Paleoenvironmental trends in Venezuela during the last glacial cycle

Abstract

This chapter summarizes and updates the main Quaternary paleoclimatic and sea-level trends recorded in Venezuela, and provides a paleoenvironmental framework for studies addressing biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary topics. Venezuela has a number of localities that have provided paleoenvironmental sequences in the neotropical, circum-Caribbean domain, such as the Cariaco basin, Lake Valencia, the Mérida Andes, and the Guayana region (e.g., Markgraf 2000). Venezuela encompasses a wide range of physiographic, climatic, and biogeographic conditions because of its geographic location. This spatial heterogeneity has led to complex, but interesting, paleoenvironmental reconstructions