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Science 26 January 2001:
Vol. 291. no. 5504, pp. 640 - 643
DOI: 10.1126/science.291.5504.640
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Reports

The History of South American Tropical Precipitation for the Past 25,000 Years

Paul A. Baker,1* Geoffrey O. Seltzer,2 Sherilyn C. Fritz,3 Robert B. Dunbar,4 Matthew J. Grove,1 Pedro M. Tapia,3 Scott L. Cross,1 Harold D. Rowe,4 James P. Broda5

Long sediment cores recovered from the deep portions of Lake Titicaca are used to reconstruct the precipitation history of tropical South America for the past 25,000 years. Lake Titicaca was a deep, fresh, and continuously overflowing lake during the last glacial stage, from before 25,000 to 15,000 calibrated years before the present (cal yr B.P.), signifying that during the last glacial maximum (LGM), the Altiplano of Bolivia and Peru and much of the Amazon basin were wetter than today. The LGM in this part of the Andes is dated at 21,000 cal yr B.P., approximately coincident with the global LGM. Maximum aridity and lowest lake level occurred in the early and middle Holocene (8000 to 5500 cal yr B.P.) during a time of low summer insolation. Today, rising levels of Lake Titicaca and wet conditions in Amazonia are correlated with anomalously cold sea-surface temperatures in the northern equatorial Atlantic. Likewise, during the deglacial and Holocene periods, there were several millennial-scale wet phases on the Altiplano and in Amazonia that coincided with anomalously cold periods in the equatorial and high-latitude North Atlantic, such as the Younger Dryas.

1 Duke University, Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
2 Syracuse University, Department of Earth Sciences, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.
3 University of Nebraska, Department of Geosciences, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA.
4 Stanford University, Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Palo Alto, CA 94305, USA.
5 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: pbaker{at}geo.duke.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Holocene multidecadal- to millennial-scale hydrologic variability on the South American Altiplano.
E. J. Ekdahl, S. C. Fritz, P. A. Baker, C. A. Rigsby, and K. Coley (2008)
The Holocene 18, 867-876
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Palaeodrainage on Marajo Island, northern Brazil, in relation to Holocene relative sea-level dynamics.
D. F. Rossetti, M. M. Valeriano, A. M. Goes, and M. Thales (2008)
The Holocene 18, 923-934
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Quantitative estimates of glacial and Holocene temperature and precipitation change in lowland Amazonian Bolivia.
S. W. Punyasena, F. E. Mayle, and J. C. McElwain (2008)
Geology 36, 667-670
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From the Cover: Four-thousand-year-old gold artifacts from the Lake Titicaca basin, southern Peru.
M. Aldenderfer, N. M. Craig, R. J. Speakman, and R. Popelka-Filcoff (2008)
PNAS 105, 5002-5005
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Geochronology and stratigraphy of late Pleistocene lake cycles on the southern Bolivian Altiplano: Implications for causes of tropical climate change.
C. Placzek, J. Quade, and P. J. Patchett (2006)
GSA Bulletin 118, 515-532
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Holocene climatic and environmental changes in the arid and semi-arid areas of China: a review.
Z. D. Feng, Z.-D. Feng, C. B. An, and H. B. Wang (2006)
The Holocene 16, 119-130
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Holocene palaeoenvironmental reconstruction in norteastern Brazi inferred from polen,, charcoal and carboon isotope records.
L. C.R. Pessenda, M. P. Ledru, S. E.MN. Gouveia,, R. Aravena, A. S. Ribeiro, J. A. Bendashsollil, and R. Boulet (2005)
The Holocene 15, 812-820
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Early Local Last Glacial Maximum in the Tropical Andes.
J. A. Smith, G. O. Seltzer, D. L. Farber, D. T. Rodbell, and R. C. Finkel (2005)
Science 308, 678-681
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Climatic Influence on Sedimentology and Geomorphology of the Rio Ramis Valley, Peru.
R. L. Farabaugh and C. A. Rigsby (2005)
Journal of Sedimentary Research 75, 12-28
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Theoretical head decay in closed basin aquifers: an insight into fossil groundwater and recharge events in the Andes of northern Chile.
J. Houston and D. Hart (2004)
Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology 37, 131-139
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48,000 Years of Climate and Forest Change in a Biodiversity Hot Spot.
M. B. Bush, M. R. Silman, and D. H. Urrego (2004)
Science 303, 827-829
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Synchroneity of Tropical and High-Latitude Atlantic Temperatures over the Last Glacial Termination.
D. W. Lea, D. K. Pak, L. C. Peterson, and K. A. Hughen (2003)
Science 301, 1361-1364
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Last Glacial Maximum in an Andean cloud forest environment (Eastern Cordillera, Bolivia): Comment and Reply.
P. A. Baker, M. Bush, S. Fritz, C. A. Rigsby, G. Seltzer, and M. Silman (2003)
Geology 31, e26-e27
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REPLY.
P. Mourguiart and M.-P. Ledru (2003)
Geology 31, e27
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A synthesis of abrupt changes in the Asian summer monsoon since the last deglaciation.
C. Morrill, C. Morrill, J. T. Overpeck, and J. E. Cole (2003)
The Holocene 13, 465-476
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Constancy in the vegetation of the Amazon Basin during the late Pleistocene: Evidence from the organic matter composition of Amazon deep sea fan sediments.
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Geology 31, 291-294
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G. H. Haug, D. Gunther, L. C. Peterson, D. M. Sigman, K. A. Hughen, and B. Aeschlimann (2003)
Science 299, 1731-1735
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Last Glacial Maximum in an Andean cloud forest environment (Eastern Cordillera, Bolivia).
(2003)
Geology 31, 195-198
Persistent millennial-scale shifts in moisture regimes in western Canada during the past six millennia.
B. F. Cumming, K. R. Laird, J. R. Bennett, J. P. Smol, and A. K. Salomon (2002)
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Human Occupations and Climate Change in the Puna de Atacama, Chile.
L. Nunez, M. Grosjean, and I. Cartajena (2002)
Science 298, 821-824
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Early Deglaciation in the Tropical Andes.
P. U. Clark, G. O. Seltzer, D. T. Rodbell, P. A. Baker, S. C. Fritz, P. M. Tapia, H. D. Rowe, and R. B. Dunbar (2002)
Science 298, 7a-7
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Response of tropical vegetation to Paleogene warming.
(2002)
Paleobiology 28, 222-243
Early Warming of Tropical South America at the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition.
G. O. Seltzer, D. T. Rodbell, P. A. Baker, S. C. Fritz, P. M. Tapia, H. D. Rowe, and R. B. Dunbar (2002)
Science 296, 1685-1686
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J. A. Rech, J. Quade, and J. L. Betancourt (2002)
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Vegetation invasions into absolute desert: A 45;th000 yr rodent midden record from the Calama-Salar de Atacama basins, northern Chile (lat 22{degrees}-24{degrees}S).
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