Climate fluctuations derived from tree-rings and other proxy-records in the Chilean Andes: state of the art and future prospects

LARA, A.; WOLODARSKY-FRANKE, A.; ARAVENA, J.C.; VILLALBA, R.; SOLARI, M.E.; PEZOA, L.; RIVERA, A.; LE QUESNE, C.

Global Changes and Mountain Regions

Springer

Lugar: New York; Año: 2005; p. 145 - 156

Treeline and high elevation sites in the central and southern Chilean Andes (32° to 55°S) have shown to be an excellent source of paleoenvironmental records because their physical and biological systems are highly sensitive to climatic and environmental variations. In addition, most of these sites have been less disturbed by logging and other human induced disturbances, which enhances the climatic signals present in the proxy records.Current studies on tree-ring, glacier and documentary records in the Chilean Andes have led to important progress in the understanding of climate fl uctuations in the last 1000 years against which current changes can be assessed. The integration of these proxies provides an opportunity to study climatic signals across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. In this contribution, we discuss the state of the art in the reconstruction of climate variability from tree-rings and other proxy records in three main regions along the Chilean Andes: the Central Andes (32°-39°S), Northern Patagonia (39°-48°S) and Southern Patagonia (48°-55°S). We also discuss future needs and challenges for global change research in the Chilean mountain ranges.