Andean Forests Over Time

摘要

Despite much recent progress in understanding the climatic and vegetation history of the tropics, records from some of the key regions and geological periods are still patchy. Cardenas et al. (p. 1055) describe the composition of vegetation of a biodiversity hotspot during previous glacial and interglacial climates. The Erazo study site, located on the eastern flank of the Ecuadorian Andes at an altitude of 1900 meters, has been dated to the Middle Pleistocene period approximately 324,000 to 193,000 years ago. The fossil pollen deposits reveal that forest persisted under both glacial and interglacial climates, but that the dominant plant community changed radically as the climate fluctuated.