Erosión y desertificación.-Human-induced erosion and sedimentation during the Holocene in the central Ebro depression, Spain

Abstract

ABSTRACT Small secondary valleys in the Central Ebro Depression in northeast Spain have tended to be infilled with sediment, and record a complex sequence of accumulations and incisions of Holocene age. Level N3, the main accumulation level based on extent and depth, is characterized by a long period of sedimentation (from the Late Epipaleolithic to the end of the Late Roman period), the dominance of gypsiferous silt resulting from hillslope erosion, and a thickness up to 15 m. This deposit does not connect directly to the fluvial terraces of the Ebro River, and it accumulated over a long period of climate fluctuations. Thus, its evolution appears to have been largely independent of climate variability, but is closely related to human activities (deforestation, forest fires, farming development), particularly those associated with the main human settlements.