The Holocene and Anthropocene Environmental History of Mexico: A Paleoecological Approach on Mesoamerica

289 Pages·2019·15.961 MB·English

by  Nuria Torrescano- Valle, Gerald A. Islebe, Priyadarsi D. Roy

Nuria Torrescano-Valle
Gerald A. Islebe
Priyadarsi D. Roy  Editors
The Holocene and
Anthropocene
Environmental
History of Mexico
A Paleoecological Approach
on Mesoamerica
The Holocene and Anthropocene
Environmental History of Mexico
Nuria Torrescano-Valle • Gerald A. Islebe
Priyadarsi D. Roy
Editors
The Holocene and
Anthropocene Environmental
History of Mexico
A Paleoecological Approach on Mesoamerica
Editors
Nuria Torrescano-Valle Gerald A. Islebe
Departamento Conservación Departamento Conservación de la
de la Biodiversidad Biodiversidad
El Colegio de la Frontera Sur El Colegio de la Frontera Sur Unidad
Unidad Chetumal Chetumal
Chetumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico Chetumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Priyadarsi D. Roy
Instituto de Geología
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Ciudad Universitaria
Mexico City, Mexico
ISBN 978-3-030-31718-8 ISBN 978-3-030-31719-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31719-5
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Preface
Analyzing the Holocene environmental history of Mexico and Mesoamerica is a
complex task. It has been researched and explored by numerous scientists with the
application of multidisciplinary methodologies and proxies over the last several
decades. The idea of this book was developed some years ago with the principal
objective of putting together most of the information on environmental changes
occurred over the Holocene in this important part of the world with diverse ecosys-
tems. We consider that this book with synthesis of the Holocene environmental
histories is of wide interest to scientists, students, and the general public as it cov-
ers the geographical diversity of this region and incorporates different approaches
to understand environmental and climate changes. The ample geographical and
thematic ranges made it unmanageable to cover all the aspects of environmental
and climate changes. The chapters in this book, however, provide the readers with
an overview of research realized in Mexico to foster new research collaborations
in the fields of paleoclimate and climate change in the near future.
The editors of this book thank all the authors for their cooperation and positive
spirit. To Springer, we are thankful for this opportunity and patience (thanks to
Joao Pildervasser and colleagues!). We also acknowledge the reviewers for their
valuable time, dedication, and important contributions: Dr. Hermann Behling
(University of Goettingen), Dr. Henry Hooghiemstra (University of Amsterdam),
Dr. Kees Nooren (University of Utrecht), and Dr. Josué Polanco-Martínez (Basque
Centre for Climate Change).
Chetumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico Nuria Torrescano-Valle
Chetumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico Gerald A. Islebe
Mexico City, Mexico Priyadarsi D. Roy
v
Contents
1 Introduction: The Holocene and Anthropocene
Environmental History of Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Nuria Torrescano-Valle, Gerald A. Islebe,
and Priyadarsi D. Roy
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2 Paleoclimate of the Gulf of California (Northwestern Mexico)
During the Last 2000 Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Aída Martínez-López, Olivia de Los Ángeles Flores-Castillo,
Romeo Saldívar-Lucio, Diana Cecilia Escobedo-Urías,
Gerardo Verdugo-Díaz, Ligia Pérez-Cruz, Mirtha Albañez-Lucero,
and Juan David Acevedo-Acosta
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Regional Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Processes Responsible for the Sedimentation Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Hydrological Processes Linked to Climate
and Anthropogenic Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Integrated Water–Vertical Settling Studies in the Alfonso Basin . . . . . . 18
Climate Variations: Interannual, Centennial, and Millennial Scales. . . . 19
Centennial–Scale Variability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Climate Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3 Holocene Hydroclimate of the Subtropical Mexico:
A State of the Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Priyadarsi D. Roy, Jesús David Quiroz-Jiménez,
Claudia M. Chávez-Lara, and José Luis Sánchez-Zavala
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Modern Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
vii
viii Contents
Register and Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Vegetation Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Hydrological Variation and Climate Forcing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4 The Environment of Ancient Cloud Forests
in the Mexican Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Blanca L. Figueroa-Rangel, Miguel Olvera-Vargas,
and Ana P. Del Castillo-Batista
The Mexican Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
The Past Environments in the Mexican Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
The Present Cloud Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
The Ancient Cloud Forests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5 Sea Level Change and Its Influence on the Coastal Landscape
in the Gulf of Mexico During the Holocene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Gabriela Domínguez-Vázquez and Dulce M. Bocanegra-Ramírez
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Vegetation Types in the Gulf of Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Vegetation Response to Sea Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Human Impact on Coastal Vegetation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
6 Insights into the Holocene Environmental History
of the Highlands of Central Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Socorro Lozano-García, Margarita Caballero,
Beatriz Ortega- Guerrero, and Susana Sosa-Nájera
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Central Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Holocene Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
7 Integration of Landscape Approaches for the Spatial
Reconstruction of Vegetation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Valerio Castro-López, Alejandro Velázquez,
and Gabriela Domínguez-Vázquez
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Contents ix
Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
8 Volcanic Activity in Mexico During the Holocene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
José L. Macías and José L. Arce
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Distribution of Volcanoes in Mexico. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Holocene Eruptions from Volcanoes in Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Active Stratovolcanoes and Calderas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Monogenetic Volcanic Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Outlook of Holocene Volcanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
9 Human Influence Versus Natural Climate Variability . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Nuria Torrescano-Valle, Pablo J. Ramírez-Barajas,
Gerald A. Islebe, Alejandro A. Vela-Pelaez,
and William J. Folan
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Discussion and Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
10 Holocene Paleoecology and Paleoclimatology of South
and Southeastern Mexico: A Palynological
and Geospatial Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Gerald A. Islebe, Alicia Carrillo-Bastos,
Alejandro A. Aragón-Moreno, Mirna Valdez-Hernández,
Nuria Torrescano-Valle, and Nancy Cabanillas-Terán
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Present Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Holocene Paleoecology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
A Geospatial Approach to Understand Late Holocene
Vegetation Change of the Yucatán Peninsula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
11 From Calakmul to the Sea: The Historical Ecology
of a Classic Maya City That Controlled
the Candelaria/Champoton Watersheds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Joel D. Gunn, William J. Folan, Nuria Torrescano-Valle,
Betty B. Faust, Helga Z. Geovannini-Acuña, and Alfred H. Siemens
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
x Contents
12 Lidar at El Pilar: Understanding Vegetation
Above and Discovering the Ground Features Below
in the Maya Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Anabel Ford and Sherman W. Horn III
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Contributors
Juan  David  Acevedo-Acosta Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro
Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas (CICIMAR), La Paz, Mexico
Mirtha Albañez-Lucero Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro Interdisciplinario
de Ciencias Marinas (CICIMAR), La Paz, Mexico
Alejandro A. Aragón-Moreno Departamento Conservación de la Biodiversidad,
El Colegio de la Frontera Sur Unidad Chetumal, Chetumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico
José  L.  Arce Instituto de Geología, Departamento de Procesos Litosféricos,
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Coyoacán, Mexico, Mexico
Dulce M. Bocanegra-Ramírez Faculty of Biology, Universidad Michoacana de
San Nicolás de Hidalgo., Edificio R. Gral. Francisco J. Múgica. CU. Felicitas del
Río., Morelia, Mexico
Margarita Caballero Instituto de Geofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de
México, Ciudad de, Mexico, Mexico
Nancy Cabanillas-Terán Catedras Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología,
El Colegio de la Frontera Sur Unidad Chetumal, Chetumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Alicia  Carrillo-Bastos División de Estudios de Posgrado e Investigación,
Tecnológico Nacional de México/I. T. Chetumal, Chetumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Valerio  Castro-López Centro de Investigaciones en Geografía Ambiental,
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico
Claudia M. Chávez-Lara Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry,
School of Earth Sciences, Cabot Institute for the Environment, University of Bristol,
Bristol, UK
Olivia de Los Ángeles Flores-Castillo Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro
Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas (CICIMAR), La Paz, Mexico
xi