Middle and late Holocene vegetation history of the Murcia region from a new high-resolution pollen sequence from the Mar Menor Lagoon

Résumé En

South-Eastern Spain is a particularly suitable area for studying the impact of human societies on their environment. We present a new high resolution and continuous pollen sequence from the coastal lagoon of Mar Menor in the Murcia region. This new sequence covers the last 6500 years, from the end of the Neolithic to the present period, with a robust chronological framework (17 radiocarbon dates). The history of vegetation obtained from pollen data is studied in parallel with a proxy of mining activity in the watershed of the same lagoon to disentangle the influence of human activities and climate change on the vegetation of this part of the Iberian Peninsula. While the influence of past climate variability on the vegetation in the Murcia region remains difficult to perceive, the data show a very clear concomitance between changes in the archaeological record and changes within plant communities.- Important deforestation and changes in herbaceous communitites during the Argar period (early Bronze Age)- Changes in the thermo-Mediterranean shrub communities in relation with the very important pastoral practices.- Major vegetation changes linked with mining and agricultural activities during the Roman period.- Impact on the regional vegetation of agricultural practices evolution between the 18th and the 19th Centuries.The results obtained provide valuable indications for assessing the resilience of thermo-Mediterranean coastal plant communities to anthropogenic environmental changes.