Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T18:26:19.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Paleoecological and Climatic Changes of the Upper Lerma Basin, Central Mexico during the Holocene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Beatriz Ludlow-Wiechers ,
Lucia Almeida-Leñero  and
Gerald Islebe
Beatriz Ludlow-Wiechers
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510, México, D.F. México
Lucia Almeida-Leñero
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510, México, D.F. México
Gerald Islebe
Affiliation:
El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Herbarium, A. Centenario km 5.5, Chetumal, Quintana Roo, México
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The record of Almoloya Lake in the Upper Lerma basin starts with the deposition of the late Pleistocene Upper Toluca Pumice layer. The data from this interval indicate a period of climatic instability that lasted until 8500 cal yr B.P., when temperature conditions stabilized, although moisture fluctuations continued until 8000 cal yr B.P. Between 8500 and 5000 cal yr B.P. a temperate climate is indicated by dominance of Pinus. From 5000 to 3000 cal yr B.P. Quercus forest expanded, suggesting a warm temperate climate: a first indication of drier environmental conditions is an increase in grassland between 4200 and 3500 cal yr B.P. During the Late Holocene (3300 to 500 cal yr B.P.) the increase of Pinus and grassland indicates temperate dry conditions, with a considerable increase of Pinus between 1100 and 950 cal yr B.P. At the end of this period, humidity increased. The main tendency during the Holocene was a change from humid to dry conditions. During the Early Holocene, Almoloya Lake was larger and deeper; the changing humidity regime resulted in a fragmented marshland, with the presence of aquatic and subaquatic vegetation types.

Keywords

HolocenePollenVegetationClimate changeUpper Lerma BasinCentral Mexico
Type
Special issue articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 64 , Issue 3 , November 2005 , pp. 318 - 332
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Almeida-Leñero, L., Giménez de Azcárate, J., Cleef, A.M., and González-Trapaga, A. (2004). Las comunidades vegetales del zacatonal alpino de los volcanes Popocatéptl y Nevado de Toluca, Región Central de México. Phytocoenologia 34, 1 32–91.Google Scholar
Almeida-Leñero, L., Hooghiemstra, H., Cleef, A.M., and van Geel, B. (2005). Holocene climatic and environmental change from pollen records of lakes Zempoala and Quila, central Mexican highlands. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 136, 63–92.Google Scholar
Bloomfield, K. (1974). The age and significance of the Tenango Basalt, Central Mexico. Bulletin Volcanology 37, 585–595.Google Scholar
Bloomfield, K. (1975). A late-Quaternary monogenetic volcano field in Central Mexico. Geological Rundschau 64, 476–497.Google Scholar
Bloomfield, K., and Valastro, S. (1977). Late Quaternary tephrochronology of Nevado de Toluca volcano, Central Mexico. Overseas Geology and Mineral Resources 46, 1–15.Google Scholar
Bonilla-Barbosa, J., and Novelo-Retana, A. (1995). Manual de identificación de plantas acuáticas del Parque Nacional Lagunas de Zempoala. Cuadernos del Instituto de Biología 26, (168 pp.)Google Scholar
Bradbury, J.P. (1989). Lake Quatenary lacustrine paleoenvironments in the Cuenca of Mexico. Quaternary Science Reviews 8, 75–100.Google Scholar
Bradbury, J. (2000). Limnologic history of lago de Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, Mexico for the past 48,000 years: impacts of climate and man. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 163, 69–95.Google Scholar
Caballero, M., Ortega, B., Valadez, F., Metcalfe, S., Macias, J.L., and Sugiura, Y. (2002). Sta. Cruz Atizapan: a 22-ka level record and climatic implications for the Late Holocene human occupation in the Upper Lerma Basin, Central México. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 186, 217–235.Google Scholar
CONABIO (1999). Cartas climáticas (16 hojas), cartas de temperatura media anual 16 hojas a escala 1:1,000, 000 según el Sistema de Clasificación Climática de Köppen modificado por Garcia.México D.F..Google Scholar
González-Quintero, L. (1986). Análisis polínicos de los sedimentos. Lorenzo, J.L., and Mirambell, L. Tlapacoya: 35,000 años de Historia del Lago de Chalco. Colección científica. Serie Prehistoria. INAH, México.157–166.Google Scholar
Grimm, E.C. (1987). CONISS: a Fortran 77 program for stratigraphically constrained cluster analysis by the method of incremental sum of squares. Computers and Geosciences 13, 13–35.Google Scholar
E.C., Grimm (1991–1993). )Software TILIA version 2.0b.4, TILIAGRAPH.Google Scholar
Heine, K. (1973). Variaciones más importantes del clima en los últimos 40,000 años en México. Comunicaciones 7, 551–558.Google Scholar
Heine, K. (1984). The classical Late Weichselian climatic fluctuations in Mexico. Mörrner, N.A., and Karlen, W. Climatic Changes on a yearly to millennial basis. Reidel, Dordrecht.95–115.Google Scholar
Heine, K. (1988). Late quaternary glacial chronology of the Mexican volcanoes. Die Geowissenschaften 7, 197–205.Google Scholar
Islebe, G., Hooghiemstra, H., and Van der Borg, K. (1995). A cooling event during the Younger Dryas Chron in Costa Rica. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 117, 73–80.Google Scholar
Leyden, B.W. (1995). Evidence of the younger dryas in central America. Quaternary Science Reviews 14, 833–839.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lozano-García, S., and Ortega-Guerrero, B. (1994). Palynological and magnetic susceptibility records at Lake Chalco, Central Mexico. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeocology 109, 177–191.Google Scholar
Lozano-García, S., and Ortega-Guerrero, B. (1998). Late environmental changes of the central part of the Basin of Mexico, correlation between Texcoco and Chalco basins. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 99, 77–93.Google Scholar
Lozano-García, S., Ortega, B., Caballero, M., and Urrutia, J. (1993). Late Pleistocene and Holocene paleoenvironments of Chalco Lake, Central Mexico. Quaternary Research 40, 332–342.Google Scholar
Ludlow-Wiechers, B., Almeida-Leñero, L., and Sugiura, Y. (2003). Palinomorfos del Holoceno en la cuenca alta del río Lerma, estado de México, México. Boletín de la Sociedad Botánica de México 72, 59–105.Google Scholar
Luna-Vega, I., Almeida-Leñero, L., and Llorente-Bousquets, J. (1989). Florística y aspectos fitogeográficos del bosque mesófilo de montaña de las cañadas de Ocuilán, estados de Morelos y México. Anales Instituto de Biología. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Serie Botánica 59, 63–97.Google Scholar
Metcalfe, S., Street-Perrott, F.A., Perrott, R.A., and Harkness, D.D. (1991). Palaeolimnology of the Upper Lerma Basin, Central Mexico: a record of climatic change and anthropogenic disturbance since 11,600 yr. B.P.. Journal of Palaeolimnology 5, 197–218.Google Scholar
Metcalfe, S.E., O'Hara, S.L., Caballero, M.M., and Davies, S.J. (2000). Records of late Pleistocene- Holocene climatic change in Mexico–a review. Quaternary Science Review 19, 699–721.Google Scholar
Newton, A., and Metcalfe, S. (1999). Tephrochronology of the Toluca Basin, central Mexico. Quaternary Science Reviews 18, 1039–1059.Google Scholar
Ohngemach, D., and Straka, H. (1983). Contribuciones para la historia de la vegetación y del clima en la región de Puebla-Tlaxcala. Frans Steeiner Verlag, Wiesbaden, Alemania.Google Scholar
M.L., Osorio (1984). Flora y vegetación de la parte superior de la sierra de Monte Alto en el Valle de México.Unpublished. thesis Faculty of Science.UNAM, .México, D.F. 109 pp.Google Scholar
Palacios-Chávez, R. (1977). Lluvia de polen moderno en diferentes habitats del Valle de México. Boletín de la Sociedad Botánica de México 36, 45–69.Google Scholar
L.J., Ramos-Ventura (2000). Estudio de la flora y la vegetación acuáticas vasculares de la Cuenca Alta del Río Lerma, en el estado de México.M.Sc. thesis, Faculty of Science. UNAM, Mexico, D.F.. 151 pp.Google Scholar
Ruter, A., Arzt, J., Vavrus, S., Bryson, R.A., and Kutzbach, J.E. (2004). Climate and environment of the subtropical and tropical Americas (NH) in the mid-Holocene: comparison of observations with climate model simulations. Quaternary Science Review 23, 663–679.Google Scholar
Rzedowski, J. (1978). Vegetación de México. Limusa, México.432 pp.Google Scholar
Sears, P.B., and Clisby, C. (1955). Palynology in southern North America. IV: Pleistocene climate in Mexico. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 66, 521–530.Google Scholar
E,, Solleiro-Rebolledo, Sedov, S., J., Gama-Castro, D., Flores Román, and G., Escamilla-Sarabia (2003). Paleosol–sedimentary sequences of the Glacis de Buenavista, Central Mexico: interaction of Late Quaternary pedogenesis and volcanic sedimentation.Quaternary International 106–107, 185–203.Google Scholar
Straka, H., and Ohngemach, O. (1989). Late Quaternary vegetation history of the Mexican highland. Plant Systematics and Evolution 162, 115–132.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., and Reimer, P.J. (1993). Extended 14C database and revised CALIB radiocarbon calibration program. Radiocarbon 35, 215–230.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Beck, J.W., Burr, G.S., Hughen, K.A., Kromer, B., McComarc, F.G., Van der Plicht, J., and Spurk, M. (1998). INTCAL98'14C Radiocarbon age calibration 24,000-0 BP. Radiocarbon 40, 1041–1083.Google Scholar
C., Tovar-González (1987). Lluvia de polen en el volcán Popocatépetl: un estudio a lo largo de un gradiente altitudinal.Tesis Licenciatura,UNAM, México.,68 pp.Google Scholar
Vela, L., Boyás, J., Hernández, A., Mancera, A., and Rodríguez, A. (1976). El Nevado de Toluca. Ciencia Forestal 1, 4 53–61.Google Scholar
Watts, W.A., and Bradbury, J.P. (1982). Paleoecological studies at lake Pátzcuaro on the West Central Mexican plateau and at Chalco in the basin of Mexico. Quaternary Research 17, 56–70.Google Scholar
Xelhuantzi-López, S. (1994). Determinación palinológica del paleoambiente Holocénico en la parte norte del Estado de Michoacán. Boletín de la Sociedad Botánica de México 54, 251–265.Google Scholar