Vegetation changes during the last millennium in the Wet Complex of El-Kala (Algeria): palynological records and comparative study case of Alder of Ain Khiar & El Ghorra Mountain
Paper Details
Vegetation changes during the last millennium in the Wet Complex of El-Kala (Algeria): palynological records and comparative study case of Alder of Ain Khiar & El Ghorra Mountain
Abstract
The objective of this work is information providing about the vegetation and climate changes that occurred in the last millennium at the Wet Complex of El-Kala (Algeria). In order to contribute in the understanding of past dynamics and current wet area from this region, two case studies are described here: the alder-peatland of Ain-Khiar and Gbar El Halouf at El-Ghorra Mountain. Pollen data obtained from sediments of El-Kala allowed us to make inferences regarding the past vegetation and climate history. For this, two palynological cores from this area were analyzed. The results are supported by five AMS radiocarbon dates. The oldest data was recorded at El Ghorra Mountain (925±29 AD) while the recent data was recorded at the alder peatland of Ain Khiar (1809±97 AD). The obtained data highlight that starting with Medieval Warm Period (MWP) around 925±29 AD until 1581±52 AD, the landscape characterized by domination of thermophilous taxa related by warm temperatures average at both of studied sites, at the beginning of Little Ice Age (LIA) the landscape at both sites has the same appearance domination of hygrophilous taxa and decline of thermophilous taxa related by low temperatures average mentioned at that period and it was finished around (1809±97 AD). This study shows that from 19th century to present days the landscape is characterized by the expansion of thermophilous taxa at El Ghorra Mountain and traces of anthropogenic activities and at Alder of Ain Khiar retains its appearance despite the decline of all of local and regional vegetation.
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.
Ben Tiba B, Reille M. 1982. Recherches pollenanalytiques 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 de Biologie 333, 744-754.
Beug HJ. 2004. Leitfaden der Pollenbestimmung: für Mitteleuropa und angrenzende Gebiete. München: Dr Friedrich Pfeil.
Brewer S, Alleaume S, Guiot J, Nicault A. 2007. Historical droughts in Mediterranean regions during the last 500 years: a data/model approach. Climate of the Past 3, 355-366.
Brun A. 1992. Pollens dans les séries marines du Golfe de Gabès et du plateau des Kerkennah (Tunisie) : signaux climatiques et anthropiques. Quaternaire 3, 31-39.
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.
Cook ER, Palmer JG, Rosanne D, D’Arrigo R D. 2002. Evidence for a ‘Medieval Warm Period’ in a 1,100 year tree-ring reconstruction of past austral summer temperatures in New Zealand. Geophysical Research Letters 29, 12.1-12.4.
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 AE, 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.
Kahit FZ, Zaoui L, Danu MA, Romanescu G, Benslama M. 2017. A new vegetation history documented by pollen analysis and C14 dating in the alder of Ain Khiar – El Kala wet complex, Algeria. International Journal of Biosciences 11, 192-199. http://dx.doi.org/10.12692/ijb/11.6.192-199
Kaniewski D, Van Campo E, Paulissen E, Weiss H, Otto T, Bakker J, Rossignol I, Van Lerberghem K. 2011. Medieval coastal Syrian vegetation patterns in the principality of Antioch .The Holocene 21, 251-262.
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.
Mann ME. 2005. Climate changes over the past millennium: Relationships with Mediterranean climates. IL NUOVO CIMENTO 29(1), 73-80.
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.
Öner S. 2009. Vegetation history and human activity in 2nd millennium AD in Turkey: Pollen analysis of a peat bog. Annales Botanici Fennici 46, 192-200.
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. 1998. 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.
Salamani M. 1991. Premières données palynologiques sur l’histoire Holocène du massif de l’Akfadou grande Kabylie, Algérie. Ecologia Mediterranea 17, 145-159.
Schutt B. 2005. Late Quaternary Environmental Change on the Iberian Peninsula. DIE ERDE 136, 3-14.
Stambouli-Essassi S, Roche E, Bouzid S. 2007. Evolution of vegetation and climatic changes in North-Western Tunisia during the last 40 millennia. International Journal of Tropical Geology, Geography and Ecology 31, 171-214.
Stuiver M, Polach HA. 1977. Discussion: reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19, 355-363.
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.
Wassenburg JA, Immenhauser A, Richter D K, Niedermay A, Riechelmann S, Fietzke J, Scholz D, Jochum KP, Fohlmeister J, Schröder-Ritzrau A, Sabaoui A, Riechelmann DFC, Schneider L, Esperm J. 2013. Moroccan speleothem and tree ring records suggest a variable positive state of the North Atlantic Oscillation during the Medieval Warm Period. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 375, 291-302.
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, Youbi Mustapha, Danu Mihaela Aurelia, Benslama Mohamed, 2019. Vegetation changes during the last millennium in the Wet Complex of El-Kala (Algeria): palynological records and comparative study case of Alder of Ain Khiar & El Ghorra Mountain. Int. J. Biosci., 14(1), 356-365.
Copyright © 2019 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.