Late Holocene ecological history of Pinus pinaster forests in the Sierra de Gredos of central Spain

Abstract

This article describes the patterns and processes of vegetation change and fire history in the Late Holocene (c. 2400 calendar year BP) palaeoecological sequence of Lanzahita, Sierra de Gredos in central Spain, and provides the first Iberian pollen sequence undertaken within a monospecific Pinus pinaster woodland. These new data reassess not only the autochthonous nature of this pine species in the region and the Iberian Peninsula, but also the naturalness of well-developed cluster pine forests. Conflicts of palaeoecological evidence with phytosociological models of vegetation dynamics in the study region, and the relationships of P. pinaster with fire occurrence in Mediterranean-type ecosystems, are discussed.