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Late Holocene Vegetation Change in the Sierra Madre Oriental of Central Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Maria Elena Conserva  and
Roger Byrne
Maria Elena Conserva*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720-4740
Roger Byrne
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720-4740
*
1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Fax: (510) 642-3370. E-mail: marlen@socrates.berkeley.edu.
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Abstract

Past vegetation and climate changes reconstructed from a sediment core from Laguna Atezca, Molango, Mexico, provide new insights into the environmental and cultural histories of the Sierra Madre Oriental during the last 1700 yr. Pollen, microscopic charcoal, sediment chemistry, loss on ignition, and magnetic susceptibility indicate that three phases of human occupation, deforestation, and erosion (ca. A.D. 280–890, ca. A.D. 1030–1420, and ca. A.D. 1680–present) alternate with two phases of abandonment (ca. A.D. 890–1030 and ca. A.D. 1420–1680). Forest composition of the two abandonment phases differed, with cloud forest taxa (Liquidambar, Ostrya/Carpinus, Ulmus, etc.) dominating the pollen record during the first phase, and Quercus and Pinus pollen characterizing phase two. These differences may reflect a climate change in which the second phase was drier than the first; Alternatively, the increase in Pinus and Quercus may have been caused by a human-induced decline in soil fertility. The Laguna Atezca record also differs from several other Mesoamerican paleoenvironmental records in that it shows no evidence of drought at the end of the Classic Period, ca. A.D. 900.

Keywords

MesoamericaHidalgopaleoecologypollen analysislate Holocene
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , September 2002 , pp. 122 - 129
Copyright
University of Washington

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