A new vegetation history documented by pollen analysis and C14 dating in the alder of Ain Khiar – El Kala wet complex, Algeria
Paper Details
A new vegetation history documented by pollen analysis and C14 dating in the alder of Ain Khiar – El Kala wet complex, Algeria
Abstract
In order to trace the history of local and regional vegetation a pollen sequence of 260 cm of depth was extracted from alder-peatland of Ain-Khiar in the wet complex of El Kala which is situated in north–east of Algeria and considered as one of the most important wetlands in Mediterranean. A pollen diagram obtained from the study of the core which has been supported by tow A.M.S. radiocarbon dates. 66 taxa have been identified as following: local vegetation as hygrophilous and aquatic taxa which is dominated by Alnus, Cyperaceae and Juncaceae; regional vegetation as mesophilic taxa which is dominated by Quercus, Erica arborea and Myrtus; herbaceous taxa dominate the area which are represented by Poaceae, Apiaceae and Fabaceae and anthropogenic activity indices taxa as Eucalyptus and Cupressus. At the beginning of the record of 500 years, towards 420 ± 69 BP (1530 ± 69 AD) a cork oak forest and mesophilic vegetation were dominant at the Medieval Warm (MWP) Period as declared as in Mediterranean region by other authors, during the Little Ice Age (LIA) period the cork oak forest was replaced by the alder and hygrophilous vegetation, this landscape is kept till nowadays. Anthropogenic activity characterizes the modern epoch around 141 ± 97 BP (1809 ± 97 AD), by reforestation of Eucalyptus in sub-humid area and using Cupressus as a protective barrier for agricultural land in the surrounding area. These climate changes have been reported in the northern hemisphere as well as the Mediterranean by other authors.
Aouadi H. 1989. La végétation de l’Algérie Nord-Orientale: Histoire des influences anthropiques et cartographie à 1/200000, PhD thesis. Grenoble: Joseph Fourier University.
Belouahem D. 2012. Etude écologique des peuplements forestiers des zones humides dans les régions de Skikda, Annaba et El Tarf (Nord-Est algérien) PhD thesis. Annaba: Université Badji Mokhtar.
BenTiba B, Reille M. 1982. Recherches pollen analytiques dans les montagnes de Kroumirie: (Tunisie septentrionale) premiers résultats. Ecologia Mediterranea 8(4), 75-86.
Benslama m. 2002. Caractérisation morpho-analytique des sols tourbeux de la Numidie Orientale. 7ème Journée nationale de l’étude des sols 22-24 oct. Orléans France.
Benslama M, Andrieu-Ponel V, Guiter F, Reille M, De Beaulieu JL, Migliore J, Djamali M. 2010. Nouvelles contributions à l’histoire tradiglaciaire et holocène de la végétation en Algérie: analyses polliniques de deux profils sédimentaires du complexe humide d’El-Kala. Comptes Rendus Biologie 333, 744-754.
Beug HJ. 2004. Leitfaden der Pollenbestimmung: für Mitteleuropa und angrenzende Gebiete. München: Dr Friedrich Pfeil.
Calò C, Henne P, Eugster P, Van Leeuwen J, Gilli A, Hamann Y, La Mantia T, Pasta S, Vescovi E, Tinner W. 2013. 1200 years of decadal-scale variability of Mediterranean vegetation and climate at Pantelleria Island, Italy. The Holocene 23, 1477-1486.
De Belair G. 1990. Structure, fonctionnement et perspectives de gestion de quatre ecocomplexes lacustres et marécageux (El Kala, Est Algérien). PhD thesis. Montpellier: Université de Montpellier II.
Erdtman G. 1960. The acetolysis method. Svensk: Botanisk Tidskrift.
Faegri K, Iversen J. 1989. Manuels d’analyse de pollen Wiley: Chichester.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 1982. Les eucalyptus dans les reboisements. ROME FAO.
Grimm EC. 1991. TILIA and TILIA GRAPH. Illinois: State Museum.
Jalut G, Amat A E, Bonnet L, Gauquelin T, Fontugne M. 2000. Holocene climatic changes in the Western Mediterranean, from south-east France to South-east Spain. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 160, 255-290.
Julià R, Luque JA, Riera S, Alejandro JA. 2007. Climatic and land use changes on the NW of Iberian Peninsula recorded in a 1,500-year record from Lake Sanabria. Contributions to Science 3, 355-369.
Lamb HH. 1965. The early medieval warm epoch and its sequels. Palaeogeography, Paleoclimatology, Palaeoecology 1, 13-37.
Mann ME. 2002. Little Ice Age. Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change 1, 504-509.
Martín-Puertas C, Jiménez-Espejo F, Martínez -Ruiz F, Nieto-Moreno V, Rodrigo M, Mata MP, Valero-Garcés BL. 2010. Late Holocene climate variability in the southwestern Mediterranean region: an integrated marine and terrestrial geochemical approach. Climate of the Past 6, 807-816.
Pfister C, Luterbacher J, Schwarz-Zanetti G, Wegmann M. 1998. Winter air temperature variations in western Europe during the Early and High Middle Ages (AD 750–1300). The Holocene 8, 535–552.
Quezel P, Barbero M, Loisel R. 1990. Les reboisements en région méditerranéenne. Incidences biologiques et économiques .Forêt méditerranéenne XII(2), 103-114
Reille M. 1990. Leçon de palynologie et d’analyse pollinique. Paris: C.N.R.S.
Reille M. 1992. Pollen et spores d’Europe et d’Afrique du Nord. Marseille: Laboratoire de Botanique Historique et Palynologie.
Reille M, Gamisans J, De Beaulieu JL. 1997. The late glacial at lac de Creno (Corsica, France): a key site in the western Mediterranean basin. New Phytologist 135, 547-559.
Thomas JP. 1975. Ecology and dynamism Quaternary coastal and terrestrial sand vegetation dunes from Jijel to El Kala (East Algeria). PhD thesis. Montpellier: Université Sciences et techniques Languedoc 165p.
Youbi M, Benslama M. 2015. A 1000-year record from El-Ghorra mountain (NE Algeria): Mediterranean vegetation dynamic in response to climatic variation. Ecology, Environment and Conservation 21, 1189-1198.
Kahit Fatima Zahra, Zaoui Lilia, Danu Mihaela Aurelia, Romanescu Gheorghe, Benslama Mohamed, 2017. A new vegetation history documented by pollen analysis and C14 dating in the alder of Ain Khiar – El Kala wet complex, Algeria. Int. J. Biosci., 11(6), 193-200.
Copyright © 2017 by the Authors. This article is an open access article and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license.