Physical and Biotic Evidence of Glacial Ice and Climate in the Cordillera Central, Dominican Republic

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The study examines the paleoecology, paleoclimate, and geomorphology of the highlands in the Dominican Republic, and it responds to suggestions that this area was once glaciated. Resolution of the controversy surrounding this assertion will provide insight into paleoclimatic circulation in the tropical Atlantic region as well as empirical evidence for calibration of global change scenarios. Extensive field and laboratory techniques will lead to the testing of several hypotheses about the Pleistocene glaciation in the tropical eastern Caribbean. A range of techniques will be employed including coring, trenching, sampling of diamicton lobes, pollen analysis, and quantitative analysis of quartz grain microtextures and diamicton micromorphology. The researchers have conducted pilot studies in the region previously and the proposed work is a logical and necessary continuation of that earlier research. The investigators hope to find evidence of late-glacial paleoecology and climate and to compare island chronology with the neotropical mainland. The results will be important to paleoecology (vegetation dynamics in particular) and to paleoclimate dynamics.