Younger Dryas in southern South America

Two high resolution pollen records, Caunahue from mid-latitudes and Harberton from high latitudes, illustrate the issues in defining the Younger Dryas episode in records from southern South America. At mid-latitudes in the Chilean lake region, previous claims for the existence of a substantially cooler and wetter episode between 11,000 and 10,000 BP can no longer be supported by new pollen records with high temporal and paleoenvironmental resolution, such as Caunahue. The transition from glacial to interglacial conditions occurred in several steps, one shortly after 13,000 BP, when open Nothofagus woodland was replaced by cool-temperate North Patagonian forest, and one at 9,500 BP, when warmtemperate Validivian forest elements replaced the North Patagonian elements. At high latitudes, on the other hand, high resolution records do show marked short-term changes during the late-glacial, inclding the 11,000 to 10,000 BP Interval. However, neither the exact timing nor the duration of these changes is synchronous for specific taxa, neither within one record nor between different records. One of the two intervals of low pollen influx that has been singled out as evidence for a cooler episode is consistently dated between 11,000 and 12,000 BP, while the other interval dates between 10,800 and 9,000 BP. Based on all this information I believe that there is no evidence of Younger Dryas episode for the midlatitudes. For the high latitudes, on the other hand, the overall high paleoenvironmental variability in the records offers multiple choices for a Younger Dryas-type interval if specific taxa are selected without considering the overall context. However, the lack of synchroneity between short-term changes of specific taxa between different records suggests primarily a response to local disturbances, rather than a response to a global forcing.

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