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In this paper we illustrate how different internal and external forcings conditioned postglacial vegetation in southern Mediterranean areas. By comparing seven Holocene sequences, we emphasize the role of glacial refugia as postglacial vegetation dispersal centers. We also identify the importance of the system's inertia in the time lags observed for vegetation response to climate change and human pressure. Finally, we explore the cascade of effects triggered by the human-climate interface, specifically the vegetation and the environmental feedbacks implicated in the collapse of the Argaric culture that emerged in arid southeastern Spain about 4,000 years before the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of marked environmental changes took place during the transition from Pleistocene to Holocene, to which the hunter-gatherers adapted by modifying their technology and subsistence practices. In parallel with these changes, territoriality increased and significant transformations in artistic expression occurred. This paper assesses the archaeological record of the Iberian Mediterranean watershed to analyze various aspects. of this adaptive process, which unfolded gradually from the end of the Magdalenian to the beginning of the Neolithic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: It is paradoxical that work in question (Rodríguez-Ramírez and Yánez-Camacho, 2008) has started a debate in the scientific community about the values of the reservoir effect used in the 14C dates in the Gulf of Cádiz, since in their Comments Rodríguez-Vidal et al. (2009), Monges Soares (2010-this issue) and Lario et al. (2010-this issue), have not taken into account that these values are in reference to earlier studies (Morales et al., 2008). The new figures suggested by Rodríguez-Vidal et al. (2009) and Monges Soares (2010-this issue) for this part of the Gulf of Cadiz (Soares, 2008) had not been reported when the earlier papers were accepted and published. The values for the reservoir effect applied on the South Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula need to be continually adjusted, due to the new contributions that have been made in recent years as a result of developments of the research being undertaken in this field. Without doubt, in the future, as further progress is made, the values will be even more finely tuned and the present ones will become obsolete, as our understanding of marine and estuarine dynamics in this sector over the last few thousand years is a topic which remains open to new interpretations. The new figures for the reservoir effect are an important contribution in determining more accurately the chronology of events in the Holocene, and they make it necessary to revise the previous studies on marine Holocene formations in the Gulf of Cadiz with 14C dates, owing to the errors that have occurred in this respect. For this reason the Comment should not be aimed at one paper alone, and instead this matter should be reviewed at a regional level. Those of us who are not specialists in the topic welcome these clarifications, which can help shed additional light on the chronological problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]