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Holocene environmental change in southern Spain deduced from the isotopic record of a high-elevation wetland in Sierra Nevada

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Abstract

Small lakes and wetlands from high elevation within the Sierra Nevada Range (southern Spain) preserve a complete post-glacial Holocene record. Isotopic, TOC and C/N analyses, carried out on a sediment core, show various stages in the evolution of the Borreguiles de la Virgen, which today constitute a small bog at about 2,950 m above sea level. Glacial erosion generated a cirque depression, which became a small lake during the first phase of infilling (from 8,200 to 5,100 cal yr BP), as suggested by sedimentary evidence, including an atomic C/N ratio generally below 20, low TOC values and the highest δ13C and δ15N values of the record. These results imply significant algal productivity, which is confirmed by the microscopic algal remains. Drier conditions became established progressively in this area from 5,100 to 3,700 cal yr BP. Subsequently, the lake evolved into a bog as shown by geochemical evidence (C/N ratios above 20, high TOC content and low δ13C values). Unstable conditions prevailed from 3,600 to 700 cal yr BP; an extremely low sedimentation rate and scarcity of data from this period do not allow us to make a coherent interpretation. Fluctuating conditions were recorded during the last ~700 cal yr BP, with wetter conditions prevailing during the first part of the interval (with C/N rate below 20) up to 350 years ago. In general, a gradual trend toward more arid conditions occurred since ~6,900 cal yr BP, with a further increase in aridity since ~5,100 cal yr BP. This evidence is consistent with other contemporaneous peri-Mediterranean records.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Antonio P. Jiménez (UGR) and Guillermo Aparicio Brandau for help with coring; Regino Zamora, Pascual Rivas Carrera; Carmen Pérez, Laura Jiménez (all from UGR) and Javier Sánchez (Parque Nacional de Sierra Nevada) for logistical assistance; personnel of the Parque Nacional de Sierra Nevada for field assistance; and John Southon (UCI) for 14C dates. This work was supported by a grant from the OAPN (Ministerio de Medio Ambiente) Project 087/2007, Project CGL2007-60774/BTE, Project CGL2007-65572-C02-01/BTE and Project CGL2010-21257-C02-01 of the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia of Spain, and the research groups RNM0190, RNM179 and RNM309 of the “Junta de Andalucía”. It also was partially financed by the ERA-NET European Partnership in Polar Climate Science (EUROPOLAR)—EUI2009-04040, MCINN CTM2011-24079 and the project RNM 8011 of the Junta de Andalucía. A. G.-A. was also supported by a Juan de la Cierva contract from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. F. J. Jiménez-Espejo acknowledges funding from the CSIC “JAE-Doc” postdoctoral program. Northern Arizona University Laboratory of Paleoecology Contribution 140. Comments and suggestions by two anonymous reviewers and by the Editor T. J. Whitmore are kindly acknowledged.

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  1. Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra CSIC-UGR, Granada, Spain

    Antonio García-Alix, Francisco J. Jiménez Espejo & Antonio Delgado Huertas

  2. Departamento de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain

    Gonzalo Jiménez-Moreno

  3. School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA

    R. Scott Anderson

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  1. Antonio García-Alix
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Correspondence to Antonio García-Alix.

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García-Alix, A., Jiménez-Moreno, G., Anderson, R.S. et al. Holocene environmental change in southern Spain deduced from the isotopic record of a high-elevation wetland in Sierra Nevada. J Paleolimnol 48, 471–484 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-012-9625-2

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