Vegetation and landscape dynamics under natural and anthropogenic forcing on the Azores Islands: A 700-year pollen record from the Sao Miguel Island

QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS

卷:159

Article

Rull, Valenti¹  Lara, Arantza²  Jesus Rubio-Ingles, Maria¹  Giralt, Santiago¹  Goncalves, Vitor³  Raposeiro, Pedro³  Hernandez, Armand⁴  Sanchez-Lopez, Guiomar¹  Vazquez-Loureiro, David⁵  Bao, Roberto⁵  Masque, Pere^6,7,8,9,10  Saez, Alberto¹¹ 

[1] CSIC, Inst Earth Sci Jaume Almera ICTJA, Barcelona, Spain

[2] CSIC, IBB, Barcelona, Spain

[3] Ctr Invest Biodiversidade & Recursos Genet, Ponta Delgada, Portugal

[4] Univ Lisbon, Fac Sci, IDL, Lisbon, Portugal

[5] Univ A Coruna, Fac Ciencias, CICA, La Coruna, Spain

[6] Edith Cowan Univ, Sch Sci, Joondalup, Australia

[7] Univ Autonoma Barcelona Barcelona, Dept Phys, Bellaterra, Spain

[8] Univ Autonoma Barcelona Barcelona, Inst Environm Sci & Technol ICTA, Bellaterra, Spain

[9] Univ Western Australia, Oceans Inst, Crawley, Australia

[10] Univ Western Australia, Sch Phys, Crawley, Australia

[11] Univ Barcelona, Dept Earth & Ocean Dynam, Barcelona, Spain

关键词: Palynology;    Palaeoecology;    Palaeoclimates;    Last millennium;    Azores;    Early settlement;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.01.021

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

The Azores archipelago has provided significant clues to the ecological, biogeographic and evolutionary knowledge of oceanic islands. Palaeoecological records are comparatively scarce, but they can provide relevant information on these subjects. We report the palynological reconstruction of the vegetation and landscape dynamics of the Sao Miguel Island before and after human settlement using the sediments of Lake Azul. The landscape was dominated by dense laurisilvas ofJuniperus brevifolia and Morella faya from ca. 1280 CE to the official European establishment (1449 CE). After this date, the original forests were replaced by a complex of Erica azorica/Myrsine africana forests/shrublands and grassy meadows, which remained until ca. 1800 CE. Extractive forestry, cereal cultivation (rye, maize, wheat) and animal husbandry progressed until another extensive deforestation (ca. 1774 CE), followed by the large-scale introduction (1845 CE) of the exotic forest species Cryptomeria japonica and Pinus pinaster, which shaped the present-day landscape. Fire was a significant driver in these vegetation changes. The lake levels experienced a progressive rise during the time interval studied, reaching a maximum by ca. 1778-1852 CE, followed by a hydrological decline likely due to a combination of climatic and anthropogenic drivers. Our pollen record suggests that Sao Miguel were already settled by humans by ca. 1287 CE, approximately one century and a half prior to the official historically documented occupation of the archipelago. The results of this study are compared with the few palynological records available from other Azores islands (Pico and Flores). (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free