The study of past climate periods, similar to the present, is very important to understand how the environments will respond to the rising global temperatures. The Last Interglacial (LIG) warm period, also called Eemian and corresponding to Marine Isotope Stage 5e (~130-115 kyr), is commonly used as a reference for a projected future climate. There are not many long and continuous sedimentary records in sensitive areas as the Mediterranean region where this period is registered. In fact, seasonal characteristics of interglacial climate dynamics are still unknown in this area. The Padul sedimentary sequence provides exceptional paleoenvironmental and paleoclimate information of the last ~200 kyr from the southern Iberian Peninsula. Here we present a detailed palynological study to contribute new insights into vegetation changes in order to infer precipitation and temperature shifts in the western Mediterranean area before, during and subsequently after the Last Interglacial. The preliminary results indicate that the termination of the penultimate glacial was the coldest and driest climatic phase, shown by the maxima in xerophytes (Artemisia, Amaranthaceae and Ephedra) and minima in Mediterranean forest (Quercus total, Oleaceae and Pistacia). The beginning of the LIG is characterized by an abrupt decline in xerophytes and an increase in arboreal taxa, especially in Mediterranean forest and conifers, indicating an important change towards an increase in temperature and precipitation. However, it seems that this environmental change was gradual in the Padul wetland as suggested by the general increasing trend in the Mediterranean forest. Millennial-scale variability, observed through periodic increases in xerophytes, also characterized the glacial-interglacial transition and the LIG.

Comunicación oral presentada en XXI INQUA Congress 2023, en Roma del 13 al 20 de julio de 2023.