Middle Miocene vegetation of the Vallès-Penedès Basin (NE Iberian Peninsula), as inferred from fossil pollen records: State of the art and future prospects
Rull, Valentí (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)
Alba, David M. (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)
Casanovas i Vilar, Isaac (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)

Date:	2024
Abstract:	In the Mediterranean region, the study of fossil pollen has provided a comprehensive spatiotemporal picture of the Neogene flora and vegetation. The NW Mediterranean sector is a reference area for the study of vertebrate evolution, especially during the Middle Miocene, but paleofloristic and paleovegetational patterns are much less known, which hinders placing faunal evolution in the appropriate paleoenvironmental context. Here, the existing palynological evidence for this area is reviewed to identify the main knowledge gaps and to devise possible future developments. The few palynological records available have provided quantitative paleotemperature and paleoprecipitation estimates, along with general paleovegetation reconstructions, using a modern-analog (MA) approach. The suitability of this method is discussed here and the use of a complementary fossil-community (FC) approach, which has been demonstrated to be useful in other areas and time intervals, is proposed and illustrated using the available raw data. The MA approach is consistent with the available paleoclimatic evidence but special care should be placed on the reliability of overly precise quantitative estimates and the latent danger of circularity when analyzing the biotic responses to climatic changes. The FC approach is considered to be more suitable for reconstructing past communities because it requires less unwarranted assumptions. Additional fieldwork efforts are needed in the search for new pollen records, with an emphasis on more complete ecosystem reconstructions using both floral and faunal evidence.
Grants:	Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2020-117289GB-I00 Generalitat de Catalunya CLT0009-22-000019 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2001/SGR-00620
Note:	Altres ajuts: CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Subject:	Pollen ; Vegetation ; Paleoecology ; Middle Miocene ; Mediterranean ; Iberian Peninsula
Published in:	Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, Vol. 321 (February 2024) , art. 105042, ISSN 1879-0615

DOI: 10.1016/j.revpalbo.2023.105042

Available from: 2026-02-28 Postprint

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles