Publication Date:
2011-02-26
Description:
A reconstruction of past environmental change from Ecuador reveals the response of lower montane forest on the Andean flank in western Amazonia to glacial-interglacial global climate change. Radiometric dating of volcanic ash indicates that deposition occurred ~324,000 to 193,000 years ago during parts of Marine Isotope Stages 9, 7, and 6. Fossil pollen and wood preserved within organic sediments suggest that the composition of the forest altered radically in response to glacial-interglacial climate change. The presence of Podocarpus macrofossils ~1000 meters below the lower limit of their modern distribution indicates a relative cooling of at least 5 degrees C during glacials and persistence of wet conditions. Interglacial deposits contain thermophilic palms suggesting warm and wet climates. Hence, global temperature change can radically alter vegetation communities and biodiversity in this region.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Cardenas, Macarena L -- Gosling, William D -- Sherlock, Sarah C -- Poole, Imogen -- Pennington, R Toby -- Mothes, Patricia -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2011 Feb 25;331(6020):1055-8. doi: 10.1126/science.1197947.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, CEPSAR, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK. m.l.cardenas@open.ac.uk〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21350174" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
*Altitude
;
*Biodiversity
;
*Climate Change
;
*Ecosystem
;
Ecuador
;
Fires
;
*Fossils
;
Geologic Sediments
;
*Plants
;
Pollen
;
*Trees
;
Volcanic Eruptions
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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