Registro paleoclimático del Pleistoceno Medio en el valle del rio Tajo.

Abstract

The central region of the Iberian Peninsula has specific climatic characteristics that have affected the vegetation evolution along the Quaternary period. The scarce available paleoclimatic information has shown that the vegetation evolution did not follow the valid patterns for other regions, not only those for Europe regions but also those for other regions into the Iberian Peninsula. We present in this work three palynological records from alluvial deposits of the river Tajo that correspond, by datation and/or correlation with other well-dated deposits, to the Middle Pleistocene. The vegetation during this period was open mediterranean formations made up of mainly evergreen Quercus, Olea, Juniperus and Cistaceae, indicating the existence of a dry mediterranean climate. The vegetation evolution along the Middle Pleistocene, reconstructed from the three palynological records, also shows the development of more humid or more arid pulses into a general trend of increasing aridity during the Middle Pleistocene.