Depositional and geochemical dynamics of Mediterranean Watershed-Lake Systems (WLS) during the Anthropocene: disentangling human and climate forcings in the Iberian Peninsula during the last millennium

In the context of sustainable socio-economic growth, water availability, soil conservation and land degradation are key factors in the Mediterranean regions of the Iberian Peninsula. Our knowledge of Mediterranean Watershed-Lake Systems (WLS) dynamics in the context of recent Global Warming and the Great Acceleration is hindered by the absence of integrated studies that include varied geographic contexts and long term time series. In the Mediterranean regions of the Iberian Peninsula disentangling climate and anthropic factors is more complex due to the long history of human impact. The forecasted intensification of the hydrological cycle (flood intensity and frequency) associated to global warming will likely lead to higher sediment mobilization and sediment delivery to the lakes, increase in carbon fluxes and bioproductivity and also in metal and other pollutant mobilization from the watersheds The MEDLANT project applies a multidisciplinary approach to understand environmental, paleohydrological and climate dynamics in WLS during the Anthropocene based on high resolution lake records for the last millennium. We use a transect of lake paleorecords from NE Iberian Peninsula to test these hypotheses by comparing recent changes with those occurred during other warmer periods - as the end of the Little Ice Age and during the Medieval Climate Anomaly - and also during the main phases of human impact (Roman, Medieval, late 19th- Early 20th century). Available data suggest that synergetic effects between climate and humans have intensified erosion, heavy metal mobilization and C storage in Mediterranean WLS. However, increase in extreme events caused by climate change and reforestation due to rural exodus have had opposite impacts in sediment delivery in recent times. Dynamic models for Mediterranean WLS will include their response during climate and anthropogenic disturbances and the complex synergetic effects obtained from paleolimnological records.Peer Reviewe