Adaptability, resilience and environmental buffering in European Refugia during the Late Pleistocene: Insights from La Riera Cave (Asturias, Cantabria, Spain)

Jennifer R Jones,Lawrence G Straus,Ana B Marín-Arroyo,Michael P Richards

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-57715-2

Jennifer R Jones, Lawrence G Straus + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-57715-2

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Abstract

The Upper Palaeolithic in Europe was a time of extensive climatic changes that impacted on the survival and distribution of human populations. During the Late Glacial Maximum (LGM), southern European peninsulas were refugia for flora, fauna, and human groups. One of these refugia, the Cantabrian region (northern Atlantic Spain), was intensively occupied throughout the Upper Palaeolithic. Characterising how climatic events were expressed in local environments is crucial to understand human and animal survival. La Riera Cave (Asturias) has a rich geo-cultural sequence dating between 20.5kyr BP to 6.5kyr BP and represents an ideal location in which to explore this. Stable isotope analysis of red deer and ibex is used alongside other environmental and climatic proxies to reconstruct Late Upper Palaeolithic conditions. Results show that during the LGM, ibex adapted their niche to survive, and became a major prey species for humans. The diverse environmental opportunities offered in the high-relief and coastal environs of La Riera may help to explain the high human population levels in the Cantabrian Region throughout the Late Upper Palaeolithic. Despite fluctuating conditions, herbivores and humans had the flexibility and resilience to adapt, demonstrating the importance of southern European refugia for the survival of different species.

Highlights

Are key to understanding why this region functioned as a refugium throughout the Late Pleistocene, enabling the survival of humanity throughout these climatically challenging conditions
Throughout the sequence at La Riera a series of changes in environment were detected in the bone collagen δ13C and δ15N isotopic records, and other environmental proxies showed shifts in both animal niches and human hunting habits, which has global significance for enhancing our understanding of the importance of European refugia during the Late Pleistocene
The large-scale climatic changes that dominated the Late Pleistocene have been detected within the bone collagen record δ13C and δ15N correlating with the wider proxies within the archaeological sequence at La Riera, providing insights into the conditions experienced by humans occupying this refuge region

Summary

Introduction

Are key to understanding why this region functioned as a refugium throughout the Late Pleistocene, enabling the survival of humanity throughout these climatically challenging conditions. The integration of ice and marine cores with terrestrial records has helped to refine the stratigraphy of these events[25,26,27] These larger scale climatic records are physically far removed from conditions experienced on regional and local levels in northern Spain. Plants growing at higher altitude can typically produce elevated δ13C values linked to decreased temperatures and changing CO2 partial pressure[65], and has been observed archaeologically to produce elevated δ13C in the fauna that reside at higher altitudes[66] Global scale conditions such as a change in atmospheric CO2 levels can impact on δ13C values of plants[67,68], and be expressed in fauna.

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