Vegetation and plant resource exploitation during the 8.2 ka event: The mesolithic shell-midden of El Mazo (Asturias, northern Iberia)

El Mazo rock shelter (Asturias, northern Iberia) contains a Mesolithic shell-midden with a high chronological resolution, which offers great possibilities as an empirical scenario to develop palaeoenvironmental research. This study aims to approach vegetation dynamics and the exploitation of plant resources during the Early Holocene in the Cantabrian region and to assess the regional effects of the 8.2 ka cal BP abrupt climate change event. The results presented here are the outcome of archaeobotanical interdisciplinary studies where micro-remains (pollen and spores) and macro-remains (woody and non-woody charred plant remains) analyses have been combined with archaeological information. The main results show the predominance of deciduous forests at the beginning of the Holocene, with oak, birch and hazel as the main species. The units dated around the 8.2 ka cal BP show how vegetation was affected by an arid and cold abrupt climate change, showing a clear decline in arboreal pollen, and an increase of herbs and other elements that indicate degradation processes in oak forests. Regarding forest resources, there was not significant changes, as oak wood was still the most used. However, hazel increased its presence in this period. After the 8.2 ka cal BP event, most of the mesophilous forest taxa and their characteristic floristic courtship recovered to their initial values. Once the period of destabilization caused by the aforementioned abrupt climate change passed, the forest recovered its initial state of equilibrium, showing remarkable resilience in the face of climate disruption.