Aparición de la agricultura en las montañas orientales gallegas versus declive del área cubierta por bosques de frondosas caducifolias autóctonas

Abstract

The current landscape is the result of human intervention and vegetation dynamics during the last glacial/interglacial cycle of the Pleistocene. Its evolution has been determined by multidisciplinary studies (palynological analysis, sedimentological indicators ...).In the peninsular northwest, there is evidence of the presence of Quercus species from the Cretaceous era and its diversification during the Tertiary. The decline of broadleaved deciduous forests began in prehistoric times and coincided with the expansion of human activity, birth of agriculture and grazing, between 4000 and 5000 B.C. Other causes were the expansion of the naval and steel industry, the extraction of wood and firewood for domestic/industrial use and, recently, the forest fires. These activities resulted in reducing the area occupied by these forests until the mid-nineteenth century, without doing any management to encourage natural regeneration; even in many of them, unsuitable forestry operations (pollarding and cutting of the best trees) were made. In the second half of the nineteenth century, there was a change in trend and, consequently, an increase in the area occupied by these species, due to the abandonment of certain activities such as the use of firewood, and farming and extensive grazing in mountain areas.Much of smallholdings has disappeared and has been replaced by fast-growing species and unproductive land. As a result, in recent decades, there has been a considerable increase in the area occupied by natural forests.