RESEARCH: OUTCOMES, VIEWPOINTS & PERSPECTIVES

Abrupt climatic changes

Several oscillations and transitions in the Siles, Cañada de la Cruz, and Villaverde palaeoecological records coincide with established chronologies for abrupt climatic changes in Mediterranean Europe, north Africa and the Sahel. The main peak of Pseudoschizaea in Siles at c. 8100-8500 yr BP correlates to the European and Greenland cooling event at c. 8200 cal yr BP, and a consistent lowering of lake levels in the northern monsoon domain of Africa around 8000-8400 cal yr BP. The most recent Pseudoschizaea maxima at c. 5200 and 4100 cal yr BP correlate to the beginning of a long phase of reiterated dry spells in Mediterranean areas of Europe and north Africa. In particular, aridification phases inferred from pollen ratios in western Mediterranean palynological sequences have been established at c. 8400-7600, 5300-4200, 4300-3400, 2850-1730, and 1300-750 cal yr BP, while arid intervals at Tigalmamine were established by Lamb et al. (1995) around >7860-7500, 5010-4860, 2990-2830, and 1880-1660 cal yr BP. In contrast, there is no signal in Siles for the Younger Dryas cold spell .

Correlating these and other Holocene sequences of climate proxies across the Mediterraneanis not simple because chronological control is often imprecise and estimated ages rely often upon disparate models. So the possible relationships between abrupt climatic events and the transitions at Siles, Cañada de la Cruz, and Villaverde, although thought-provoking, remain tentative.
( SEE A POLLEN DIAGRAM SHOWING ABRUPT CHANGES IN CAÑADA DE LA CRUZ)
( SEE ABRUPT CHANGES IN SILES)

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CARRIÓN, J.S. 2002. Patterns and processes of Late Quaternary environmental change in a montane region of southwestern Europe. Quaternary Science Reviews 21: 2047-2066

CARRIÓN, J.S., MUNUERA, M., DUPRÉ, M. & ANDRADE, A. 2001. Abrupt vegetation changes in the Segura Mountains of southern Spain during the Holocene. Journal of Ecology 89:783-797