History through sediments: environmental, land use and technological change in the record of a temperate wetland (Las Tablas de Daimiel, central Spain)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21701/bolgeomin.120.3.011Keywords:
climate change, human activity, land use, last millennium, wetlandAbstract
The analysis of the sediments of a temperate wetland in central Spain (Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park) and their correlation to historical and documental data allows to interpret the environmental changes recorded in such sediments as due to the variable intensity human action in addition to the natural variability. Recorded events are related to land use changes that are caused by the socioeconomical circumstances of the surrounding human communities. Relative intensity and length of such impacts permits to estimate the duration of the anthropic events and the recovery ability of the natural system, evidencing that the intensity degree is determined by the technological capability to sustain a prolonged soil use. As a result, the Tablas de Daimiel National Park record has been divided in three periods: a “natural” period, when the impact of events is short and the environment is able to recover quickly, a “preindustrial” period, when changes are gradual but sustained, and an “industrial” period, when the sustained activity is so intense that the natural system is unable to recover.
Downloads
References
Anónimo 1786. Lista de las diócesis socorridas con suministro de quina por el Rey contra la epidemia de tercianas. Gaceta de Madrid 69, 568.
Anónimo 1812. Reflexiones sobre el decreto de S.M. en favor de la villa de Daimiel publicado en la gaceta de ayer. Gaceta de Madrid, 104, 420.
Bringas, M.A. 2000. La productividad de los factores en la agricultura española (1752-1935). Estudios de Historia Económica 39, 204 pp. Ed. Banco de España, Madrid.
Carnero, T. 1980. Expansión vinícola y atraso agrario (1870-1900). Serie Estudios 18, 289 pp. Serv. Publ. Agrarias, Min. Agricultura, Madrid.
Dearing, J.A., Battarbee, R.W., Dikau, R., Larocque, I., Oldfield, F. 2006a. Human-environment interactions, learning from the past. Regional Environmental Change, 6, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-005-0011-8
Dearing, J.A., Battarbee, R.W., Dikau, R., Larocque, I., Oldfield, F. 2006b. Human-environment interactions, towards synthesis and simulation. Regional Environmental Change, 6, 115-123. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-005-0012-7
Desprat, S., Sánchez-Goñi, M.F., Loutre, M.F. 2003. Revealing climatic variability of the last three millennia in northwestern Iberia using pollen influx data. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 213, 63-78. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0012-821X(03)00292-9
Domínguez-Castro, F., Santisteban, J.I., Mediavilla, R., Dean, W.E., López-Pamo, E., Gil-García, M.J., Ruiz-Zapata, M.B. 2006. Environmental and geochemical record of human-induced changes in C storage during the last millennium in a temperate wetland (Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park, central Spain). Tellus, 58B, 573-585. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0889.2006.00211.x
Dorado-Valiño, M., Valdeolmillos, A., Ruiz-Zapata, M.B., Gil-García, M.J., Bustamante, I. 2002. Climatic changes since the Lateglacial/Holocene transition in La Mancha plain (South Central Iberian Peninsula, Spain) and their evidence in The Tablas de Daimiel marshlands. Quaternary International, 93-94, 73-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1040-6182(02)00007-1
Fagan, B. 2000. The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850. Basic Books, New York.
Fagan, B. 2003. The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization. Basic Books, New York.
Gil-García, M.J., Ruiz-Zapata, M.B., Santisteban, J.I., Mediavilla, R., López-Pamo, E., Dabrio, C.J. 2007. Late Holocene environments in Las Tablas de Daimiel (south central Iberian peninsula, Spain). Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 16, 241-250. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-006-0047-9
Haug, G.H., Günther, D., Peterson, L.C., Sigman, D.M., Hughen, K.A., Aeschlimann, B. 2003. Climate and the Collapse of Maya Civilization. Science, 299, 1731-1735. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1080444
Hodell, D.A., Curtis, J.H., Brenner, A.M. 1995. Possible role of climate in the collapse of Classic Maya civilization. Nature, 375, 391-394. https://doi.org/10.1038/375391a0
Huang, C.C., Zhao, S., Pang, J., Zhou, Q., Chen, S., Li, P., Mao, L., Ding, M. 2003. Climatic aridity and the relocations of the Zhou culture in the southern Loess Plateau of China. Climatic Change, 61, 361-378. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:CLIM.0000004550.82862.72
Julià, R., Burjachs, F., Dasí, M.J., Mezquita, F., Miracle, M.R., Roca, J.R., Seret, G., Vicente, E. 1998. Meromixis origin and recent trophic evolution in the Spanish mountain lake La Cruz. Aquatic Sciences, 60, 279-299. https://doi.org/10.1007/s000270050042
Last, W., Smol, J.P. (eds.) 2001. Tracking Environmental Change Using Lake Sediments, Volume 2: Physical and Geochemical Methods. Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research Vol. 2. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands. 532 pp. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47670-3
Linares, A.M. 2004. The privatisation of communal lands in Spain (1750-1925): an econometric revision of the neo-Malthusian thesis. Asociación Española de Historia Económica, Documentos de Trabajo DT-AEHE 0403, 37 pp.
Martín-Puertas, C., Valero-Garcés, B., Mata, M.P., González-Samperiz, P., Bao, R., Moreno, A., Stefanova, V. 2007. Arid and humid phases in Southern Spain during the last 4000 years: The Zoñar Lake record, Cordoba. The Holocene, 18, 907-921. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683608093533
Morellón, M., Valero-Garcés, B., Moreno, A., González-Samperiz, P., Mata, P., Romero, O., Maestro, M., Navas, A. 2008. Holocene palaeohydrology and climate variability in Northeastern Spain: the sedimentary record of Lake Estanya (Pre-Pyrenean range). Quaternary International, 181, 15-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2007.02.021
Matthews, H.D., Weaver, A.J., Meissner, K.J., Gillett, N.P., Eby, M. 2004. Natural and anthropogenic climate change: incorporating historical land cover change, vegetation dynamics and the global carbon cycle. Climate Dynamics, 22, 461-479. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-004-0392-2
Messerli, B., Grosjean, M., Hofer, T., Núñez, L., Pfister, C., 2000. From nature-dominated to human-dominated environmental changes. Quaternary Science Reviews, 19, 459-479. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-3791(99)00075-X
Nicoll, K. 2004. Recent environmental change and prehistorical human activity in Egypt and Northern Sudan. Quaternary Science Reviews, 23, 561-580. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2003.10.004
Nuñez, L, Grosjean, M., Cartajena, I. (2002). Human occupations and climate change in the Puna de Atacama, Chile. Science, 298, 821-824. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1076449
Riera, S., Wansard, G., Julià, R. 2004. 2000-year environmental history of a karstic lake in the Mediterranean Pre-Pyrenees: the Estanya lakes (Spain). Catena, 55, 293-324. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0341-8162(03)00107-3
Rodríguez-Picavea, E. 1999. Aproximación a la geografía de la frontera meridional del Reino de Castilla (1157-1212). Cuadernos de Historia Medieval, 2, 29-42.
Rosen, A.M. 1995. The social response to environmental change in Early Bronze Age Canaan. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 14, 26-44. https://doi.org/10.1006/jaar.1995.1002
Santisteban, J.I., Mediavilla, R., López-Pamo, E., Dabrio, C., Ruiz Zapata, M.B., Gil García, M.J., Castaño, S., Martínez-Alfaro, P.E. 2004. Loss on ignition: a qualitative or quantitative method for organic matter and carbonate mineral content in sediments? Journal of Paleolimnology, 32, 287-299. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOPL.0000042999.30131.5b
Santisteban, J.I., Mediavilla, R., Domínguez-Castro, F., López-Pamo, S., Gil-García, M.J., Ruiz-Zapata, M.B., Gascó, C., Castaño, S., Martínez-Alfaro, P.E., Darbio, C.J., Martínez-Santos, P. 2005. The last 1000 years of climate evolution as recorded in sediments and documentary sources in a Mediterranean inland wetland. DEKLIM/ Pages Conference. The climate of the next millennia in the perspective of abrupt climate change during the late Pleistocene, 195-196.
Thompson, L.G., Davis, M.E. Mosley-Thompson, E. 1994. Glacial records of global climate: a 1500-year tropical ice core record of climate. Human Ecology, 22, 83-95. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02168764
Tyson, P.D., Lee-Thorp, J., Holmgren, K., Thackeray, J.F. 2002. Changing gradients of climate change in southern Africa during the past millennium: implications for population movements. Climate Change, 52, 129-135. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013099104598
Valero-Garcés, B. L., Moreno, A., Navas, A., Mata, P., Machín, J., Delgado Huertas, A., González-Samperiz, P., Schwalb, A., Morellón, M., Cheng, H., Edwards, P.L. 2008. The Taravilla lake and tufa deposits (Central Iberian Range, Spain) as palaeohydrological and palaeoclimatic indicators. Palaeogegraphy, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 259, 136-156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2007.10.004
Weiss, H., Bradley, R.S. 2001. What drives societal collapse? Science, 291, 609-610. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1058775
Weiss, H., Courty, M.A., Wetterstrom, W., Guichard, F., Senior, L., Meadow, R., Curnow, A. 1993. The genesis and collapse of third millennium north Mesopotamian civilization. Science, 261, 995-1004. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.261.5124.995
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
© CSIC. Manuscripts published in both the print and online versions of this journal are the property of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and quoting this source is a requirement for any partial or full reproduction.
All contents of this electronic edition, except where otherwise noted, are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. You may read the basic information and the legal text of the licence. The indication of the CC BY 4.0 licence must be expressly stated in this way when necessary.
Self-archiving in repositories, personal webpages or similar, of any version other than the final version of the work produced by the publisher, is not allowed.
