Lacustrine evidence of anti-phase distribution of moisture in Southern South America during the Neoglacial period.

PIOVANO, E.; ARIZTEGUI, D.; SYLVESTRE, F.; CÓRDOBA, F.

San Francisco, California.

Congreso; 2009 AGU Fall Meeting; 2009

American Geophysical Union

An increasing number of lacustrine records is now available for southern South America east of the Andes. As a result a network of well-studied sites is emerging allowing to track hydrological changes throughout time at a regional scale. New limnogeological results spanning the Holocene across the subtropical Pampean plains of Southern South America are compared with lacustrine records covering both Andean and extra Andean sectors of eastern Patagonia. The development of contrasting hydrological patterns can be observed between the Pampas (Laguna Mar Chiquita, 30°S; Laguna Melincué, 34°S; Lagunas Encadenadas del Oeste de Buenos Aires, 37°S) and eastern Patagonia (Lago Frías, 41°S; Lago Cardiel, 49°S; and Laguna Potrok Aike, 52°S) at both sides of the South American Arid Diagonal (AD) during prevailing warm or cold climatic phases, respectively. Paleohydrological reconstructions suggest wet conditions in regions located west and south of the AD, like Patagonia or even the Central Andes, during cold climatic phases such as those occurred during neoglaciations including the Little Ice Age (LIA). These phases are characterized by a dominant Pacific source of moisture. Conversely, dry conditions can be proposed for the same climatic interval across the subtropical low-lands east of the AD. These areas are mostly under the influence of an Atlantic summer rain regime. Conversely, extensive dryness across Patagonia and wet conditions in the Pampas can be inferred during warm climatic phases such as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly or the last part of the 20th century. This new paleohydrological data from Patagonia and the Pampean plains further indicate that the development of this anti-phase hydrological pattern was active only after the middle Holocene. Thus, it appears as contemporaneous to an intensification of the Southern Westerlies in concert with a weakened Monsoonal circulation. The anti-phasing cold/wet vs. cold/dry hydrological conditions at different latitudes reveal that increased rainfall triggered by intensified Westerlies in Patagonia are synchronous with a diminished advection of humidity from the tropics to the subtropics.