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Calibrating the pollen signal in modern rodent middens from northern Chile to improve the interpretation of the late Quaternary midden record

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

María Eugenia de Porras ,
Antonio Maldonado ,
Andrés Zamora-Allendes  and
Claudio Latorre
María Eugenia de Porras*
Affiliation:
Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas (CEAZA), Raúl Bitrán 1305, Colina del Pino, La Serena, Chile
Antonio Maldonado
Affiliation:
Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas (CEAZA), Raúl Bitrán 1305, Colina del Pino, La Serena, Chile Departamento de Biología Marina, Universidad Católica del Norte, Larrondo 1281, Coquimbo, Chile Universidad de La Serena, La Serena, Chile
Andrés Zamora-Allendes
Affiliation:
Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas (CEAZA), Raúl Bitrán 1305, Colina del Pino, La Serena, Chile Universidad de La Serena, La Serena, Chile Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB), Santiago, Chile
Claudio Latorre
Affiliation:
Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB), Santiago, Chile Departamento de Ecología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Alameda 340, Santiago, Chile
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

The use of rodent middens from northern Chile as paleoecological archives has at times been questioned due to concerns about their biogenic origin and the degree to which their record represents vegetation composition rather than rodent habits. To address such concerns, we carried out a modern calibration study to assess the representation of vegetation by pollen records from rodent middens. We compared vegetation censuses with soil-surface and midden (matrix and feces) pollen samples from sites between 21° and 28°S. The results show that (1) the pollen signal from the midden matrix provides a more realistic reflection of local vegetation than soil-surface samples due to the pollen-deposition processes that occur in middens; and (2) in contrast to feces pollen assemblages, which feature some biases, rodent dietary habits do not seem to influence midden matrix pollen assemblages, probably because midden agents are dietary generalists. Our finding that modern pollen data from rodent middens reflect vegetation patterns confirms the reliability of midden pollen records as paleoecological archives in northern Chile.

Keywords

Rodent middensVegetation–pollen calibrationNorthern Chile
Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 84 , Issue 3 , November 2015 , pp. 301 - 311
Copyright
University of Washington

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