Luis Gómez-Orellana

Some considerations about the postglacial history and recent distribution ofFagus sylvatica in the NW Iberian Peninsula

This paper presents a re-assessment of the evidence of beech (Fagus sylvatica) presence on the NW Iberian Peninsula in the different stages of the Late Quaternary. For this purpose, numerous pollen diagrams were re-examined and the present-day distribution of the species was documented.Beech pollen has been recorded in different periods, before the Würm Pleni-Glacial, during the Late Glacial and the Holocene, leading to the hypothesis that there existed local refugia forFagus sylvatica in the NW Iberian Peninsula, comparable to those in more eastern areas of southern Europe, the existence of which has been recognized.This hypothesis explainsFagus’ present biogeographical range without recourse to the theory of migration from the Pyrenees through the Cantabrian region.However, there is no evidence that this species experienced a period of expansion or dominance in the vegetation in the northwestern Iberian Peninsula, unlike in the other parts of the Peninsula such as the western Pyrenees and the eastern Cordillera Cantabrica.