Precipitation changes during the Holocene in southwest Patagonia (Argentina) reconstructed from pollen sequences from peat-bogs

TONELLO, M. S.; MANCINI, M. V.; BAMONTE F. P.; SEPPÄ, H.

Bergen

Workshop; NEPAL workshop: Biotic responses to past climatic and environmental changes - from populations to biomes.; 2009

University's Arboretum, NEPAL Program

Precipitation changes during the Holocene are reconstructed based on a modern pollen-climate calibration set. Transfer functions (WA-PLS) were applied to two fossil pollen records from peatlands located in the Nothofagus forest-steppe ecotone. Similar trends are recognized from the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, early Holocene and late Holocene from both records. The agreement between these trends and others palaeoenvironmental interpretations based on pollen, charcoal, sedimentological and glacial records, suggests that the reconstructed features reflect large-scale climatological patterns over southern Patagonia. However some discrepancies emerge from the mid-Holocene reconstructions. Other quantitative pollen-based climate reconstructions are needed to achieve a better understanding of the regional precipitation changes that allow identify climatic events, and to contribute with new insights into the role of atmospheric circulation at these latitudes.