Appraising the cohesion of palaeoenvironmental reconstructions in north-west Spain since the mid-Holocene from a high temporal resolution multi-proxy peat record

Investigation of abrupt palaeohydrological regime change remains challenging due to site-specific noise ratios and the limitations of dating control and spatial resolution of multi-proxy records. Some of these issues are addressed through a well dated and highly resolved record from an ombrotrophic peatland in Galicia, north-west Spain. The site is in an ideal location to record marine influences and test models of past palaeoclimatic boundaries and ocean-atmosphere linkages through multi-proxy records of macrofossils, microfossils, charcoal, peat humification and loss-on-ignition data. In conjunction with many regional proxy records of terrestrial and marine origin, the data suggest spatial coherence between 5300 and ca. 3300 cal. BP and continue to link to marine responses afterwards. After ca. 2000 cal. BP, episodes of spatially consistent palaeohydrological change persist but become more short-lived, local and sporadic in north-west Iberia. These indicate an increase in the complexity of drivers of palaeoenvironmental change in recent millennia. Fire history inferred from microscopic charcoal and apparent upland erosion indicated by the loss-on-ignition profile relate to anthropogenic pressure and appear to be linked to local deforestation phases in the Xistral uplands.