Abstract
This paper presents a palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic approach to the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in the Iberian Peninsula on the basis of the small-mammal assemblages (insectivores, bats and rodents). The LGM is an important period in our climate history defined by the maximum extension of ice sheets between ca. 22 and 19 ka BP. In the Mediterranean region the LGM is characterized by humid conditions, which allow for the development of arboreal vegetation. The small-mammal remains described in this study were recovered from four different sites within the Iberian Peninsula: El Mirón cave (Ramales de la Victoria, Cantabria), Valdavara-1 (Becerreá, Lugo), El Portalón (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos), and Sala de las Chimeneas (Maltravieso, Cáceres). We found in these sites a non-analogue association represented by species associated with mid-European climatic conditions, such as the voles Chionomys nivalis, Microtus arvalis, Microtus agrestis and Microtus oeconomus, together with species associated with Mediterranean requirements, such as Microtus (Iberomys) cabrerae and Microtus (Terricola) duodecimcostatus. These assemblages reveal that the climate was harsher than today in the sites under study, though not as rigorous as elsewhere in Europe, with mean annual temperatures lower than present and an environment dominated by wet open meadows. All our data have been compared with other environmental and climatic proxies, global isotope curves and pollen data, providing a scenario for the palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental conditions that occurred during the LGM in the Iberian Peninsula.
Highlights
There are many papers that have studied the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in the Iberian Peninsula, but the importance of the present article lies in its new presentation of palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental data based on the study of small mammals from this period, in other words, data acquired from terrestrial sequences, since up to now the published data have been obtained from marine cores collected off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula
For the present characterization of the LGM, we have compared the data from the marine cores with palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic data obtained from the study of small mammals from various sites in the Iberian Peninsula
The marine core analyses collected at different points off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula helped to define the ecosystems of the territory, but it was the palynological study of the cores carried out in the Alboran Sea (MD95-2043), as well as the analysis from Padul (Sierra Nevada), that demonstrated the rapid development of the woodland accompanied by the expansion of semi-desert vegetation during the interstadials as the response of the vegetation to the rapid climate changes of the LGM (Sánchez-Goñi and D’Errico, 2005; Fletcher and Sánchez-Goñi, 2008; Fletcher et al, 2010)
Summary
There are many papers that have studied the LGM in the Iberian Peninsula, but the importance of the present article lies in its new presentation of palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental data based on the study of small mammals from this period, in other words, data acquired from terrestrial sequences, since up to now the published data have been obtained from marine cores collected off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The LGM (22-19 ka BP) is currently defined either as the period of maximum cold in the Northern Hemisphere, or as the period with the greatest extension of ice at the polar caps (Kageyama et al, 2005; Fletcher and Sánchez-Goñi, 2008). Some studies such as the Greenland ice-core record, have permitted the establishment of the complexity of the climatic variability of the last glacial cycle on the basis of its oxygen isotope curves (Sánchez-Goñi and D’Errico, 2005). We have taken data from four sites located in different parts of the Iberian Peninsula that display contrasting climatological characteristics: the caves of Valdavara-1 (Becerreá, Lugo), El Mirón (Ramales de Victoria, Cantabria), El Portalón (Atapuerca, Burgos) and La Sala de las Chimeneas (Maltravieso, Cáceres) (Fig. 1)
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