Late Quaternary vegetational and climatic change in the Popayán region, southern Colombian Andes

✍ Scribed by Hermann Behling; Alvaro José Negret; Henry Hooghiemstra

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 300 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0267-8179
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1417(199801/02)13:1<43::aid-jqs348>3.0.co;2-g

✦ Synopsis

Late Pleistocene and Holocene vegetational and climatic change have been studied palynologically at a site at 1750 m elevation in the subandean vegetation belt near Popaya ´n, in the southern Colombian Andes. Time control on the pollen record is based on six AMS 14 C ages, ranging from possibly Middle Pleniglacial time (around 50 000 yr BP) to 1092 Ϯ 44 yr BP. Because of the presence of two hiatuses only the Middle Pleniglacial and Late Holocene periods (the last 2300 yr BP) are represented.

Pollen data indicate the presence of closed subandean forest during glacial time. Changes in the contribution of pollen originating from the uppermost and lowermost subandean forest belts, changes in the contribution of a number of other subandean forest taxa, and changes in species composition between the three pollen zones, suggest that the climate during the Middle Pleniglacial was markedly colder, and perhaps also wetter, than during the Late Holocene. Pollen assemblages from the Late Holocene indicate that the landscape has been affected by deforestation and agriculture since at least 2300 yr BP, but that human impact decreased in the last 780 yr BP.