See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: What Good Are (Fossil) Plants Anyway? New Methods for Investigating Old Problems
Abstract:
Approaching the ecophysiological diversity of plant clades above the rank of species as a probability distribution rather than minimum and maximum thresholds provides greater resolution in the identification of small fluctuations in climate. Using multiple lacustrine pollen records from lowland Bolivia, I demonstrate how a likelihood analysis of family-level fossil pollen counts can be used to reconstruct Neotropical paleoclimate and provide information on historic patterns of climatic change.
Family-based climatological proxies have several advantages over biome-based reconstructions. Climatic estimates can be derived even when novel combinations of taxa are observed in the fossil record, extending the utility of the model to deep-time data. The model is also dynamic. Plant communities do not need to be in equilibrium and individualistic dynamics can be incorporated into estimates.
This regional analysis suggests that northeastern Bolivia experienced cooling (13 °C) and drying (400 mm/yr), relative to present, during the late Pleistocene (50,00012,000 cal yr B.P.). Immediately prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (~21,000 cal yr B.P.), there is a distinct transition from cooler temperatures and variable precipitation to a period of warmer temperatures and relative dryness that extends to the mid-Holocene (50003000 cal yr B.P.). This prolonged reduction in precipitation occurs against the backdrop of increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations, indicating that the presence of mixed savanna and dry forest communities in northeastern Bolivia was not solely the result of low CO2 levels.
See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: What Good Are (Fossil) Plants Anyway? New Methods for Investigating Old Problems