Abstract
Glaciological data derived from moraines, and multiproxy data from lake sediment cores (e.g. fossil pollen, diatoms, and isotope data) indicate cooling in the Central American tropics during the last ice age. Contrary to prior inferences, however, new lake core data from Lake Petén Itzá, lowland Guatemala, indicate that climate was not particularly dry on the Yucatan Peninsula during the last glacial maximum (LGM) chronozone, around 23,000–19,000 cal. yr BP. We present pollen and lithologic data from Lake Petén Itzá and an improved chronology for climate changes in lowland Central America over the last 25,000 years. The driest period of the last glaciation was not the LGM, but rather the deglacial period (∼18,000–11,000 cal. yr BP). Causes of climate shifts during the last glaciation are ascribed to precessional changes in insolation, the position of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone, and southward penetration of polar air masses.
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Acknowledgments
We thank all individuals who participated in the fieldwork of the Lake Petén Itzá Scientific Drilling Project. We thank the LacCore (National Lacustrine Core Repository), Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, for their expertise and help in sampling the Petén Itzá core. This project was funded by grants from the US National Science Foundation (ATM-0502030), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the Swiss National Science Foundation, and the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program. We are grateful to William Gosling and Sarah Metcalfe for constructive reviews.
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Bush, M.B. et al. (2009). Re-evaluation of Climate Change in Lowland Central America During the Last Glacial Maximum Using New Sediment Cores from Lake Petén Itzá, Guatemala. In: Vimeux, F., Sylvestre, F., Khodri, M. (eds) Past Climate Variability in South America and Surrounding Regions. Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research, vol 14. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2672-9_5
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