Collaborative Research: Vegetation and Paleoecology of an Amazon-Andean Elevational Transect

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The eastern flank of the Andes supports the richest flora and fauna in the world. Climate change and forest destruction threaten these habitats. Research will be undertaken to provide the first detailed information on the composition of modern forest communities on the Andean flank of southern Peru, and how those communities change along an elevational gradient (600 m to 3000 m elevation). Simultaneously, an investigation will be made at eight sites on that gradient to determine the changes of local forest communities since the peak of the last ice age. Fossil pollen and diatoms recovered from ancient lake sediment will provide a detailed record of how lake systems and local forests responded to past sudden climatic change, such as rapid cooling events within the last ice age, and the rapid warming associated with the start of the present interglacial. Information will be provided on how forest community diversity has changed through time, and whether changes in communities were restricted to just the rare species or affected all species equally. These data will help biologists understand how high diversity floras and faunas, with a high proportion of endemic species, can survive climate change, and what will be required to conserve them.