48,000 years of climate and forest change in a biodiversity hot spot.
A continuous 48,000-year-long paleoecological record from Neotropical lower montane forest reveals a consistent forest presence and an ice-age cooling of approximately 5 degrees to 9 degrees C. After 30,000 years of compositional stability, a steady turnover of species marks the 8000-year-long transition from ice-age to Holocene conditions. Although the changes were directional, the rates of community change were no different during this transitional period than in the preceding 30,000-year period of community stability. The warming rate of about 1 degrees C per millennium during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition was an order of magnitude less than the projected changes for the 21st century.
Bush
Mark B
MB
Florida Institute of Technology, 150 West University Boulevard, Melbourne, FL 32901-6975, USA. mbush@fit.edu
Silman
Miles R
MR
Urrego
Dunia H
DH
D044822:Biodiversity; D002980:Climate; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D005580:Fossils; D005618:Fresh Water; D005843:Geography; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D010568:Peru; D063245:Plant Development; D011058:Pollen; D013696:Temperature; D013995:Time; D014197:Trees / Q000254:growth & development*; D014329:Tropical Climate