Vegetation and Climate of the Southern Chilean lake District During and Since the last Interglaciation

Abstract

The palynology of stratigraphic sections from road-cut and gravel-pit exposures and from a fen and sphagnum bogs in the southern part of the Chilean lake district (40° 53′ S, 72°37′ W-41°24′ S, 72°53′ W) is the basis for interpreting vegetation and climate during the last interglaciation and glaciation (named Llanquihue Glaciation) and during the post-glacial. To help interpretation, modern pollen rain was studied in relation to vegetation and altitude along a transect on the west slope of the Andes, and average January (summer) temperatures were interpreted. The upper limit of closed Andean forest, where wind is a determinant, appears to be close to the 12°C January isotherm; parkland in southern Chile does not exceed the January isotherm of 9°C.Grassland and later southern beech forest are evident during the interglaciation that is dated at more than 39,900 radiocarbon yr. Climate of the grassland was relatively dry; during the forest phase, it was wet, cool, and approximately the same as at present. During Llanquihue Glaciation, average January temperature is estimated to have been about 8°C colder than today at 19,450 BP, some 5° colder shortly before 36,300 BP, and around 4° colder at 10,000 BP. Antarctic-alpine tundra or parkland, under colder, drier climate, is mostly in evidence in the vicinity of the study sites before about 12,000 BP. During the postglacial, forest communities occupied the lake district, and temperatures there were probably 1–2°C above (by 6500 BP) and as much as 2° below (4500-0 BP) the present-day average of about 16°.This pattern of climatic changes finds accord, in general terms, in other parts of the Southern Hemisphere where palynological, chronological, and glacial geological studies are reported. Postulated as a cause of these changes are shifts in the intensity of air mass circulation in antarctic latitudes.