Major lake level fluctuations and climate changes for the past 16,000 years as reflected by diatoms and chironomids preserved in the sediment of Laguna Potrok Aike, southern Patagonia Quaternary Science Reviews

MASSAFERRO, J., RECASENS, C., LAROCQUE -TOBLER, I , MAIDANA N AND B ZOLITSCHKA

QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2013 vol. 71 p. 167 - 174

0277-3791

Laguna Potrok Aike (PTA) is a maar lake located in southernmost Argentina and is one of the few permanent lakes preserving a continuous climatic record from the semiarid Patagonian steppe. Furthermore, its location close to Antarctica makes it a unique place to conduct paleoclimatic research. A high resolution paleoenvironmental reconstruction based on the analysis of subfossil chironomids and diatoms throughout a 16-m sedimentary record retrieved from this lake is presented. Diatom and chironomid assemblages combined with a well-constrained chronology of the last ca. 16 ka BP of Laguna PTA provided detailed information about the limnology of the lake and regional climate conditions. The combination of both bioproxies showed humid conditions during the Late Glacial, followed by drier conditions during the Holocene, resulting in variations in lake level changes. This study is part of the South Argentinian Lake Sediment Archives and Modelling project (SALSA) and a contribution to the Potrok Aike Maar Lake Sediment Archive Drilling Project (PASADO).