Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-7jkgd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-20T21:36:47.496Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Late Pleistocene Temperature Depression and Vegetation Change in Ecuadorian Amazonia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Mark B. Bush ,
Paul A. Colinvaux ,
Michael C. Wiemann ,
Dolores R. Piperno  and
Kam-biu Liu
Mark B. Bush
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, The Ohio State University, 1735 Neil Ave., Columbus, Ohio, 43210 USA
Paul A. Colinvaux
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, The Ohio State University, 1735 Neil Ave., Columbus, Ohio, 43210 USA
Michael C. Wiemann
Affiliation:
Department of Botany, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803 USA
Dolores R. Piperno
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, P.O. Box 2072, Balboa, Panama
Kam-biu Liu
Affiliation:
Department of Botany, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803 USA Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803 USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Paleoecological (pollen, phytolith, and wood) analyses of sediments, radiocarbon dated 33,000 to 26,000 yr B.P., from two sites in Ecuadorian Amazonia provide data that suggest a cooling of ca. 7.5°C below present in equatorial lowlands from 33,000 to 30,000 yr B.P. A period of warning followed in which novel species assemblages, a blend of montane and lowland floral components, persisted for at least 4000 years. These data of forest community change, from sites lying within the postulated glacial rain forest Napo refugium, provide the strongest paleoecological refutation of the refugial hypothesis yet obtained. The large temperature depression at ca. 30,000 yr B.P. allows the possibility that if maximum cooling at the equator was synchronous with the last glacial maximum (LGM) of the northern hemisphere, freezing temperatures would have been experienced in parts of lowland Amazonia between 25,000 and 18,000 B.P.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , November 1990 , pp. 330 - 345
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Absy, M.L., (1979). A Palynological Study of Holocene Sediments in the Amazon Basin Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis University of Amsterdam Google Scholar
Balslev, H., (1988). Distribution patterns of Ecuadorean plant species Taxon 37 567–577 Google Scholar
Bartlett, A.S. Barghoorn, E.S., (1973). Phytogeographic history of the Isthmus of Panama during the past 12,000 years (A history of vegetation, climate and sea-level change) Graham, A. Vegetation and Vegetational History of Northern Latin America Elsevier Scientific New York 203–299 Google Scholar
Brown, K.S. Jr. Soils and Vegetation Whitmore, T.C. Prance, G.T., (1987). Biogeography and Quaternary History in Tropical America Oxford Science Oxford 19–45 Google Scholar
Bush, M.B. Colinvaux, P.A., (1990). A long record of climatic and vegetation change in lowland Panama Journal of Vegetation Science 1 105–118 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cañadas, L.C., (1983). El Mapa Biocliomático y Ecológico del Ecuador Ministerio Agricultura-Pronareg Quito, Ecuador Google Scholar
Centro Ecuatoriano de Investigación Geográfica Los Climas Del Ecuador Documentos de Investigación (1983). CEDIG Quito No. 4 Google Scholar
Clark, J.S., (1986). Dynamism in the barrier-beach vegetation of Great South Beach, New York Ecological Monographs 56 97–126 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clapperton, C.M., (1987). Glacial geomorphology, Quaternary glacial sequence and Paleoclimatic inferences in the Ecuadorian Andes Gardiner, V. International Geomorphology Wiley Chichester 843–870 part 2 Google Scholar
Clapperton, C.M., (1987). Maximal extent of the late Wisconsin glaciation in the Ecuadorian Andes Rabassa, J. Quaternary of South America and Antarctic Peninsula 5 A. A. Balkema Rotterdam, The Netherlands 165–180 Google Scholar
CLIMAP Project Members The surface of the ice-age Earth Science 191 (1976). 1131–1137 Google Scholar
CLIMAP Project Members Seasonal Reconstruction of the Earth's Surface at the Last Glacial Maximum (1981). Geological Society of America Map and Chart Series MC-36 Google Scholar
Colinvaux, P.A., (1987). Amazon diversity in the light of the paleoecological record Quaternary Science Reviews 6 93–114 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, M.B., (1986). Vegetation-climate equilibrium Vegetatio 67 2 Google Scholar
Eisner, W. Sprague, A.P., (1988). MACPOLLEN: Pollen Data Entry and Diagramming Software for the Macintosh Byrd Polar Research Center, Ohio State University Google Scholar
Faegri, K. Iversen, J., (1975). Textbook of Pollen Analysis Munksgaard Copenhagen Google Scholar
Flenley, J.R., (1979). A Geological History of Tropical Rainforest Butterworths London Google Scholar
van Geel, B. van der Hammen, T., (1973). Upper Quaternary vegetational and climatic sequence of the Fuquene area (Eastern Cordillera, Colombia) Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 14 9–92 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gentry, A.H., (1989). Speciation in tropical forests Holm-Nielsen, L.B. Nielsen, I.C. Balslev, H. Tropical Forests Academic Press London 113–134 Google Scholar
Grabandt, R.A.J., (1980). Pollen rain in relation to arboreal vegetation in the Colombian Cordillera Oriental Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 29 65–147 Google Scholar
Haffer, J., (1969). Speciation in Amazonian forest birds Science 165 131–137 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haffer, J., (1987). Quaternary history of tropical America Whitmore, T.C. Prance, G.T. Biogeography and Quaternary History in Tropical America Oxford Science Oxford 1–18 Google Scholar
Hastenrath, S. Kutzbach, J., (1985). Late Pleistocene climate and water budget of the South American Altiplano Quaternary Research 24 249–256 Google Scholar
Heusser, C.J., (1989). Polar perspective of late-Quaternary climates in the southern hemisphere Quaternary Research 32 60–71 Google Scholar
Hill, M.O., (1979). TWINSPAN—A FORTRAN program for arranging multivariate data in an ordered two-way table by classification of the individuals and attributes Ecology and Systematics Cornell University Ithaca, NY Google Scholar
Hill, M.O., (1979). DECORANA—A FORTRAN program for detrended correspondence analysis and reciprocal averaging Ecology and Systematics Cornell University Ithaca, NY Google Scholar
Hooghiemstra, H., (1984). Vegetational and Climatic History of the High Plain of Bogota, Colombia: A Continuous Record of the Last 3.5 Million Years Verlag, Vaduz Google Scholar
Huntley, B. Webb, T. III Migration: Species' response to climatic variations caused by changes in the Earth's orbit Journal of Biogeography 16 (1989). 5–20 Google Scholar
Irion, G., (1984). Sedimentation and sediments of Amazonian rivers and evolution of the Amazonian landscape since Pliocene times Sioli, H. The Amazon. Limnology and Landscape of a Mighty Tropical River and its Basin W. Junk Dordrecht, The Netherlands 537–579 Google Scholar
Kennedy, H. Andersson, L. Hagberg, M., (1988). Marantaceae Flora of Ecuador 32 13–188 Google Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E. Guetter, P.J., (1986). The influence of changing orbital parameters and surface boundary conditions on climate simulations for the past 18,000 yrs Journal of Atmospheric Sciences 43 1726–1759 2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E. Street-Perrott, F.A., (1985). Milankovitch forcing of fluctuations in the level of tropical lakes from 18 to 0 kyr B.P. Nature (London) 317 130–134 Google Scholar
Liu, K.-B. Colinvaux, P.A., (1985). Forest changes in the Amazon basin during the last glacial maximum Nature 138 556–557 Google Scholar
Markgraf, V., (1989). Paleoclimates in Central and South American since 18,000 B.P. based on pollen and lake-level records Quaternary Science Reviews 8 1–24 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martinson, D.G. Pisias, N.G. Hays, J.D. Imbrie, J. Moore, T.C. Shackleton, N.J., (1987). Age dating and the orbital theory of the ice Ages: Development of a high-resolution 0- to 300,000-year chronostratigraphy Quaternary Research 27 1–29 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piperno, D.R., (1988). Phytolith Analysis: An Archaeological and Geological Perspective Academic Press San Diego Google Scholar
Powell, J.M., (1970). The Impact of Man on the Vegetation of Mt. Hagen, New Guinea Unpublished Ph. D. Thesis Australian National University Canberra Google Scholar
Renner, S.S. Balslev, H. Holm-Nielsen, L., (1989). A Checklist of the Flowering Plants of the Eastern Ecuadorean Lowlands (Napo, Pastaza, and Morona-Santiago below 600 m alt.) Botanical Institute, University of Aarhus Denmark Google Scholar
Rind, D. Peteet, D., (1985). Terrestrial conditions at the last glacial maximum and CLIMAP seasurface temperature estimates: Are they consistent? Quaternary Research 24 1–22 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roubik, D., and Moreno, E. (in press). “Pollen and Spores of Barro Colorado Island, Panama”. Missouri Botanical Gardens, St. Louis, Missouri.Google Scholar
Salo, J., (1987). Pleistocene forest refuges in the Amazon: Evaluation of the biostratigraphical, lithostratigraphical and geomorphological data Annales Zoologia Fennici 24 203–221 Google Scholar
Stockmarr, J., (1971). Tablets with spores used in absolute pollen analysis Pollen et Spores 13 615–621 Google Scholar
Stone, P. Carlson, H., (1979). Atmospheric lapse rate regimens and their paramaterization Journal of Atmospheric Science 36 415–423 Google Scholar
ter Braak, C.J.F., (1988). CANOCO—A FORTRAN program for canonical community ordination by [partial] [detrended] [canonical] correspondence analysis, principal components analysis and redundancy analysis (version 2.1) Agricultural Mathematics Group Wageningen The Netherlands Google Scholar
van der Hammen, T., (1961). The Quaternary climatic changes of northern South America Annals of the N.Y. Academy of Science 95 676–683 Google Scholar
van der Hammen, T., (1974). The Pleistocene changes of vegetation and climate in tropical South America Journal of Biogeography 1 3–26 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van der Hammen, T. Barelds, J. De Jong, H. De Veer, A.A., (1981). Glacial sequence and environmental history in the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy. (Colombia) Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 32 247–340 Google Scholar
Walker, D. Flenley, J.R., (1979). Late Quaternary vegetational history of the Enga Province of upland Papua New Guinea Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B 286 265–344 Google Scholar
Webster, P. Streten, N., (1987). Late Quaternary ice-age climates of tropical Australasia, interpretation and reconstruction Quaternary Research 10 279–309 Google Scholar
Wheeler, E.A. Pearson, R.G. LaPasha, C.A. Zack, T. Hatley, W., (1986). Computer-aided wood identification Bulletin 474 North Carolina Agricultural Research Service, North Carolina State University Raleigh Google Scholar
Whitmore, T.C. Prance, G.T., (1987). Biogeography and Quaternary History in Tropical America Oxford Science Oxford Google Scholar