Climate change patterns in Amazonia and biodiversity

Hai Cheng (), Ashish Sinha, Francisco W. Cruz, Xianfeng Wang, R. Lawrence Edwards, Fernando M. d’Horta, Camila C. Ribas, Mathias Vuille, Lowell D. Stott and Augusto S. Auler
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Hai Cheng: Institute of Global Environmental Change, Xi’an Jiaotong University
Ashish Sinha: California State University Dominguez Hills
Francisco W. Cruz: Instituto de Geociencias, Universidade de Sao Paulo
Xianfeng Wang: University of Minnesota
R. Lawrence Edwards: University of Minnesota
Fernando M. d’Horta: Universidade de Sao Paulo
Camila C. Ribas: Coordenação de Biodiversidade, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia 69060-001 Manaus, AM, Brazil
Mathias Vuille: University at Albany
Lowell D. Stott: University of Southern California
Augusto S. Auler: Instituto do Carste, Belo Horizonte, MG–CEP 30150-170, Brazil

Nature Communications, 2013, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract Precise characterization of hydroclimate variability in Amazonia on various timescales is critical to understanding the link between climate change and biodiversity. Here we present absolute-dated speleothem oxygen isotope records that characterize hydroclimate variation in western and eastern Amazonia over the past 250 and 20 ka, respectively. Although our records demonstrate the coherent millennial-scale precipitation variability across tropical–subtropical South America, the orbital-scale precipitation variability between western and eastern Amazonia exhibits a quasi-dipole pattern. During the last glacial period, our records imply a modest increase in precipitation amount in western Amazonia but a significant drying in eastern Amazonia, suggesting that higher biodiversity in western Amazonia, contrary to ‘Refugia Hypothesis’, is maintained under relatively stable climatic conditions. In contrast, the glacial–interglacial climatic perturbations might have been instances of loss rather than gain in biodiversity in eastern Amazonia, where forests may have been more susceptible to fragmentation in response to larger swings in hydroclimate.

Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2415

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