Lake sediment response to land-use and climate change during the last 1000 years in the oligotrophic Lake Sanabria (northwest of Iberian Peninsula)

High-resolution sequential analysis of the upper 380 mm of a sediment core from Lake Sanabria, an oligotrophic freshwater lake in the granitic zone of the NW Iberian Peninsula, shows four lacustrine sedimentary episodes, some of which have been interpreted as the Little Ice Age (LIA). Radiometric dating of the core (C-14 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS)) gives an age of 875 AD for the oldest sedimentary episode. Subsequent variations are attributed to human influence on the catchment of Lake Sanabria: agricultural activity of the San Martin de Castafieda monastery during the Middle Ages, the breached Vega de Tera dam in January 1959, or the designation of Lake Sanabria as a natural park in 1978. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V All rights reserved.