Late Holocene environmental dynamics, vegetation history, human impact, and climate change in the ancient Literna Palus (Lago Patria; Campania, Italy)

Abstract

A new late-Holocene high-resolution pollen record is presented from Lago Patria with the aim of investigating past vegetation and environmental dynamics in a still under-investigated coastal sector of the Campania region (Italy). Our results show the evolution of a mixed deciduous and evergreen oak-dominated lowland forest, rich in both xeric and mesic woody taxa, under the influence of climate, human impact, geomorphic processes and their interplay. Between 4800 and 2800 cal BP, the pollen record highlights only slight vegetation changes, featured by a modest forest decline around 4200 cal BP, consistent with the deforestation pattern produced by the 4.2 ka arid climate event in southern and central Italy. This event was followed, between 3900 and 3300 cal BP, by a forest recovery with a remarkable development of mesic trees, notably Fagus, influenced by wet climate conditions. While Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements are missing from this coastal area, which suggests a marginal role of human activity in the environmental changes of this period, the continuous presence of anthropogenic pollen indicators in the pollen record stimulates new archeological investigations. Between 2800 and 2200 cal BP, the area experienced successive domination by Greek, Etruscan, Italic and Roman populations, culminating with the foundation and expansion of cities like Cumae, Capua, and Dicearchia/Puteoli, which determined major impact on the natural forest through intense agricultural practices. After a sedimentation hiatus between 2200 and 180 BP, the pollen record documents a few tens of years, during the Bourbon domination, when the vegetational landscape, characterized by cultivations and pasturelands, appears almost completely treeless. Pollen and other palynomorphs of aquatic taxa evidence a change from freshwater to brackish conditions, consistent with the transition from cat's eye freshwater ponds to open lagoon.