Holocene vegetation history from fossil rodent middens near Arequipa, Peru

Camille A. Holmgren, Julio L. Betancourt, Kate Aasen Rylander, Jose Roque, Oscar Tovar, Horacio Zeballos, Eliana Linares, Jay Quade

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

55 Scopus citations

Abstract

Rodent (Abrocoma, Lagidium, Phyllotis) middens collected from 2350 to 2750 m elevation near Arequipa, Peru (16°S), provide an ∼9600-yr vegetation history of the northern Atacama Desert, based on identification of > 50 species of plant macrofossils. These midden floras show considerable stability throughout the Holocene, with slightly more mesophytic plant assemblages in the middle Holocene. Unlike the southwestern United States, rodent middens of mid-Holocene age are common. In the Arequipa area, the midden record does not reflect any effects of a mid-Holocene mega drought proposed from the extreme lowstand (100 m below modern levels, >6000 to 3500 yr B.P.) of Lake Titicaca, only 200 km east of Arequipa. This is perhaps not surprising, given other evidence for wetter summers on the Pacific slope of the Andes during the middle Holocene as well as the poor correlation of summer rainfall among modern weather stations in the central Andes-Atacama Desert. The apparent difference in paleoclimatic reconstructions suggests that it is premature to relate changes observed during the Holocene to changes in El Niño Southern Oscillation modes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)242-251
Number of pages10
JournalQuaternary Research
Volume56
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2001

Keywords

  • Atacama Desert
  • Holocene
  • Paleovegetation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Earth-Surface Processes
  • General Earth and Planetary Sciences

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Holocene vegetation history from fossil rodent middens near Arequipa, Peru'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this