1870), and the most recent but limited archeobotanical evidence coming from several sites site (Mercuri et al., 2019; Michelangeli et al., 2022; Sadori et al., 2016; Tanasi, 2020) and a review on archeogenetics and landscape dynamics in Sicily during the Holocene (Romano et al., 2021). Traditional Ecological/Phenological Knowledge.…”