Historical record of Holochilus vulpinus (Rodentia, Sigmodontinae) from northern Patagonia, Argentina

Abstract Marsh rats of the species Holochilus vulpinus inhabit mesic and humid environments. For this reason, it is frequently used in paleoenviromental studies to infer past humid conditions. Holocene archeological record indicates that H. vulpinus had a wider geographical distribution than today. Its regional extinction in north Patagonia at the XIX century was attributed to the dry and cold Little Ice Age (LIA). Here we present the finding of a specimen of H. vulpinus from northeastern Patagonia (Valcheta stream, Río Negro province, Argentina), just at the end of LIA. Implications of this novel historical record are discussed.

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Climatic Fluctuations in Northern Patagonia during the Last 1000 Years as Inferred from Tree-Ring Records

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1016/0033-5894(90)90046-n ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 34 (3) ◽

pp. 346-360 ◽

Cited By ~ 146

Author(s):

Ricardo Villalba

Keyword(s):

Tree Ring ◽

Little Ice Age ◽

Ice Age ◽

Dry Period ◽

Climatic Fluctuations ◽

Northern Patagonia ◽

The Andes ◽

Weather Stations ◽

Fitzroya Cupressoides

AbstractMillennium-old alerce trees (Fitzroya cupressoides (Mol.) Johnst.) have been used to develop a 1120-year reconstruction of the summer temperature departures for the Andes of northern Patagonia in Argentina. Four main climatic episodes can be distinguished in this proxy paleoclimatic record. The first, a cold and moist interval from A.D. 900 to 1070, was followed by a warm-dry period from A.D. 1080 to 1250 correlative with the Medieval warm epoch of Europe. Afterward, a long, cold-moist period followed from A.D. 1270 to 1670, peaking around A.D. 1340 and 1650. These cold maxima are contemporaneous with two principal Little Ice Age events registered in the Northern Hemisphere. Warmer conditions then resumed between A.D. 1720 and 1790. These episodes are supported by glaciological and palynological data in Patagonia. Following a cold period in the early 1800s, tree-ring indices have oscillated around the long-term mean, except for a warmer period from A.D. 1850 to 1890. Correlations between the Rio Alerce reconstruction and the regional weather stations indicate that the tree-ring variations are correlated with a homogeneous summer weather pattern covering Patagonia east of the Andes from 38° to 50°S.

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Dominant ENSO frequencies during the Little Ice Age in Northern Patagonia: The varved record of proglacial Lago Frías, Argentina

Quaternary International ◽

10.1016/j.quaint.2006.10.022 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 161 (1) ◽

pp. 46-55 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

D. Ariztegui ◽

P. Bösch ◽

E. Davaud

Keyword(s):

Little Ice Age ◽

Ice Age ◽

Northern Patagonia

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Archaeology of the Inuit of Southern Labrador and the Quebec Lower North Shore

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199766956.013.47 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

William Fitzhugh

Keyword(s):

Material Culture ◽

Little Ice Age ◽

Marine Mammals ◽

Historical Record ◽

Ice Age ◽

Archaeological Research ◽

North Shore ◽

Major Region ◽

Lower North Shore ◽

Labrador Inuit

Early European accounts document the presence of Labrador Inuit in northern Newfoundland, the Strait of Belle Isle, and the northeastern Gulf of St. Lawrence in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Controversy over the interpretation of the historical record and the extent and nature of Southern Inuit presence has been clarified by recent archaeological research on the Quebec Lower North shore, which demonstrates a series of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century winter sod-house villages in every major region from Brador to Petit Mécatina. House types are similar to those found on the Central Labrador coast, and all contain much Basque and other European material culture, indicating extensive trade contacts rather than the spoils of sporadic raids. The Hare Harbor Inuit settlement at Petit Mécatina is found at a Basque/European whaling and fishing station and appears to have been a European-Inuit enterprise facilitated by the Little Ice Age expansion of Arctic marine mammals.

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Accelerating shrinkage of Patagonian glaciers from the Little Ice Age (~AD 1870) to 2011

Journal of Glaciology ◽

10.3189/2012jog12j026 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 58 (212) ◽

pp. 1063-1084 ◽

Cited By ~ 92

Author(s):

B.J. Davies ◽

N.F. Glasser

Keyword(s):

Little Ice Age ◽

Ice Age ◽

South American ◽

Ice Caps ◽

Mountain Glaciers ◽

Northern Patagonia ◽

Area Loss ◽

Southern Patagonia

AbstractWe used Little Ice Age (LIA) trimlines and moraines to assess changes in South American glaciers over the last ~140 years. We determined the extent and length of 640 glaciers during the LIA (~AD1870) and 626 glaciers (the remainder having entirely disappeared) in 1986, 2001 and 2011. The calculated reduction in glacierized area between the LIA and 2011 is 4131 km2 (15.4%), with 660 km2 (14.2%) being lost from the Northern Patagonia Icefield (NPI), 1643km2 (11.4%) from the Southern Patagonia Icefield (SPI) and 306 km2 (14.4%) from Cordillera Darwin. Latitude, size and terminal environment (calving or land-terminating) exert the greatest control on rates of shrinkage. Small, northerly, land-terminating glaciers shrank fastest. Annual rates of area loss increased dramatically after 2001 for mountain glaciers north of 52° S and the large icefields, with the NPI and SPI now shrinking at 9.4km2a-1 (0.23% a-1) and 20.5 km2a-1 (0.15% a-1) respectively. The shrinkage of glaciers between 52° S and 54° S accelerated after 1986, and rates of shrinkage from 1986 to 2011 remained steady. Icefield outlet glaciers, isolated glaciers and ice caps south of 54° S shrank faster from 1986 to 2001 than they did from 2001 to 2011.

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Perception, history, and science: coherence or disparity in the timing of the Little Ice Age maximum in southeast Iceland?

Polar Record ◽

10.1017/s0032247405004687 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 41 (4) ◽

pp. 319-334 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Krista M. Mckinzey ◽

Rannveig Ólafsdóttir ◽

Andrew J. Dugmore

Keyword(s):

Little Ice Age ◽

Scientific Evidence ◽

Climatic Variability ◽

Historical Record ◽

Ice Age ◽

Critical Threshold ◽

Local Perceptions ◽

Effective Strategies ◽

Points Of View

In Iceland, studies that integrate local perceptions about the landscape with scientific evidence of change have been few. This article presents a case study from southeast Iceland that has two main objectives. Firstly, ethnographic data is used to explore the human dimension of the Little Ice Age through perceptions of landscape and climatic change and to describe the impacts that these changes had on life and livelihood. Secondly, the paper critically assesses the coherence of the scientific record regarding the Little Ice Age glacial maximum with evidence gained from the ethnographic survey and the local historical record. Although climatic deterioration from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries ultimately affected farming viability, it was the interplay of climate with concomitant cultural and socio-economic factors that ensured effective strategies were emplaced to preserve life and livelihood in southeast Iceland. Furthermore, despite different trajectories of perception emanating from either the scientific or the local points of view, data from all sources are strongly coherent and point to a Little Ice Age maximum during the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries. This study also illustrates that sensitive landscapes can ‘store memories’ through the cumulative accumulation of disturbances during periods of climatic variability, eventually reaching a critical threshold and inducing landscape instability, such as occurred during the nineteenth century.

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Greenhouses, hot water bottles, cycles and the future of New Zealand climate

Proceedings of the New Zealand Grassland Association ◽

10.33584/jnzg.2009.71.2772 ◽

2009 ◽

pp. 61-67

Author(s):

W.P. De Lange

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Thermal Energy ◽

Infrared Radiation ◽

Little Ice Age ◽

Hot Water ◽

Ice Age ◽

The Sun ◽

Weather Patterns ◽

Time Periods ◽

Almost All

The Greenhouse Effect acts to slow the escape of infrared radiation to space, and hence warms the atmosphere. The oceans derive almost all of their thermal energy from the sun, and none from infrared radiation in the atmosphere. The thermal energy stored by the oceans is transported globally and released after a range of different time periods. The release of thermal energy from the oceans modifies the behaviour of atmospheric circulation, and hence varies climate. Based on ocean behaviour, New Zealand can expect weather patterns similar to those from 1890-1922 and another Little Ice Age may develop this century.

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