Human impact on Mediterranean wetland Coleoptera: an historical perspective at Tourves (Var, France)

Very little is known about the Neolithic human impact on the coleopteran fauna in the Mediterranean region. The site of Tourves provides an exceptional opportunity to document this major event in Provence because it offers a continuous upper Holocene sedimentary record, showing unambiguous pollen signals for anthropic activities during the Atlantic and Subboreal periods. The level dated 4310 BP is marked by a drastic change in the coleopteran assemblages: a rich marshy fauna is suddenly replaced by an impoverished fauna in which running-water elements suggest a change in the hydrological regime, probably induced by drainage of the site which may be attributed to human activities. Some wetland species such as Odacantha melanura and Cerapheles lateplagiatus, present below the level dated 4310 years BP, are now extinct in the area.