6 research outputs found
Paleoclimate of the subtropical Andes during the latest Miocene, Lauca T Basin, Chile
Uplift of the Andean Cordillera during the Miocene and Pliocene produced large-scale changes in regional atmospheric circulation that impacted local ecosystems. The Lauca Basin (northern Chilean Altiplano) contains variably fluvial and lacustrine sedimentary sequences spanning the interval from 8.7 to 2.3 Ma. Field samples were collected from paleo-lacustrine sediments in the basin. Sediments were dated using detrital zircon geochronology on volcanic tuffs, yielding an age range between ~5.57 and 5.44 Ma. These new age constraints provided an opportunity to evaluate changes in the Lauca Basin ecosystem across this dynamic Miocene-Pliocene transition. We employed multiple proxies (lithofacies analysis, diatoms, pollen, and oxygen stable isotopes of authigenic carbonates) to interpret ancient lacustrine and terrestrial paleoenvironments. Alternations among mudstone, carbonate, and evaporitic facies indicate lake-level variability through time. The diatom assemblage is characterized by meso- to hypersaline and alkaline-tolerant taxa typical of shallow lakes. The δ18O values ranged from −8.96 to −2.22‰ indicating fluctuations in water balance. Pollen taxa in the outcrop are typical of a transitional stage between seasonal cloud forest and open grassland. Together, these proxies indicate that the Lauca paleolake sediments were deposited under a wetter-than-modern climate with high temporal variability. Our results refine previous studies in the Lauca Basin and are consistent with other regional studies suggesting that the South American summer monsoon at the Miocene-Pliocene transition was more intense than it is at present
Paleoclimate of the subtropical Andes during the latest Miocene, Lauca T Basin, Chile
Uplift of the Andean Cordillera during the Miocene and Pliocene produced large-scale changes in regional atmospheric circulation that impacted local ecosystems. The Lauca Basin (northern Chilean Altiplano) contains variably fluvial and lacustrine sedimentary sequences spanning the interval from 8.7 to 2.3 Ma. Field samples were collected from paleo-lacustrine sediments in the basin. Sediments were dated using detrital zircon geochronology on volcanic tuffs, yielding an age range between ~5.57 and 5.44 Ma. These new age constraints provided an opportunity to evaluate changes in the Lauca Basin ecosystem across this dynamic Miocene-Pliocene transition. We employed multiple proxies (lithofacies analysis, diatoms, pollen, and oxygen stable isotopes of authigenic carbonates) to interpret ancient lacustrine and terrestrial paleoenvironments. Alternations among mudstone, carbonate, and evaporitic facies indicate lake-level variability through time. The diatom assemblage is characterized by meso- to hypersaline and alkaline-tolerant taxa typical of shallow lakes. The δ18O values ranged from −8.96 to −2.22‰ indicating fluctuations in water balance. Pollen taxa in the outcrop are typical of a transitional stage between seasonal cloud forest and open grassland. Together, these proxies indicate that the Lauca paleolake sediments were deposited under a wetter-than-modern climate with high temporal variability. Our results refine previous studies in the Lauca Basin and are consistent with other regional studies suggesting that the South American summer monsoon at the Miocene-Pliocene transition was more intense than it is at present
Identifying temporal and spatial patterns of diatom community change in the tropical Andes over the last c. 150 years
Aim: Lakes in the Ecuadorean Andes span different altitudinal and climatic regions,
from inter Andean plateau to the high-elevation
páramo, which differ in their historical
evolution in the several centuries since the pioneering Humboldt expeditions.
Here, we evaluate temporal and spatial patterns of change in diatom assemblages
between historical (palaeolimnological) and modern times.
Location: Ecuadorean Andes
Methods: We compared historical (pre-1850)
and modern (2017) diatom assemblages
from 21 lakes and determined the relative role of environmental (water chemistry
and climate) and spatial factors (distance-based
Moran's eigenvectors maps) on both
assemblages using non-metric
multidimensional scaling (NMDS) with environmental
fitting. In addition, we used redundancy analysis (RDA) with variance partitioning to
estimate the historical (measured using downcore assemblage composition) effects
on modern diatom assemblages and identified diatom species that contributed most
to dissimilarity between the two times.
Results: Diatom changes between the two time points were limited across the group
of lakes, as indicated by the NMDS ordination. Variance partitioning indicated that
modern diatom assemblages were affected by environmental and spatial effects, but
with non-significant
effects of past diatom species composition. Ordination results
showed that variables related to elevation and water chemistry affected both modern
and historical diatom assemblages. Diatom species with the best fit on NMDS
axes (i.e. >70%) were influenced by elevation and climatic variables. The most distinctive
change between the two time periods was the higher relative abundance of
planktic diatom species in top-core
assemblages of some lakes, but in a highly variable
fashion across gradients of increased elevation and water depth.
Main conclusions: Landscape palaeolimnological analyses of varied Ecuadorean
Andean lakes demonstrate both environmental and spatial controls on diatom metacommunities.
The multi-faceted
ecological control of the altitudinal gradient on both
historic and contemporary diatom assemblages suggests species sorting and dispersal
constraints operating at centennial time-scale.
Although a few individual lakes
show substantive change between the 1850s and today, the majority of lakes do not,
and the analysis suggests the resilience of lakes at a regional scale. We emphasize the
potential of diatom palaeolimnological approaches in biogeography to test ecologically relevant hypotheses of the mechanisms driving recent limnological
change in high-elevation
tropical lakes.Aim: Lakes in the Ecuadorean Andes span different altitudinal and climatic regions,
from inter Andean plateau to the high-elevation
páramo, which differ in their historical
evolution in the several centuries since the pioneering Humboldt expeditions.
Here, we evaluate temporal and spatial patterns of change in diatom assemblages
between historical (palaeolimnological) and modern times.
Location: Ecuadorean Andes
Methods: We compared historical (pre-1850)
and modern (2017) diatom assemblages
from 21 lakes and determined the relative role of environmental (water chemistry
and climate) and spatial factors (distance-based
Moran's eigenvectors maps) on both
assemblages using non-metric
multidimensional scaling (NMDS) with environmental
fitting. In addition, we used redundancy analysis (RDA) with variance partitioning to
estimate the historical (measured using downcore assemblage composition) effects
on modern diatom assemblages and identified diatom species that contributed most
to dissimilarity between the two times.
Results: Diatom changes between the two time points were limited across the group
of lakes, as indicated by the NMDS ordination. Variance partitioning indicated that
modern diatom assemblages were affected by environmental and spatial effects, but
with non-significant
effects of past diatom species composition. Ordination results
showed that variables related to elevation and water chemistry affected both modern
and historical diatom assemblages. Diatom species with the best fit on NMDS
axes (i.e. >70%) were influenced by elevation and climatic variables. The most distinctive
change between the two time periods was the higher relative abundance of
planktic diatom species in top-core
assemblages of some lakes, but in a highly variable
fashion across gradients of increased elevation and water depth.
Main conclusions: Landscape palaeolimnological analyses of varied Ecuadorean
Andean lakes demonstrate both environmental and spatial controls on diatom metacommunities.
The multi-faceted
ecological control of the altitudinal gradient on both
historic and contemporary diatom assemblages suggests species sorting and dispersal
constraints operating at centennial time-scale.
Although a few individual lakes
show substantive change between the 1850s and today, the majority of lakes do not,
and the analysis suggests the resilience of lakes at a regional scale. We emphasize the
potential of diatom palaeolimnological approaches in biogeography to test ecologically relevant hypotheses of the mechanisms driving recent limnological
change in high-elevation
tropical lakes
Tropical South America Diatom Database: a tool for studying the macroecology of microorganisms
Determining the mechanisms of community assembly forms the foundation of biogeography and community ecology. Studies of the biodiversity and distribution of Neotropical macro-organisms have revealed the roles of environmental, spatial, and historical factors in structuring communities at different spatial and temporal scales. The role of these factors for species and communities of microorganisms are still poorly understood. Diatoms are a very species-rich group of algae, widely distributed, and sensitive to environmental variation because of their position at the base of aquatic food webs. Here, we present the Tropical South American Diatom Database (TSADB), which contains geographical and ecological information on diatom species across lentic and lotic environments, including predictors that describe local (limnological) and regional (geo-climatic) factors. The open access database can be used to ask fundamental questions in macroecology, including testing foundational theories of metacommunity ecology and biogeography, and evaluating the sensitivity of species and communities to the rapid environmental changes characteristic of tropical regions. The TSADB includes diatom taxa from 437 samples from 326 sites distributed across 26 regions (0–5,070 m a.s.l, and between 8°N–35°S; 58–90°W). In addition, long-term, diatom-based paleolimnological records are presented as a complementary tool for identifying geographically well-covered regions with modern and palaeo-datasets. We describe the TSADB structure and functionality, together with the R codes for data manipulation and visualization. Each of the 26 study regions is represented by three data matrices: sampling site information, environmental variables (limnology, climate, and landscape), and diatom community data (relative abundance or presence/absence). Access to data and future additions is through publicly available repositories and a guide to contributors, respectively. Thus, it offers ample opportunities to complement existing databases on diatoms, allowing optimal usage of TSADB by scientists including diatomists, limnologists, and aquatic ecologists.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio