High-altitude cushion peatlands as sentinels of Holocene environmental changes in the Central Andes (NW Argentina)

中部安第斯山脉南部位于热带和热带外降水制度之间的十字路口，是古气候研究的关键地区。我们的初步调查表明，高海拔缓冲泥炭地非常适合进行古生态多代理研究。这些地质档案的优势在于它们在气候梯度上的可比性，它们的高积累速率以及它们的泥炭沉积物的高质量，可以精确地测定14c年代。以往的湖泊沉积物档案和啮齿动物化石的古环境调查由于地点和方法的选择不均匀，缺乏连续性和可比性。基于微/宏观化石、同位素分析、地球化学分析、沉积学分析等多指标方法，对泥炭沉积物岩心进行晚更新世/全新世植被和气候重建。通过选择性取心验证的地球电阻率层析成像将提供对泥炭地构造的深入了解，迄今为止，泥炭地缺乏科学的地貌描述和特征。预期的结果不仅有助于讨论这些纬度的中全新世是干旱还是潮湿，它们还将进一步提供古气候变化，这对于与大陆或全球尺度的高分辨率古气候记录进行比较是必不可少的。

Being located at the crossroads between tropical and extra-tropical precipitation regimes, the southern Central Andes are a key area for palaeoclimatic studies. Our preliminary investigations show that highaltitude cushion peatlands are extremely well-suited for palaeoecological multi-proxy studies. The strengths of these geoarchives are their comparability over climatic gradients, their high accumulation rates and the high quality of their peat deposits to be precisely 14C-dated. Previous palaeoenvironmental investigations in the area on lake sediment archives and fossil rodent middens lack continuity or comparability due to the selection of heterogeneous locations and methods. We propose to carry out a late Pleistocene/Holocene vegetation and climate reconstruction based on a multi-proxy approach (micro-/macrofossils, isotope analysis, geochemical analysis, sedimentology) from peat sediment cores. Geoelectrical earth resistivity tomographies, verified with selective coring, will offer an insight into the structural build-up of the peatlands, which, so far, lack scientific geomorphological description and characterization. The expected results will not only contribute to the controversial discussion whether the middle Holocene in these latitudes was arid or humid, they will further offer palaeoclimatic variabilities, which are indispensable for comparison with continent- or global-scale, high-resolution palaeoclimate records.