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Mediterranean mosaic landscape

research in the Balearics as cultural

and climate laboratories. An EU-

funded H2020-MSCA individual
fellowship project in Unimore

umanity is currently expe- late human colonisation (about 4,500 years ago)
riencing the consequences compared to other Mediterranean islands such as
of rapid and deep social Sardinia or Corsica.
and climate changes. The EU-funded OLEA project aims to focus
HScientific research is cru- on the drivers and timing of the spread of wild
cial to understand the magnitude, genesis, and olive macchia and the onset of olive groves
evolution of such changes to offer mitigation and cultivation as a central feature of the current
adaptation tools. In this sense, the study of past Balearic landscape. This Marie Skłodowska-Curie
climates and cultural changes through palaeoen- Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF) is carried out by

vironmental and archaeological techniques allow Dr Gabriel Servera-Vives (Mallorca, 1983), hosted
us to gather key lesson from the past to apply in at the UNIMORE’s Department of Life Sciences -
present and future societal challenges facing glo- Laboratory of Palynology and Palaeobotany (LPP)
bal climate change. - supervised by Prof Anna Maria Mercuri and

Mediterranean agro-sylvo-pastoral landsca- co-coordinated by Dr Assunta Florenzano from
pes are at the focus of crucial environmental and the Unimore. As an islander, Dr Servera-Vives is
social issues linked to mosaic landscape develop- highly motivated to disentangle how past societies
ment. Islands throw light on long-term dynamics modified and adapted to their environment. Inde-
by amplifying geographical and cultural elements. ed, islands are worldwide considered as prone
The Balearic Islands are crucial for the study of laboratories for the understanding of social and
these interactions during the Holocene due to their environmental changes.

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