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Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park is a
Mediterranean wetland whose existence and natural evolution are
strongly influenced by the geological complexity of the
substratum and the catchment basin, as well as by vegetation.
All these components have been interacting with each other under
changing climates.
During the Holocene, the area evolved from a
fluvial system to a wetland. This process is attributed to the
filling of topographic depressions, the loss of slopes and
subsidence events. The wetland bottom is still subject to
subsidence processes.
In the last 3000 years, minor climate changes
(scale ranging from centuries to years) have joined to the
geological processes, conditioning the extent of the flooded
area as well as the hydrochemical and ecological conditions.
Natural dynamics in Las Tablas de Daimiel are
strongly constrained by human activities. These have become
increasingly intense over time. In particular, groundwater
pumping for irrigation nearly caused the wetland to disappear in
the 1980s.
All these interactions and changes remain
recorded in the sediments. These show the behavior of Las Tablas
de Daimiel in a long, medium and short timescales. The study of
these sediments and their genesis must be approached from
different disciplines within the Earth Sciences in order to
integrate all the available information and to find a consistent
interpretation. |
