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An 8000-year record of vegetation, climate, and human disturbance from the Sierra de Apaneca, El Salvador

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Robert A. Dull
Robert A. Dull*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Texas A&M University, 810 Eller O&M Building, College Station, TX 77843-3147, USA
*
*Fax: (979) 862-4487.E-mail address:robdull@geog.tamu.edu.
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Abstract

An ∼8000-cal-yr stratigraphic record of vegetation change from the Sierra de Apaneca, El Salvador, documents a mid-Holocene warm phase, followed by late Holocene cooling. Pollen evidence reveals that during the mid-Holocene (∼8000–5500 cal yr B.P.) lowland tropical plant taxa were growing at elevations ∼200–250 m higher than at present, suggesting conditions about 1.0°C warmer than those prevailing today. Cloud forest genera (Liquidambar, Juglans, Alnus, Ulmus) were also more abundant in the mid-Holocene, indicating greater cloud cover during the dry season. A gradual cooling and drying trend began by ∼5500 cal yr B.P. culminating in the modern forest composition by ∼3500 cal yr B.P. A rise in pollen from weedy plant taxa associated with agriculture occurred ∼5000 cal yr B.P. and pollen from Zea first appeared in the record at ∼4440 cal yr B.P. Human impacts on local vegetation remained high throughout the late Holocene, but decreased abruptly following the Tierra Blanca Joven (TBJ) eruption of Volcán Ilopango at ∼1520 cal yr B.P. The past 1500 years are marked by higher lake levels and periodic depositions of exogenous inorganic sediments, perhaps indicating increased climatic variability.

Keywords

Mid-HoloceneClimatic changeCloud forestZeaPollenPrehistoric agriculturePaleoecologyEl Salvador
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , March 2004 , pp. 159 - 167
Copyright
University of Washington

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