Postglacial vegetation reconstruction and its relation with the relative sea-level rise in the E extreme of Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.

Abstract

The coast-line evolution and vegetation from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, ca. 25 ka cal AP) until the middle Holocene are reconstructed from a digital terrain model and a postglacial sea level curve and pollen analysis of a Donatia-Astelia cushion bog located in Punta Moat (Moat-2; 54°58’50’’S, 66°44’10’’W; 40 m s.n.m.), east Beagle Channel. The evolution of plant communities at eastern mouth of the Beagle Channel is broadly in line with the regional postglacial vegetation pattern in areas devoid of ice south of Tierra del Fuego. The regional pattern of postglacial vegetation shows steppe followed by forest-steppe and closed Nothofagus forest. Prior 17,700 cal yr BP, the onset of deglaciation in the Beagle Channel in the current study area of Punta Moat and, the removal of alpine paleoglaciers to the headwaters of the valleys and cirques of Sierra Lucio López, led the formation of an alluvial plain with streams flowing in a perpendicular direction to the current channel. During the early Holocene (11,500-8,000 cal yr BP), the vegetation was similar to that developed in the western and central sectors of the Beagle Channel. However, the influence of the relative rise of the sea-level and the marine spray-humidity favored the early development of Nothofagus forest in Punta Moat. By 9,500 cal yr BP the landscape showed the physiognomy of a closed forest. Meanwhile on the peat bog, the Sphagnum-cushion plant mixed type prevailed, including floristic elements characteristics of the Magellanic Moorland, due to mineral input from sea spray in coincidence with the opening of channels and the Picton and Nueva islands formation. Towards the ca. 7,000 cal yr BP, the Magellanic Moorland and the Subantarctic Evergreen Forest developed when the coast-line configuration was similar than today.