Graciela Gil-Romera
Biographic Data
| ID | 115541 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Graciela Gil-Romera |
| GIVEN NAMES | Graciela |
| FAMILY NAME | Gil-Romera |
| SIGNATURE | GIL-ROMERA G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5726-2536 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 81 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Modern pollen–vegetation relationships and human indicator taxa at high elevation human-impacted areas of the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia
Understanding the relationships between modern pollen assemblages and vegetation patterns is fundamental for reconstructing past landscapes and assessing anthropogenic impacts in ecologically sensitive high-altitude ecosystems. While previous studies in Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains explored paleo-reconstruction, quantitative approaches remain limited. This study quantifies pollen–vegetation relationships using transfer factors (TF), evaluates ecolog…
A multi-model approach to the spatial and temporal characterization of the African Humid Period
Data availability] Original datasets are avaliable via the Neotoma Palaeoecological Database (www.neotoma.org). Code used in the analyses presented here are avaliable via: https://github.com/Squirrelmonkey93/Bachelor_project_M.Holewijn.git, and http://www.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.29608400
Past fire dynamics in sub-Saharan Africa during the last 25,000 years: Climate change and increasing human impacts
The Holocene lake-evaporation history of the afro-alpine Lake Garba Guracha in the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia, based on δ 18 O records of sugar biomarker and diatoms
In eastern Africa, there are few long, high-quality records of environmental change at high altitudes, inhibiting a broader understanding of regional climate change. We investigated a Holocene lacustrine sediment archive from Lake Garba Guracha, Bale Mountains, Ethiopia, (3,950 m asl), and reconstructed high-altitude lake evaporation history using δ 18 O records derived from the analysis of compound-specific sugar biomarkers and diatoms. The δ 18…
Seasonal temperature and moisture changes in interior semi‐arid Spain from the last interglacial to the Late Holocene
The El Cañizar de Villarquemado pollen record covers the last part of MIS 6 to the Late Holocene. We use Tolerance-Weighted Averaging Partial Least Squares (TWA-PLS) to reconstruct mean temperature of the coldest month (MTCO) and growing degree days above 0°C (GDD 0 ) and the ratio of annual precipitation to annual potential evapotranspiration (MI), accounting for the ecophysiological effect of changing CO 2 on water-use efficiency. Rapid summer …
The new Garba Guracha palynological sequence: Revision and data expansion
In the context of the DFG-funded project ‘Mountain Exile Hypothesis’ (FOR2358) we retrieved a 15.5 m long sediment core from Garba Guracha (GG) (Bale Mountains National Park, Ethiopia – BMNP) during February 2017. A 16,000 year record of 62 pollen samples has been previously produced from GG by Umer et al. (2007). In this data paper, we present a new palynological and macrocharcoal record, with 259 pollen and 1301 charcoal samples covering the la…
Time to better integrate paleoecological research infrastructures with neoecology to improve understanding of biodiversity long-term dynamics and to inform future conservation
Anthropogenic pressures are causing a global decline in biodiversity. Successful attempts at biodiversity conservation requires an understanding of biodiversity patterns as well as the drivers and processes that determine those patterns. To deepen this knowledge, neoecologists have focused on studying present-day or recent historical data, while paleoecologists usually study long-term data through the composition of various biological proxies and…
Humans take control of fire-driven diversity changes in Mediterranean Iberia’s vegetation during the mid–late Holocene
Fire regime changes are considered a major threat to future biodiversity in the Mediterranean Basin. Such predictions remain uncertain, given that fire regime changes and their ecological impacts occur over timescales that are too long for direct observation. Here we analyse centennial- and millennial-scale shifts in fire regimes and compositional turnover to track the consequences of fire regime shifts on Mediterranean vegetation diversity. We e…
Late-glacial and Holocene European pollen data
The European Pollen Database (EPD) is a community effort to archive and make available pollen sequences from across the European continent. Pollen sequences provide records that may be used to infer past vegetation and vegetation change. We present here maps based on 828 sites from the EPD giving an overview of changes in postglacial pollen assemblages in Europe over the past 15,000 years. The maps show the distribution and abundance of 54 differ…
Pollen taphonomy from hyaena scats and coprolites: Preservation and quantitative differences
Towards mapping the late Quaternary vegetation change of Europe
The number of well-dated pollen diagrams in Europe has increased considerably over the last 30 years and many of them have been submitted to the European Pollen Database (EPD). This allows for the construction of increasingly precise maps of Holocene vegetation change across the continent. Chronological information in the EPD has been expressed in uncalibrated radiocarbon years, and most chronologies to date are based on this time scale. Here we …
Holocene fire activity and vegetation response in South-Eastern Iberia
Long-term resilience, bush encroachment patterns and local knowledge in a Northeast African savanna
Pioneer use of European fossil middens as a tool for long-term environmental analyses in a natural park: The case of Guara (pre-Pyrenees range, Spain)
Circum-Mediterranean fire activity and climate changes during the mid-Holocene environmental transition (8500-2500 cal. BP)
A mid- to late-Holocene synthesis of fire activity from the Mediterranean basin explores the linkages among fire, climate variability and seasonality through several climatic and ecological transitions. Regional fire histories were created from 36 radiocarbon-dated sedimentary charcoal records, available from the Global Charcoal Database. During the mid-Holocene ‘Thermal Maximum’ around 7500—4500 cal. BP, charcoal records from the northern Medite…
Landscape change in the lower Omo valley, southwestern Ethiopia: Burning Patterns and Woody Encroachment in the Savanna
In this article we examine bush encroachment in a savanna ecosystem of the lower Omo Valley occupied by Mursi agro-pastoralists. Focusing on the role of fire and grazing, the main anthropogenic disturbance factors in the savanna, we compare the results of our ecological surveys with Mursi perceptions and understandings of environmental change. The main change described by Mursi is the loss of grassland over the last 30 to 40 years. Their explanat…
Expected trends and surprises in the Lateglacial and Holocene vegetation history of the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands
Long-term resilience, bush encroachment patterns and local knowledge in a Northeast African savanna
Quaternary pollen analysis in the Iberian Peninsula: The value of negative results
Most unsuccessful palynological work is never published. As a consequence, pollen analysts waste time re-processing sterile sediments, and the available literature exhibits a uniformly positive record of success in pollen extraction. Here we report failures with Quaternary pollen analyses in the Iberian Peninsula; that is, case studies where it was not possible to extract palynomorphs for pollen counting. Both totally sterile and partially steril…
The European Pollen Database: Past efforts and current activities
Pollen stratigraphies are the most spatially extensive data available for the reconstruction of past land-cover change. Detailed knowledge of past land-cover is becoming increasingly important to evaluate the present trends in, and drivers of, vegetation composition. The European Pollen Database (EPD) was established in the late 1980s and developed in the early 1990s to provide a structure for archiving, exchanging, and analysing Quaternary polle…
Holocene Vegetation Dynamics in Mediterranean Iberia: Historical Contingency and Climate-Human Interactions
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 effec…
A coastal reservoir of biodiversity for Upper Pleistocene human populations: Palaeoecological investigations in Gorham's Cave (Gibraltar) in the context of the Iberian Peninsula
The late Holocene palaeoecological sequence of Serranía de las Villuercas (southern Meseta, western Spain)
Middle-to late-Holocene moisture changes in the desert of northwest Namibia derived from fossil hyrax dung pollen
New pollen results and radiocarbon dating from fossil hyrax middens derived from the edge of the northern Namib Desert address the shortage of continental palaeobotanical evidence in arid Namibia by providing evidence for the environmental conditions during the mid to late Holocene in the region. The results obtained reflect long-term stability in the area throughout most of the sequence. Higher than modern moisture availability is suggested betw…
Towards mapping the late Quaternary vegetation change of Europe
The number of well-dated pollen diagrams in Europe has increased considerably over the last 30 years and many of them have been submitted to the European Pollen Database (EPD). This allows for the construction of increasingly precise maps of Holocene vegetation change across the continent. Chronological information in the EPD has been expressed in uncalibrated radiocarbon years, and most chronologies to date are based on this time scale. Here we …
Circum-Mediterranean fire activity and climate changes during the mid-Holocene environmental transition (8500-2500 cal. BP)
A mid- to late-Holocene synthesis of fire activity from the Mediterranean basin explores the linkages among fire, climate variability and seasonality through several climatic and ecological transitions. Regional fire histories were created from 36 radiocarbon-dated sedimentary charcoal records, available from the Global Charcoal Database. During the mid-Holocene ‘Thermal Maximum’ around 7500—4500 cal. BP, charcoal records from the northern Medite…
The European Pollen Database: Past efforts and current activities
Pollen stratigraphies are the most spatially extensive data available for the reconstruction of past land-cover change. Detailed knowledge of past land-cover is becoming increasingly important to evaluate the present trends in, and drivers of, vegetation composition. The European Pollen Database (EPD) was established in the late 1980s and developed in the early 1990s to provide a structure for archiving, exchanging, and analysing Quaternary polle…
Pollen taphonomy from hyaena scats and coprolites: Preservation and quantitative differences
Landscape change in the lower Omo valley, southwestern Ethiopia: Burning Patterns and Woody Encroachment in the Savanna
In this article we examine bush encroachment in a savanna ecosystem of the lower Omo Valley occupied by Mursi agro-pastoralists. Focusing on the role of fire and grazing, the main anthropogenic disturbance factors in the savanna, we compare the results of our ecological surveys with Mursi perceptions and understandings of environmental change. The main change described by Mursi is the loss of grassland over the last 30 to 40 years. Their explanat…
Humans take control of fire-driven diversity changes in Mediterranean Iberia’s vegetation during the mid–late Holocene
Fire regime changes are considered a major threat to future biodiversity in the Mediterranean Basin. Such predictions remain uncertain, given that fire regime changes and their ecological impacts occur over timescales that are too long for direct observation. Here we analyse centennial- and millennial-scale shifts in fire regimes and compositional turnover to track the consequences of fire regime shifts on Mediterranean vegetation diversity. We e…
Long-term resilience, bush encroachment patterns and local knowledge in a Northeast African savanna
Quaternary pollen analysis in the Iberian Peninsula: The value of negative results
Most unsuccessful palynological work is never published. As a consequence, pollen analysts waste time re-processing sterile sediments, and the available literature exhibits a uniformly positive record of success in pollen extraction. Here we report failures with Quaternary pollen analyses in the Iberian Peninsula; that is, case studies where it was not possible to extract palynomorphs for pollen counting. Both totally sterile and partially steril…
A multi-model approach to the spatial and temporal characterization of the African Humid Period
Data availability] Original datasets are avaliable via the Neotoma Palaeoecological Database (www.neotoma.org). Code used in the analyses presented here are avaliable via: https://github.com/Squirrelmonkey93/Bachelor_project_M.Holewijn.git, and http://www.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.29608400
Middle-to late-Holocene moisture changes in the desert of northwest Namibia derived from fossil hyrax dung pollen
New pollen results and radiocarbon dating from fossil hyrax middens derived from the edge of the northern Namib Desert address the shortage of continental palaeobotanical evidence in arid Namibia by providing evidence for the environmental conditions during the mid to late Holocene in the region. The results obtained reflect long-term stability in the area throughout most of the sequence. Higher than modern moisture availability is suggested betw…
Middle-to late-Holocene moisture changes in the desert of northwest Namibia derived from fossil hyrax dung pollen
New pollen results and radiocarbon dating from fossil hyrax middens derived from the edge of the northern Namib Desert address the shortage of continental palaeobotanical evidence in arid Namibia by providing evidence for the environmental conditions during the mid to late Holocene in the region. The results obtained reflect long-term stability in the area throughout most of the sequence. Higher than modern moisture availability is suggested betw…
A coastal reservoir of biodiversity for Upper Pleistocene human populations: Palaeoecological investigations in Gorham's Cave (Gibraltar) in the context of the Iberian Peninsula
The late Holocene palaeoecological sequence of Serranía de las Villuercas (southern Meseta, western Spain)
Quaternary pollen analysis in the Iberian Peninsula: The value of negative results
Most unsuccessful palynological work is never published. As a consequence, pollen analysts waste time re-processing sterile sediments, and the available literature exhibits a uniformly positive record of success in pollen extraction. Here we report failures with Quaternary pollen analyses in the Iberian Peninsula; that is, case studies where it was not possible to extract palynomorphs for pollen counting. Both totally sterile and partially steril…
The European Pollen Database: Past efforts and current activities
Pollen stratigraphies are the most spatially extensive data available for the reconstruction of past land-cover change. Detailed knowledge of past land-cover is becoming increasingly important to evaluate the present trends in, and drivers of, vegetation composition. The European Pollen Database (EPD) was established in the late 1980s and developed in the early 1990s to provide a structure for archiving, exchanging, and analysing Quaternary polle…
Holocene Vegetation Dynamics in Mediterranean Iberia: Historical Contingency and Climate-Human Interactions
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 effec…
Expected trends and surprises in the Lateglacial and Holocene vegetation history of the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands
Long-term resilience, bush encroachment patterns and local knowledge in a Northeast African savanna
Circum-Mediterranean fire activity and climate changes during the mid-Holocene environmental transition (8500-2500 cal. BP)
A mid- to late-Holocene synthesis of fire activity from the Mediterranean basin explores the linkages among fire, climate variability and seasonality through several climatic and ecological transitions. Regional fire histories were created from 36 radiocarbon-dated sedimentary charcoal records, available from the Global Charcoal Database. During the mid-Holocene ‘Thermal Maximum’ around 7500—4500 cal. BP, charcoal records from the northern Medite…
Landscape change in the lower Omo valley, southwestern Ethiopia: Burning Patterns and Woody Encroachment in the Savanna
In this article we examine bush encroachment in a savanna ecosystem of the lower Omo Valley occupied by Mursi agro-pastoralists. Focusing on the role of fire and grazing, the main anthropogenic disturbance factors in the savanna, we compare the results of our ecological surveys with Mursi perceptions and understandings of environmental change. The main change described by Mursi is the loss of grassland over the last 30 to 40 years. Their explanat…
Holocene fire activity and vegetation response in South-Eastern Iberia
Long-term resilience, bush encroachment patterns and local knowledge in a Northeast African savanna
Pioneer use of European fossil middens as a tool for long-term environmental analyses in a natural park: The case of Guara (pre-Pyrenees range, Spain)
Towards mapping the late Quaternary vegetation change of Europe
The number of well-dated pollen diagrams in Europe has increased considerably over the last 30 years and many of them have been submitted to the European Pollen Database (EPD). This allows for the construction of increasingly precise maps of Holocene vegetation change across the continent. Chronological information in the EPD has been expressed in uncalibrated radiocarbon years, and most chronologies to date are based on this time scale. Here we …
Pollen taphonomy from hyaena scats and coprolites: Preservation and quantitative differences
Late-glacial and Holocene European pollen data
The European Pollen Database (EPD) is a community effort to archive and make available pollen sequences from across the European continent. Pollen sequences provide records that may be used to infer past vegetation and vegetation change. We present here maps based on 828 sites from the EPD giving an overview of changes in postglacial pollen assemblages in Europe over the past 15,000 years. The maps show the distribution and abundance of 54 differ…
Humans take control of fire-driven diversity changes in Mediterranean Iberia’s vegetation during the mid–late Holocene
Fire regime changes are considered a major threat to future biodiversity in the Mediterranean Basin. Such predictions remain uncertain, given that fire regime changes and their ecological impacts occur over timescales that are too long for direct observation. Here we analyse centennial- and millennial-scale shifts in fire regimes and compositional turnover to track the consequences of fire regime shifts on Mediterranean vegetation diversity. We e…
Seasonal temperature and moisture changes in interior semi‐arid Spain from the last interglacial to the Late Holocene
The El Cañizar de Villarquemado pollen record covers the last part of MIS 6 to the Late Holocene. We use Tolerance-Weighted Averaging Partial Least Squares (TWA-PLS) to reconstruct mean temperature of the coldest month (MTCO) and growing degree days above 0°C (GDD 0 ) and the ratio of annual precipitation to annual potential evapotranspiration (MI), accounting for the ecophysiological effect of changing CO 2 on water-use efficiency. Rapid summer …
The new Garba Guracha palynological sequence: Revision and data expansion
In the context of the DFG-funded project ‘Mountain Exile Hypothesis’ (FOR2358) we retrieved a 15.5 m long sediment core from Garba Guracha (GG) (Bale Mountains National Park, Ethiopia – BMNP) during February 2017. A 16,000 year record of 62 pollen samples has been previously produced from GG by Umer et al. (2007). In this data paper, we present a new palynological and macrocharcoal record, with 259 pollen and 1301 charcoal samples covering the la…
Time to better integrate paleoecological research infrastructures with neoecology to improve understanding of biodiversity long-term dynamics and to inform future conservation
Anthropogenic pressures are causing a global decline in biodiversity. Successful attempts at biodiversity conservation requires an understanding of biodiversity patterns as well as the drivers and processes that determine those patterns. To deepen this knowledge, neoecologists have focused on studying present-day or recent historical data, while paleoecologists usually study long-term data through the composition of various biological proxies and…
The Holocene lake-evaporation history of the afro-alpine Lake Garba Guracha in the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia, based on δ 18 O records of sugar biomarker and diatoms
In eastern Africa, there are few long, high-quality records of environmental change at high altitudes, inhibiting a broader understanding of regional climate change. We investigated a Holocene lacustrine sediment archive from Lake Garba Guracha, Bale Mountains, Ethiopia, (3,950 m asl), and reconstructed high-altitude lake evaporation history using δ 18 O records derived from the analysis of compound-specific sugar biomarkers and diatoms. The δ 18…
Past fire dynamics in sub-Saharan Africa during the last 25,000 years: Climate change and increasing human impacts
Modern pollen–vegetation relationships and human indicator taxa at high elevation human-impacted areas of the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia
Understanding the relationships between modern pollen assemblages and vegetation patterns is fundamental for reconstructing past landscapes and assessing anthropogenic impacts in ecologically sensitive high-altitude ecosystems. While previous studies in Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains explored paleo-reconstruction, quantitative approaches remain limited. This study quantifies pollen–vegetation relationships using transfer factors (TF), evaluates ecolog…
A multi-model approach to the spatial and temporal characterization of the African Humid Period
Data availability] Original datasets are avaliable via the Neotoma Palaeoecological Database (www.neotoma.org). Code used in the analyses presented here are avaliable via: https://github.com/Squirrelmonkey93/Bachelor_project_M.Holewijn.git, and http://www.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.29608400
Geography (21 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (21 works) · Ecology (15 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (14 works) · Geology (13 works) · Physical geography (13 works) · Holocene (12 works) · Biology (11 works) · Archaeology (10 works) · Climate change (9 works)