LATE-GLACIAL OF SOUTHERN SOUTH-AMERICA

Overall trends in late-glacial paleoenvironments of southern South America are interpretable from the pollen stratigraphy of radiocarbon dated sections of mires in Tierra del Fuego (55-degrees-S), the Chilotan archipelago (42-43-degrees-S), and the Chilean Lake District (39-41-degrees-S). In Tierra del Fuego, southern beech (Nothofagus) and shrub and herb taxa (Gramineae, Empetrum, Acaena, Gunnera, Compositae and Cyperaceae) serve as indicators of the changing climate; in the Chilotan archipelago and in the Chilean Lake District, southern beech and other trees (species of Myrtaceae, Podocarpus, Prumnopitys, Pseudopanax and Weinmannia) suffice as indices of climatic change. Pollen records from each of these regions, although in need of greater dating control, indicate climatic sequences that are broadly similar. The records, however, am not regionally consistent in all aspects and differ in their indicator value with the implication of fossil beetle evidence. Attempts at correlation can be unsatisfactory at times and can stem inter alia from the different ecophysiological responses of both plants and beetles to environmental pressures. These differences, which affect the timing of reproduction and migration, may result in the variable occurrence of different species in the records. The broad implication of the pollen data is that following a glacial readvance culminating at about 15,000-14,500 BP, late-glacial climate was generally warmer during intervals before 13,000 and between 12,000 and 11,000 BP, and was cooler between 13,000 and 12,000 and from 11,000 to 10,000 BP.