Holocene mountain forest changes in central Mediterranean: soil charcoal data from the Sila Massif (Calabria, southern Italy)

Soil charcoal analysis was performed on soil profiles excavated in the area of Cecita Lake on the SilaMassif (Calabria, southern Italy). Charcoals identification, combined with a good number of radiocarbondating and the pedological analysis of the soils, allowed drawing a detailed history of the Holocenevegetation changes in the area. Five periods characterised by high concentration of radiocarbon dates emirroring increased fire activity e are documented at ca. 10400-9000 BP, 8200-7200 BP, 5100-3700 BP,3300-2400 BP and 600 BP to the present. Furthermore, a severe environmental change took place betweenthe Middle Bronze Age and the Final Bronze Age/Iron Age (ca. 3600 to 3000 BP), when the mixeddeciduous oak-silver fir woodland, which dominated the landscape until the Early Bronze Age, declinedand was substituted by a Calabrian pine forest or by an open landscape. Available climate, pollen andhistorical/archaeological data are taken into account to investigate the possible causes of the detectedenvironmental change and of the periods of increased fire activity. If climate seems to play a role in thefire regime during the first part of the Holocene, human action seems to be the triggering factor in theenvironmental change and the fire regime during the Late Holocene.