Revealing the last 13,500 years of environmental history from the multiproxy record of a mountain lake (Lago Enol, northern Iberian Peninsula)

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10933-009-9387-7.We present the Holocene sequence from Lago Enol (43°16′N, 4°59′W, 1,070 m a.s.l.), Cantabrian Mountains, northern Spain. A multiproxy analysis provided comprehensive information about regional humidity and temperature changes. The analysis included sedimentological descriptions, physical properties, organic carbon and carbonate content, mineralogy and geochemical composition together with biological proxies including diatom and ostracod assemblages. A detailed pollen study enabled reconstruction of variations in vegetation cover, which were interpreted in the context of climate changes and human impact. Four distinct stages were recognized for the last 13,500 years: (1) a cold and dry episode that includes the Younger Dryas event (13,500–11,600 cal. year BP); (2) a humid and warmer period characterizing the onset of the Holocene (11,600–8,700 cal. year BP); (3) a tendency toward a drier climate during the middle Holocene (8,700–4,650 cal. year BP); and (4) a return to humid conditions following landscape modification by human activity (pastoral activities, deforestation) in the late Holocene (4,650–2,200 cal. year BP). Superimposed on relatively stable landscape conditions (e.g. maintenance of well established forests), the typical environmental variability of the southern European region is observed at this site.The Spanish Inter-Ministry Commission of Science and Technology (CICYT), the Spanish National Parks agency, the European Commission, the Spanish Ministry of Science, and the European Social Fund

Revealing the last 13,500 years of environmental history from the multiproxy record of a mountain lake (Lago Enol, northern Iberian Peninsula)

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10933-009-9387-7.We present the Holocene sequence from Lago Enol (43°16′N, 4°59′W, 1,070 m a.s.l.), Cantabrian Mountains, northern Spain. A multiproxy analysis provided comprehensive information about regional humidity and temperature changes. The analysis included sedimentological descriptions, physical properties, organic carbon and carbonate content, mineralogy and geochemical composition together with biological proxies including diatom and ostracod assemblages. A detailed pollen study enabled reconstruction of variations in vegetation cover, which were interpreted in the context of climate changes and human impact. Four distinct stages were recognized for the last 13,500 years: (1) a cold and dry episode that includes the Younger Dryas event (13,500–11,600 cal. year BP); (2) a humid and warmer period characterizing the onset of the Holocene (11,600–8,700 cal. year BP); (3) a tendency toward a drier climate during the middle Holocene (8,700–4,650 cal. year BP); and (4) a return to humid conditions following landscape modification by human activity (pastoral activities, deforestation) in the late Holocene (4,650–2,200 cal. year BP). Superimposed on relatively stable landscape conditions (e.g. maintenance of well established forests), the typical environmental variability of the southern European region is observed at this site.The Spanish Inter-Ministry Commission of Science and Technology (CICYT), the Spanish National Parks agency, the European Commission, the Spanish Ministry of Science, and the European Social Fund

Survival and long-term maintenance of tertiary trees in the Iberian Peninsula during the Pleistocene. First record of Aesculus L.

The Italian and Balkan peninsulas have been places traditionally highlighted as Pleistocene glacial refuges. The Iberian Peninsula, however, has been a focus of controversy between geobotanists and palaeobotanists as a result of its exclusion from this category on different occasions. In the current paper, we synthesise geological, molecular, palaeobotanical and geobotanical data that show the importance of the Iberian Peninsula in the Western Mediterranean as a refugium area. The presence of Aesculus aff. hippocastanum L. at the Iberian site at Cal Guardiola (Tarrasa, Barcelona, NE Spain) in the Lower– Middle Pleistocene transition helps to consolidate the remarkable role of the Iberian Peninsula in the survival of tertiary species during the Pleistocene. The palaeodistribution of the genus in Europe highlights a model of area abandonment for a widely-distributed species in the Miocene and Pliocene, leading to a diminished and fragmentary presence in the Pleistocene and Holocene on the southern Mediterranean peninsulas. Aesculus fossils are not uncommon within the series of Tertiary taxa. Many appear in the Pliocene and suffer a radical impoverishment in the Lower–Middle Pleistocene transition. Nonetheless some of these tertiary taxa persisted throughout the Pleistocene and Holocene up to the present in the Iberian Peninsula. Locating these refuge areas on the Peninsula is not an easy task, although areas characterised by a sustained level of humidity must have played an predominant role

Le paysage littoral nord-oriental de la Crète à Malia au Pleistocène récent. Géomorphologie et palynologie

Abstracts Colloque PICG 367/INQUA/SGF, Perpignan, 2-4 décembre 199

Trottoirs de corrosion étagés d'âge tyrrhénien (stade 5.1) à Malia, Crète / Stepped corrosion benches of Tyrrhenian age (stade 5.1) in Malia, Crete

Abstract Morphologic and stratigraphie remnants of the two latest transgressions ofisotopic stage 5 (5.3 et 5.1) are preserved on the cliff of Malia. They allow the dating of a contrasted tectonic activity during isotop stage 5.1 : first, stepped corrosion benches were provoked by a swift jerky surrection; later, the shaping of a lower incline plane covered with Vermetids was made during a more gentle and progressive surrection.Résumé La falaise de Malia a conservé des témoins morphologiques et stratigraphiques des deux dernières transgressions du stade isotopique 5 (5.3 et 5.1). Ces témoins permettent de dater une activité tectonique contrastée pendant le stade 5.1 : des trottoirs de corrosion étages s'expliquent par une surrection saccadée, le plan incliné inférieur tapissé de vermétidés s'expliquant, lui, par une surrection ultérieure plus douce et plus progressive.Dalongeville Rémi, Kéraudren Bertrand, Bernier Paul, Renault-Miskovsky Josette. Trottoirs de corrosion étagés d'âge tyrrhénien (stade 5.1) à Malia, Crète / Stepped corrosion benches of Tyrrhenian age (stade 5.1) in Malia, Crete. In: Géomorphologie : relief, processus, environnement, Janvier-mars, vol. 6, n°1. pp. 21-24

Indices morphologiques de microvariations de la ligne de rivage pendant la transgression du stade 5.1 (Pléistocène supérieur) : le site des Charniers à Malia (Crète septentrionale). Résumés

Colloque de Paris, 5-6 novembre 199