Late Holocene fluvial chronology of Spain: The role of climatic variability and human impact

Abstract

A database of published and unpublished radiocarbon dates from Late Holocene fluvial environments in Spain was critically analysed in order to obtain a fluvial chronology for this period. The principal types of depositional environment represented in the record were slackwater flood deposits (28 dates), alluvial overbank facies (12 dates) and alluvial channel facies (7 dates). The sedimentary context of each date was classified in order to identify those samples that specifically dated change in the fluvial environment. Analysis of the different depositional environment data-sets using summed probability plots identified phases of alluviation at 2800–2350 and 800–500 cal. BP. Increased frequency of large magnitude floods occurred at 2850–2500, 1000–800 and 520–250 cal. BP. The results indicate that in Mediterranean regions slackwater flood deposits are valuable archives of climatic variability even during periods of increased human impact.This research was funded by the International Council for Science (ICSU) project “Past hydrological events related to understanding global change” and the INQUA project “The significance of past hydrological events: using existing 14C data to reconstruct Holocene fluvial activity in temperate and tropical regions.”Peer reviewe