The palaeoenvironment of Carihuela Cave (Granada, Spain): a reconstruction on the basis of palynological investigations of cave sediments

Abstract

Two new pollen diagrams from Carihuela Cave (southeastern Spain) are presented completing the Pleistocene sequence which covers the interval between the last Interglacial and the Lateglacial. There is a correspondence between the litho- and biostratigraphy including pollen and microfauna. Thermoclastic scree, cryophyllous rodents, and Artemisia and/or Poaceae steppes are associated with the recession of thermophilous vegetation. The best palynological criterion for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction from cave sediments is the composition of the pollen assemblages rather than the pollen frequencies, with the number of mesothermophilous taxa being of critical importance. In the absence of absolute dates for much of the record, there is evidence in the Carihuela pollen record for: (a) interglacial conditions at ca. 117,000 yr B.P., with assemblages dominated by Quercus and Olea; (b) a pre-Würmian phase with episodic forest regressions; (c) two Pleniglacial maxima with an extension of steppe-like vegetation and disappearance of thermophilous elements; (d) an inter-Pleniglacial episode beginning at ca. 45,200 yr B.P., with Pinus and the consistent pressence of mesothermophilous taxa; and (e) Lateglacial including several short stages of Quercus colonization, one of them at ca. 12,320 yr B.P., and the Younger Dryas event afterwards.