@article {1172,
	title = {Palynology and Mediterranean vegetation history},
	journal = {Flora Mediterranea},
	volume = {23},
	year = {2013},
	note = {Cited By (since 1996):1Export Date: 22 October 2014},
	month = {2013},
	pages = {141 - 156},
	abstract = {<p>The history of Mediterranean vegetation can be outlined using pollen grains contained in lacustrine,\&nbsp;marine and other sediments. These sediments have recorded very important vegetation\&nbsp;changes during recent geological times. For example, during the last 6 Ma (million years), the\&nbsp;effects of different events acting at regional (e.g. the Messinian salinity crisis between 5.96 Ma\&nbsp;and 5.33 Ma) and global (expansion of the Arctic ice at ca 2.6 Ma) scales produced a progressive\&nbsp;decrease and final disappearance of tropical and subtropical taxa. However, prior to the\&nbsp;start of the Quaternary the Mediterranean flora still included a consistent number of tropical and\&nbsp;subtropical arboreal taxa accompanying deciduous and partly evergreen trees that have persisted\&nbsp;until today. The most important features of the vegetation history of the Quaternary consist\&nbsp;in the fact that vegetation adapted to climate changes due to changes in orbital cyclicity, alternating\&nbsp;between glacial and interglacial periods. The more widespread vegetation types were\&nbsp;steppe and grassland formations during the dry and cold glacial periods whereas either deciduous\&nbsp;or evergreen forests were characteristic of interglacial periods. These cold-dry to warmhumid\&nbsp;climate cycles became more and more intense towards the present. During the second\&nbsp;half of the present interglacial, after the mid-Holocene, joint actions of increasing dryness, climate\&nbsp;oscillations and human impact led to the present day Mediterranean plant landscape. It is\&nbsp;however not clear how far the causation of this spread of evergreen taxa was climatic or human.\&nbsp;One of the most exciting challenges is the prediction of the future course of Mediterranean vegetation.\&nbsp;In this perspective a consistent help, not fully explored yet, can be found in aeropalynology,\&nbsp;recording the pollen transported in the air. Together with modern surface samples, these\&nbsp;data act as modern analogues. Though it probably does not represent the same past vegetational\&nbsp;composition, the current pollen rain is the only basic reference on which our comparative\&nbsp;approach can rely. Present trends are interpreted and future scenarios can be hypothesized just\&nbsp;using a combination of aero- and archaeo-/palaeo-palynological approaches.</p>},
	url = {http://147.163.105.223/flora/23-141.pdf},
	author = {Sadori, L. and Bertini, A. and Combourieu-Nebout, N. and Kouli, K. and Mariotti Lippi, M. and Roberts, N. and Mercuri, A.M.}
}
