Overview of environmental changes and human colonization in the Balearic Islands (Western Mediterranean) and their impacts on vegetation composition during the Holocene
Introduction
Palaeoecological research focused on the Holocene has allowed for assessing the relationship between climate change and vegetation history. Generally, drying and cooling oscillations are documented during the Holocene, and a transition from wetter to drier conditions is observed in the Mediterranean area, which consolidated after the Middle-to-Late Holocene transition and affected the landscape configuration with the expansion of Mediterranean sclerophyllous woodland (Jalut et al., 2000, Roberts et al., 2001, Sadori and Narcisi, 2001, Carrión et al., 2010, Pérez-Obiol et al., 2011). However, there is debate about the causes of changes in vegetation evolution from the Neolithic onwards due to the increasing trend of human impact. The adoption of farming practices presupposes an alteration of natural landscapes and presents a remarkable new factor to consider when investigating palaeoenvironmental changes (Ruddiman, 2003, Ruddiman et al., 2015), and especially vegetation changes, as found in some pollen records from the Mediterranean area (Riera-Mora and Esteban-Amat, 1994, Sadori and Narcisi, 2001, Yll et al., 2003, Drescher-Schneider et al., 2007, Colombaroli et al., 2008, Kouli and Dermitzakis, 2008, Vannière et al., 2008, Vescovi et al., 2010, Marinova et al., 2012, Revelles et al., 2015).
Islands have always been considered ‘experimental laboratories’ for the detailed study of environmental change because of their high sensitivity (isolated areas and low resilience) to climatic and anthropic factors. Most studies have shown that the human colonization of islands contributed to environmental change and landscape transformation (Flenley et al., 1991, Dumont et al., 1998, Vigne, 1999, Prebble and Dowe, 2008). However, with more detailed research, it is possible to assess whether climatic factors were important variables in vegetation resilience (Athens et al., 2002, Sáez et al., 2009, Cañellas-Boltà et al., 2013, Rull et al., 2013, Rull et al., 2015). Distinguishing between the two aforementioned factors is often very difficult, especially considering possible sedimentary hiatuses and reversals in radiometric dating in the studied palaeoenvironmental sequences (e.g. Horrocks et al., 2013). This does not facilitate an understanding of natural landscape evolution and the role of humans in such changes. Our interest in the Balearic Islands stems from the fact that human presence is not attested until around c. 4320 cal yr BP (2500–2300 cal BC), with a population increase occurring around 3650 cal yr BP. The archipelago, with islands of small and medium dimensions (Table 1), is located in the Western Mediterranean (Fig. 1) and presents a typical Mediterranean climate (Table 1).
In Minorca and Mallorca, potential vegetation is typically Mediterranean, made up of Balearic evergreen oak forests (with Quercus ilex as the main component) and, in lower and windier areas, shrub formations related to thermo-Mediterranean forests (Peinado and Rivas-Martínez, 1987). These are dominated by Olea europaea var. sylvestris, Prasium majus, Euphorbia dendroides, and Phillyrea rodriguezii (Rivas-Martínez, 1987). The domain of the Phoenician juniper (Juniperus phoenicea) appears in Ibiza and Formentera.
This article summarizes pollen and anthracological results obtained up to now in the largest archipelago of the Western Mediterranean in archaeological and natural contexts. The fact that the Balearic Islands were uninhabited until the Late Holocene permits assessment of the climatic control of vegetation evolution in a Mediterranean area during the Middle Holocene. We aim to show the importance of climate in the Mediterranean Holocene landscape with or without human influence. Here, we i) evaluate the influence of climate change on vegetation evolution during the Middle-to-Late Holocene, ii) reconstruct the impact of human colonization on the landscape from the Late Holocene onwards, and iii) assess natural differences and compare climate change influence and vegetation evolution between the islands.
Section snippets
History of human occupation
Archaeological evidence from the Balearic Islands is relatively recent compared to other insular Mediterranean territories, and to date there are no vestiges from the Neolithic period (Micó, 2005, Micó, 2006). Nevertheless, the dates of the first occupation and permanent human settlement of these islands are not well defined yet. Although evidence reveals that humans arrived on these islands during the sixth millennium BP, the most detailed dates for their arrival range from 4850 to 4300 cal yr
Reviewed sites and palaeovegetation data
These islands have not been widely studied from a palaeoenvironmental perspective. For this study, we selected the sites which have well-dated continuous palynological sequences (Fig. 1). From the island of Minorca, we selected the sites of Cala'n Porter (Yll et al., 1997, Carrión et al., 2012), Algendar (Yll et al., 1997, Pérez-Obiol and Sadori, 2007, Carrión et al., 2012), and Es Grau (Burjachs, 2006, Carrión et al., 2012). From Majorca, we chose the site of Albufera d'Alcúdia (Burjachs et
Composition of vegetation during the Holocene
It is remarkable that before humans arrived on these islands, Majorca and Minorca (Gymnesian Islands) had significantly different landscape compositions relative to Ibiza and Formentera (Pityusic Islands) and the nearby Iberian coast. During the first part of the Holocene, the northern island landscapes were basically composed of endemic box (Buxus cf. balearica), Mediterranean junipers (Juniperus cf. phoenicea, J. cf. oxycedrus), some oaks (Quercus deciduous and evergreen type), and a small
Human settlements and associated ecological changes
The Balearic archipelago was the last in the Mediterranean to be colonized by humans. Despite numerous studies focusing on the arrival of the first humans in these Western Mediterranean islands, the dates remain highly uncertain (Ramis et al., 2002, Alcover, 2008). At present, one radiocarbon date for ovicaprid bone associated with Bell-Beaker pottery, dated to 4327 ± 62 cal yr BP (calendric age) or 2470–2270 cal yr BC (95.4% probability) (Aramburu-Zabala and Martínez-Sánchez, 2015), can be accepted
Climate interpretation of vegetation evolution
First, deliberately avoiding deterministic climatic assumption, this study aims to demonstrate the existence of natural changes in vegetation composition on the Balearic Islands before the arrival of the first humans. Indeed, humans were not responsible for the transformation of plant landscapes during the first two-thirds of the Balearic Holocene. Thus, the curves in Fig. 9, Fig. 10 show that environmental moisture (mesic trees) had a tendency to decrease throughout the Holocene, while shrubs
Conclusions
Based on the examination of the available chronological, palaeoenvironmental, and archaeobotanical data, the main findings of this study are as follows:
- i)
Substantial differences existed between the palaeovegetation of the Gymnesian Islands (northeast Balearic archipelago) and the Pityusic Islands (southwest Balearic archipelago). Before the arrival of the first humans, the vegetation and fauna in the Gymnesian Islands were in equilibrium with the climate during the first two-thirds of the
Acknowledgements
J. Revelles was a beneficiary of an FPU pre-doctoral contract from the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports of the Spanish government. G. Servera-Vives was supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish government (“Juan de la Cierva” post-doctoral Program). Ll. Picornell-Gelabert was funded by a post-doctoral grant from the Government of the Balearic Islands (Council for Education and University), a grant from the European Social Fund (PD/022/2013), and a
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2021, Quaternary InternationalCitation Excerpt :Palaeovegetation of the Balearic Islands has traditionally been approached through pollen sequences that have provided evidence of the establishment of thermo-Mediterranean coastal landscapes, with Olea europaea and Pistacia lentiscus formations in most of the sequences (Burjachs et al., 1994, 2017; Pérez-Obiol et al., 1996; Yll et al., 1994, 1997, 1999; Pantaleón-Cano et al., 2000; Servera-Vives et al., 2018). With the appearance of pollen from cereals and other ruderal plants, the sequences begin to show the first evidence of human impact on the Balearic landscape, and the parallel decline of some native species, such as Buxus balearica; the clear expansion of sclerophyllous scrub species and the disappearance of other mesic taxa occurred in Chalcolithic chronologies (Burjachs et al., 2017; Servera et al., 2018). The set of taxa identified in the Cova des Moro charcoal assemblages shows flora characteristic of the thermo-Mediterranean forest, with an abundant presence of species from littoral and sublittoral shrublands, largely coinciding with the main trends in the aforementioned pollen sequences.
Late Holocene Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis Miller) woodlands in Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Western Mediterranean): Investigation of their distribution and the role of human management based on anthracological, dendro-anthracological and archaeopalynological data
2021, Quaternary InternationalCitation Excerpt :This development of pine is parallel to the development of other xeric and sub-xeric taxa, indicating that these taxa were better adapted to Late Holocene climatic conditions of increasing instability, aridity and seasonality. In fact, the relevant shift on the vegetation landscape of the archipelago appears to have occurred prior or parallel to the first human occupation of the islands, when macchia formations broadly developed at the expense of an abrupt decrease in messic taxa (Burjachs et al., 2017; Servera-Vives et al., 2018). Altogether, then, the development of pine woodlands between c.2300 cal.
Modelling dendro-anthracological parameters with dendrochronological reference datasets: Interrogating the applicability of anthraco-typology to assess Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis Miller) wood management from archaeological charcoal fragments
2020, Journal of Archaeological ScienceCitation Excerpt :This research has allowed the advancement of palaeoenvironmental approaches to past vegetation dynamics and enabled the analyses of the role of wood and firewood in past socio-environmental relations (i.e. Picornell-Gelabert 2012; Picornell-Gelabert and Servera-Vives 2017; Picornell-Gelabert and Carrión 2017; Picornell-Gelabert and Dufraisse, 2018; Piqué and Noguera 2002). In this context, Aleppo pine appears to be an important tree in Balearic Holocene vegetation (Burjachs et al., 2017; Servera-Vives et al., 2018) as its presence in the anthracological record of Mallorca is well attested. However, percentages of pine in anthracological assemblages appear to fluctuate between different sites and chronologies.