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Holocene Mangrove Formations on the Santa Elena Peninsula, Ecuador: Pluvial Indicators or Ecological Response to Physiographic Changes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Edwin N. Ferdon Jr.
Edwin N. Ferdon Jr.*
Affiliation:
Arizona State Museum, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
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Abstract

Evidence indicates that several temporally distinct periods of prehistoric occupation of the now dry Santa Elena Peninsula of Ecuador coincided with periods of mangrove formation on the Peninsula. This article challenges the premise behind the hypothesis that such hydrophytic vegetation indicates greater rainfall during these periods. An alternative hypothesis is suggested, based upon the argument that known coastal uplift and probable accompanying physiographic changes first created, and later destroyed, the edaphic requirements for such a formation. The need to invoke a hypothesis of climatic shifts is thus dispensed with.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , July 1981 , pp. 619 - 626
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1981

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References

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