The vegetation of the National Park of Aigüestortes i Estany de St Maurici is the result of an interaction between climate, plant community dynamics and the human occupation of the territory. The OCUPA project aimed to reconstruct this interaction across the last millennia combining methods from palaeoecology and archaeology. The study focused primarily on the Sant Nicolau valley and built on the multidisciplinary analysis of the sedimentary archive of two lakes (Llebreta and Redó) and a number of archaeological sites located in shelters and outdoors. There is archaeological evidence of human presence since 9000 yr cal BP, and a continuous record since 7500 yr cal BP. At early stages, humans transformed the surroundings of the shelters occupied and lithic tools indicate contacts with locations far away (i.e., the Ebro plains). Since more than 3000 years ago, there has been human impact on the vegetation without interruption until present. Initially, the impacts were mostly related to livestock: use of fire to open grazing lands, soil erosion and, during the medieval period, forestry and eutrophication of lakes. The agriculture impact in the lower part of the valley (e.g., Llebreta) occurred about 2100 yr ago, although some cereal grains and tools for harvesting have been found for the Neolithic. In the medieval period, the impact was higher than during the last centuries. In general, the changes in the human land use approximately follow the major changes in climate, but the specific causal link is likely related to the social and cultural dynamics of a broader territory since the Neolithic.

Para el sondeo y estudio mineralógico se ha contado con la colaboración de financiación adicional a través del proyecto «Multidisciplinary research consortium on gradual and abrupt climate changes, and their impacts on the environment (GRACCIE), CSD2007-00067, Programa Consolider 2007»

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