2007, Number 2
Next >>
TIP Rev Esp Cienc Quim Biol 2007; 10 (2)
Evidence of human impact and natural climatic change in ‘Los Tuxtlas’ region, a multidisciplinary approach
Lozano-García MS, Caballero M, Ortega B
Language: Spanish
References: 30
Page: 49-55
PDF size: 427.46 Kb.
ABSTRACT
Documentation of past environmental changes in centennial and millennial scales offers information regarding the factors that affects ecosystems. We present evidences of human impact and climate change using the record of several proxy data, magnetic susceptibility, total organic carbon, pollen and diatoms from a lacustrine sequence which covers the last 2000 years. The sequence was obtained from Lago Verde located in Los Tuxtlas region, on the tropical lowlands of the Gulf coasts. Based on multiproxy analyses, two phases of human impact in the basin of Lago Verde are evident. During the Classic period dry conditions are documented with important deforestation, evidence of agriculture activity, fires, high erosion rates and low lake level. Starting at 1960 a second phase of human impact occurs but under a different climatic scenario, with humid conditions and higher lake levels, but also agricultural activity and intense deforestation.
REFERENCES
Nelson, S.A. & González-Caver, E. Geology and K-Ar dating of the Tuxtla volcanic field, Veracruz, Mexico. Bull. Vulcanology 55, 85-96 (1992).
Moziño, J. La erupción del volcán de San Martín Tuxtla (Veracruz), ocurrida en el año de 1793. Bol. Soc. Geogr. Estad. Rep. México 2, 62-70 (1870).
Soto, M. & Gamma, L. en Historia Natural de Los Tuxtlas (eds. Dirzo, R., González-Soriano, E. & Vogt, R.) 7–23 (UNAM, México, D.F., 1997).
Guevara, S., Sánchez-Ríos, G., Landgrave, R. en Los Tuxtlas, El Paisaje de la Sierra (eds. Guevara, S., Laborde, J. & Sánchez-Ríos, G.) 85-110 (Instituto de Ecología, A.C. y Unión Europea, Xalapa, 2004).
González-Soriano, E., Dirzo, R. & Vogt, R. Historia Natural de Los Tuxtlas (UNAM, México, D.F., 1997).
Sousa, M. Ecología de las Leguminosas de Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz. Anales Instituto de Biología 39, Serie Botánica (1), 121-160 (1968).
Ibarra-Manríquez, G. & Sinaca-Colín, S. Lista florística de la Estación de Biología Tropical Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, México. Rev. Biol. Tropical 43, 75-115 (1995).
Ibarra-Manríquez, G., Martínez-Ramos, M., Dirzo, R. & Núñez-Farfán, J. en Historia Natural de Los Tuxtlas (eds. González-Soriano, E., Dirzo, R. & Vogt, R.) 61-85 (UNAM, México, 1997).
Andrle, R.F. A Biogeographical Investigation of the Sierra de Tuxtla in Veracruz, Mexico. Ph. D. Thesis, Department of Geography, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA (1964).
Castillo-Campos, G. & Laborde, J. en Los Tuxtlas, El Paisaje de la Sierra (eds. Guevara, S., Laborde, J. & Sánchez-Ríos, G.) 231-270 (Instituto de Ecología, A.C. y Unión Europea, Xalapa, 2004).
Álvarez del Castillo, C. Estudio ecológico y florístico del cráter del volcán San Martín Tuxtla, Veracruz. Biótica 2, 3-54 (1977).
Goman, M. & Byrne, R. A 5000-year record of agricultural and tropical forest clearance in the Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico. The Holocene 8 (1), 83-89 (1998).
Sluyter, A. Regional, Holocene records of the human dimension of global change: sea-level and land-use change in prehistoric Mexico. Global and Planetary Change 14, 127-146 (1997).
Pope, K.O., et al. Origin and Environmental Setting of Ancient Agriculture in the Lowlands of Mesoamerica. Science 292, 1370-1372 (2001).
Pool, C.A. & Ohnersorgen, M.A. in Settlement Archaeology and Political Economy at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico (ed. Pool, C.A.) 7-31 (Monographs Series V. 50 The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles, 2003).
Santley, R.R. & Arnold, P.J.III. Prehispanic settlement patterns in the Tuxtla mountains, southern Veracruz, Mexico. J. Field Arch. 23, 225-249 (1996).
Santley, R.R., Nelson, A., Reinhardt, B.K., Pool, A.C. & Arnold, P.J.III. in Environmental Disaster and the Archaeology of Human Response (eds. Bawden, G. & Reycraft, M.R.) 143-162 (Antrhopological Papers No. 7, Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 2000).
Hodell, D.A., Curtis, J.H. & Brenner, M. Possible role of climate in the collapse of Classic Maya civilization. Nature 375, 391-394 (1995).
Gill, R.B. The Great Maya Droughts Water, Life, and Death (University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 2000) 464 pp.
Haug, G.H., et al. Climate and the collapse of Maya civilization. Science 299, 1731-1735 (2003).
Byrne, R. & Horn, S. Prehistoric Agriculture and Forest Clearance in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico. Palynology 13, 181-193 (1989).
Ortega, B., Caballero, M., Lozano, S., Vilaclara, G. & Rodríguez, A. Rock Magnetic and Geochemical Proxies for Iron Mineral Diagenesis in a Tropical Lake: Lago Verde, Los Tuxtlas, East-Central Mexico. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 250, 444-458 (2006).
Lozano-García, S., Caballero, M., Ortega, B., Rodríguez, A. & Sosa, S. Tracing the effects of the Little Ice Age in the tropical lowlands of eastern Mesoamerica. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 104 (41), 16200-16203 (2007).
Caballero, M., et al. Present limnological conditions and recent (ca. 340 yr) palaeolimnology of a tropical lake in the Sierra de Los Tuxtlas, Eastern Mexico. J. Paleolim. 35, 83-97 (2006).
Vázquez, G., et al. Limnology of crater lakes in Los Tuxtlas, Mexico. Hydrobiologia 523, 59-70 (2004).
Batten, D.J. in Fossil plants and spores: modern techniques (eds. Jones, T.P. & Rowe, N.P) 15-19 (London, The Geological Society, 1999).
Whitlock, C. & Larsen, C. in Tracking environmental change using lake sediments. Vol. 3. Terrestrial, algal and siliceous indicators (eds. Smol, J.P., Birks, H.J.B. & Last, W.M.) 75-97 (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001).
Hodell, D.A., Brenner, M., Curtis, J.H. & Guilderson, T. Solar forcing of drought frequency in the Maya lowlands. Science 292, 1367-1370 (2001).
Hodell, D.A., Brenner, M. & Curtis, J.H. Terminal Classic drought in the northern Maya lowlands inferred from multiple sediment cores in Lake Chinchancanab, México. Quat. Sci. Rev. 24, 1413-1427 (2005).
Haug, G.H., Hughen, K.A., Sigman, D.M., Peterson, L.C.& Röhl, U. Southward migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone through the Holocene. Science 293, 1304-1308 (2001).