Late Holocene environmental change and human impact inferred from three soil monoliths and the Laguna Zurita multi-proxi record in the southeastern Ecuadorian Andes

Vegetation History and Archaeobotany - Tập 19 - Trang 1-15 - 2009
Holger Niemann1, Hermann Behling1
1Department of Palynology and Climate Dynamics, Albrecht-von-Haller-Institute for Plant Sciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

Tóm tắt

Late Holocene vegetation, climate and fire dynamics of mountain forest and paramo ecosystems, as well as human impact, are presented from the upper Rio San Francisco valley, southeastern Ecuadorian Andes. Palaeoenvironmental changes, inferred from three soil monoliths, spanning an altitudinal gradient between 1,990 and 3,200 m and the high resolution multi-proxy sediment record from Laguna Zurita (2,590 m), were investigated by pollen, spore and charcoal analyses, in combination with XRF- and magnetic susceptibility-scanning. Three of the four pollen records show a marked change in the floristic composition between ca. 900 and 350 cal b.p. (interpolated age). Past fires have strongly influenced the floristic composition of the mountain rainforest ecosystem. Frequent fires, together with the relatively high occurrence of grasses and some Zea mays plantations document past human activities in the upper Rio San Francisco valley. A large number of areas of probably ancient Z. mays cultivation in the upper Rio San Francisco valley has been identified, using GIS-based calculation. High occurrences of Cyperaceae and Isoetes indicate the development of marshy lake shores in response to a lower lake level at Laguna Zurita before ca. 700 cal b.p. The decrease of Isoetes and Cyperaceae after ca. 1200 cal b.p. reflects a lake level rise, due to increasing moisture and/or human activities.

Tài liệu tham khảo

Alchon SA (1991) Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Alvaredo PJ (2002) Historia de Loja y su Provincia. Municipio de Loja, Industria grafica Senefelder Bader MY (2007) Tropical alpine treelines; how ecological processes control vegetation patterning and dynamics. Ph.D. thesis, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands Bakker C, Moscol Olivera M, Hooghiemstra H (2008) Holocene environmental change at the upper timberline in northern Ecuador. Holocene 18:1–17 Barthlott W, Mutke J, Rafiqpoor MD, Kier G, Kreft H (2005) Global centres of vascular plant diversity. Nova Acta Leopoldina 92:61–83 Beck E, Bendix J, Kottke I, Makeschin F, Mosandl R (2008a) Gradients in a tropical mountain ecosystem of Ecuador. Ecological studies 198. Springer, Berlin Beck E, Makeschin F, Haubrich F, Richter M, Bendix J, Valerezo C (2008b) The ecosystem (Reserva Biológica San Francisco). In: Beck E, Bendix J, Kottke I, Makeschin F, Mosandl R (eds) Gradients in a tropical mountain ecosystem of Ecuador. Ecological studies 198. Springer, Berlin, pp 1–14 Behling H (1993) Untersuchungen zur spätpleistozänen und holozänen Vegetations- und Klimageschichte der tropischen Küstenwälder und der Araukarienwälder in Santa Catarina (Südbrasilien). Diss Bot 206, Cramer, Berlin Bendix J, Fabian P, Rollenbeck R (2004) Gradients of fog and rain in a tropical montane cloud forest of southern Ecuador and its chemical composition. In: Proceedings 3rd international conference on fog, fog collection and dew, 11–15 October 2004, Cape Town, South Africa Bendix J, Rollenbeck R, Richter M, Fabian P, Emck P (2008) Climate. In: Beck E, Bendix J, Kottke I, Makeschin F, Mosandl R (eds) Gradients in a tropical mountain ecosystem of Ecuador. Ecological studies 198. Springer, Berlin, pp 63–74 Berrio JC, Hooghiemstra H, Marchant R, Rangel O (2002) Late-glacial and Holocene history of the dry forest area in the south Colombian Cauca Valley. J Quatern Sci 17:667–682 Binford MW, Kolata AL, Brenner M, Janusek JW, Seddon MT, Abbott M, Curtis JH (1997) Climate variation and the rise and fall of an Andean civilization. Quatern Res 47:235–248 Bush MB, Colinvaux PA (1988) A 7000-year pollen record from the Amazon lowlands, Ecuador. Vegetatio 76:141–154 Bush MB, Hansen BCS, Rodbell DT, Seltzer GO, Young KR, Leon B, Abbott MB, Silman MR, Gosling WD (2005) A 17 000-year history of Andean climate and vegetation change from Laguna de Chochos, Peru. J Quatern Sci 20:703–714 Chepstow-Lusty A, Frogley MR, Bauer BS, Bush MB (2003) A late Holocene record of arid events from the Cuzco region, Peru. J Quatern Sci 18:491–502 Colinvaux PA (1997) Glacial and postglacial pollen records from the Ecuadorian Andes and Amazon. Quatern Res 48:69–78 Colinvaux PA, Frost M, Frost I, Liu K-B, Steinitz-Kannan M (1988a) Three pollen diagrams of forest disturbance in the western Amazon basin. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 55:73–81 Colinvaux PA, Olson K, Liu K-B (1988b) Late-glacial and Holocene pollen diagrams from two endorheic lakes of the Inter-Andean plateau of Ecuador. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 55:83–99 Emck P (2007) A climatology of south Ecuador—with special focus on the major Andean ridge as Atlantic-Pacific climate divide. Diss Univ. Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany Faegri K, Iversen J (1989) Textbook of pollen analysis. Wiley, New York Grimm EC (1987) CONISS: a Fortran 77 program for stratigraphically contrained cluster analysis by the method of the incremental sum of squares. Comp Geosci 13:13–35 Guffroy J (2004) Catamayo precolombino. Investigaciones arqueologicas en la provincia de Loja (Ecuador). IRD editions, Paris Guffroy J (2006) El Horizonte corrugado: correlations estilisticas y culturales. Bulletin de l’Institut Francais d’Etudes Andines 35:1–13 Hansen BCS, Wright HE, Bradbury JP (1984) Pollen studies in the Junin area, Central Peruvian Andes. Geol Soc Am Bull 95:1454–1465 Hansen BCS, Seltzer GO, Wright HE (1994) Late quaternary vegetation change in the central Peruvian Andes. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclim Palaeoecol 109:263–285 Homeier J, Werner FA (2005) Preliminary checklist of the spermatophytes of the Reserva San Francisco (Province Zamora-Chinchipe, Ecuador). Dept. of Plant Ecology, Albrecht-von-Haller-Institute for Plant Sciences, Univ. Göttingen, Germany Homeier J, Werner FA, Gradstein SR, Breckle S-W, Richter M (2008) Potential vegetation and floristic composition of Andean forests in south Ecuador, with a focus on the RBSF. In: Beck E, Bendix J, Kottke I, Makeschin F, Mosandl R (eds) Gradients in a tropical mountain ecosystem of Ecuador. Ecological Studies 198. Springer, Berlin, pp 87–100 Hooghiemstra H (1984) Vegetation and climatic history of the High Plain of Bogota, Colombia. Diss Bot 79, Cramer, Vaduz Kessler M (1995) Polylepis-Wälder Boliviens: Taxa, Ökologie, Verbreitung und Geschichte. Diss Bot 246, Cramer, Vaduz Lamy F, Hebbeln D, Röhl U, Wefer G (2001) Holocene rainfall variability in southern Chile: a marine record of latitudinal shifts of the Southern Westerlies. Earth Planet Sci Lett 185:369–382 Lamy F, Kaiser J, Ninnemann U, Hebbeln D, Arz HW, Stoner J (2004) Antarctic timing of surface water changes off Chile and Patagonian ice sheet response. Science 304:1959–1962 Litherland M, Aspen JA, Jemielita RA (1994) The metamorphic belts of Ecuador. Overseas Memoir of the British Geological Survey 11:1–147 Lozano P, Delgado T, Aguirre Z (2003) Estado actual de la flora endemica exclusive y su distribucion en el Occidente del Parque Nacional Podocarpus. Funbotanica y Herbario y Jardin Botanico, Loja, Ecuador Mandl N, Lehnert M, Gradstein SR, Kessler M, Abiy M, Richter M (2008) The unique Purdiaea nutans forest of southern Ecuador—abiotic characteristics and cryptogamic diversity. In: Beck E, Bendix J, Kottke I, Makeschin F, Mosandl R (eds) Gradients in a tropical mountain ecosystem of Ecuador. Ecological studies 198. Springer, Berlin, pp 275–280 Matthias I (2008) Rekonstruktion der Umwelt- und Siedlungsgeschichte von Loja durch Multiproxy-Analysen an limnischen Sedimenten der Laguna Daniel Alvarez in Südecuador. Diploma thesis, Univ. Göttingen, Germany (unpublished) McCormac FG, Hogg AG, Blackwell PG, Buck CE, Higham TFG, Reimer PJ (2004) SHCal04 southern hemisphere calibration 0–11.0 cal kyr b.p. Radiocarbon 46:1087–1092 Niemann H (2008) Late quaternary vegetation, climate and fire dynamics in the Podocarpus National Park region, southeastern Ecuadorian Andes. Diss Univ. Göttingen, Germany. http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/diss/2008/niemann/ Niemann H, Behling H (2008) Late quaternary vegetation, climate and fire dynamics inferred from the El Tiro record in the southeastern Ecuadorian Andes. J Quatern Sci 23:203–212 Niemann H, Behling H (2009a) Late Pleistocene and Holocene environmental change inferred from the Cocha Caranga sediment and soil records in the southeastern Ecuadorian Andes. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclim Palaeoecol 276:1–14 Niemann H, Behling H (2009b) Vegetation/modern pollen rain relationship on an altitudinal transect between 1800 and 3200 m in the Podocarpus National Park region, southeastern Ecuadorian Andes. Rev Palaeobot Palynol (in review) Niemann H, Haberzettl T, Behling H (2009) Holocene climate variability and vegetation dynamics inferred from the (11700 cal b.p.) Laguna Rabadilla de Vaca sediment record in the southeastern Ecuadorian Andes. Holocene 19:307–316 Pohle P (2008) The People Settled Around Podocarpus National Park. In: Beck E, Bendix J, Kottke I, Makeschin F, Mosandl R (eds) Gradients in a tropical mountain ecosystem of Ecuador. Ecological studies 198. Springer, Berlin, pp 25–36 Richter M, Moreira-Munoz A (2005) Climatic heterogeneity and plant diversity in southern Ecuador experienced by phytoindication. Rev Peruvian Biol 12:217–238 Richter T, Van der Gaast S, Koster B, Vaars A, Gieles R, De Stigter H, De Haas H, Van Weering T (2006) The Avaatech XRF core scanner: technical description and applications to NE Atlantic sediments. In: Rothwell RG (ed) New techniques in sediment core analysis. Geological Society, Special Publications 267, London, pp 39–50 Richter M, Diertl K-H, Peters T, Bussmann RW (2008) Vegetation structures and ecological features of the upper timberline ecotone. In: Beck E, Bendix J, Kottke I, Makeschin F, Mosandl R (eds) Gradients in a tropical mountain ecosystem of Ecuador. Ecological studies 198. Springer, Berlin, pp 275–280 Stuiver M, Reimer P (1993) Extended 14C database and revised CALIB radiocarbon calibration program. Radiocarbon 35:215–230 Thompson LG, Mosley-Thompson E, Arnao BM (1984) El Nino-Southern Oscillation events recorded in the stratigraphy of the tropical Quelccaya ice cap, Peru. Science 226:50–53 Thompson LG, Mosley-Thompson E, Dansgaard W, Grootes PM (1986) The Little Ice Age as recorded in the stratigraphy of the tropical Quelccaya ice cap. Science 234:361–364 Thompson LG, Mosley-Thompson E, Davis ME, Lin P-N, Henderson K, Mashiotta TA (2003) Tropical glacier and ice core evidence of climate change on annual to millennial time scales. Clim Change 59:137–155 Tjallingii R, Röhl U, Kölling M, Bickert T (2007) Influence of the water content on X-ray fluorescence core-scanning measurements in soft marine sediments. Geochem Geophys Geosys 8, Q02004. doi:02010.01029/02006GC001393 Tonneijck FH, Van der Plicht J, Jansen B, Verstraten JM, Hooghiemstra H (2006) Radiocarbon dating of soil organic matter fractions in Andesols in northern Ecuador. Radiocarbon 48:337–353 Weigend M (2002) Observations on the biogeography of the Amotape–Huancabamba zone in northern Peru. Bot Rev 68:38–54 Weng C, Bush MB, Athens JS (2002) Holocene climate change and hydrarch succession in lowland Amazonian Ecuador. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 120:73–90 Wille M, Hooghiemstra H, Hofstede R, Fehse J, Sevink J (2002) Upper forest line reconstruction in a deforested area in northern Ecuador based on pollen and vegetation analysis. J Trop Ecol 18:409–440