Late Holocene anthropic degradation records in semi-arid environments (NE Spain and NW Argentina)

Abstract

Information about Holocene sedimentary records in two semiarid areas in Spain and Argentina was gathered to know the role of the anthropic influence on landscape evolution. In both cases, four aggradational units separated by incision phases have been differentiated. Due to the confluence of anthropic indicators, the H1C subunit (ca. 2.45-ca. 1.5 ka cal BP) in the central sector of the Ebro basin (NE Spain), and the H2B subunit (2.45-ca. 0.6 ka cal BP) in the Tafi valley (NW Argentina) are worthy of attention. In both cases, a soil formed around 2.45 cal BP was degraded, because it was the object of intense overexploitation in the Ibero-Roman period in the Ebro valley and Formative period in Tafí valley. The final results of these processes represented transformations so significant that the landscape was unable to recover posteriorly. In highly vulnerable dryland environments, the establishment of adequate criteria to link strong landscape degradative phases with human activity is of high interest to know de older phases of the Anthropocene or Paleoanthropocene.