Research paper North Andean environmental and climatic change at orbital to submillennial time-scales: Vegetation, water levels and sedimentary regimes from Lake Fúquene 130–27 ka Mirella H.M. Groot a, ⁎, Henry Hooghiemstra a, ⁎, Juan Carlos Berrio a,b , Catalina Giraldo c a Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands b Department of Geography, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK c Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia abstract article info Article history: Received 17 September 2012 Received in revised form 15 March 2013 Accepted 24 April 2013 Available online 20 June 2013 Keywords: rapid climate change Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles grain size distributions lake level change montane forest dynamics páramo We present a record of environmental and climatic change in the northern Andes during the last interglacial– glacial cycle based on integrated information from pollen and grain size distributions (GSD). The record re- flects the 26.21–1.64 m interval of a new sediment core from Lake Fúquene (2540 m elevation; 5°N) in the Colombian Andes. The age model was developed by Groot et al. (2011) and shows this core interval reflects the period from 130 to 27 ka and the 1-cm sample increments yield an average resolution of 60 years. We analyzed in 2032 samples 66 pollen and spore taxa with optimal ecological constraints. We reconstructed upper forest line (UFL) positions between ~2200 and ~3400 m elevation. We found frequent temperature changes up to 2–3 °C/100 yr. Regional vegetation change is mainly driven by obliquity (41 kyr), and eccen- tricity (100 kyr). Important short-lived upslope excursions of the UFL reflect millennial-scale climate vari- ability superimposed on orbital-scale variability. These cycles reflect Dansgaard–Oeschger (DO) climate cycles in time and signature. DO cycles 8, 12, 14, 19, 20, 26, 27 and 28 are most prominently documented. Cycles vary from ~1.5 to 3 kyr with an average of 2.7 kyr. Changes in species composition of montane forest are evident and trees with mostly pioneer qualities (Alnus, Myrica, Quercus and Weinmannia) migrate in the forefront. Other trees like Podocarpus, Miconia, and Hedyosmum mostly follow later. Changes in regional vegetation distribution and forest composition, changes in local aquatic vegetation, and changes in GSD of sediments supplied to the lake allow to develop an integrated reconstruction of the biotic and abiotic environments in the drainage basin. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction One of the major achievements in the study of earth's system his- tory is the reconstruction of climate evolution over millions of years (Zachos et al., 2001; Walker and Lowe, 2007; Tripati et al., 2009). Ma- rine sedimentary archives (Johnsen et al., 1997; Peterson et al., 2000; Hughen et al., 2004), and the composite stack records that were based on these data (Imbrie et al., 1984; Lisiecki and Raymo, 2005), and further archives from high latitude ice sheets (Grootes et al., 1993; Johnsen et al., 1997; NGRIP-members, 2004; Jouzel et al., 2007; Loulergue et al., 2008) and low latitude tropical glaciers (Thompson et al., 1995, 1998, 2005) have provided with amazing detail a record of long-term Pleistocene climate variability. However, studies on the long-term evolution and millennial-scale variability of terrestrial eco- systems are rare (e.g., Wijmstra, 1969; Guiot et al., 1989; Heusser and Heusser, 1990; Reille and De Beaulieu, 1990; Tzedakis et al., 1997; Allen et al., 1999; Tzedakis et al., 2001, 2004, 2006), in particular for the tropics (e.g., Kershaw, 1986; Mayle et al., 2000; González- Carranza et al., 2012; Torres et al., 2013). One of the reasons is that terrestrial sediment archives are prone to discontinuities in sediment accumulation and erosion. Notwithstanding these caveats, a better un- derstanding of the dynamic past of terrestrial ecosystems is of high rel- evance for the people that live in these dynamic environments (Willis et al., 2007). In particular, the studies on the potential impact of anthropo- genic climate change on the environment (IPCC, 2007a; The Physical Science Basis) are in need of long-term multi-proxy records with a bet- ter than centennial resolution. It could be claimed that most under- standing of climate history finds its origin in earth systems from the uninhabited parts of the globe, while the impact of climate change on the environments of the inhabited parts of the globe is poorly under- stood (IPCC, 2007b; Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability). The study of terrestrial pollen records has proven to provide valuable understand- ing of the dynamic histories of ecosystems (e.g., Mayle et al., 2000; Figueroa-Rangel et al., 2011; Aragón-Moreno et al., 2012; González- Carranza et al., 2012). Here, we study the lacustrine sediments of Andean Lake Fúquene (Fig. 1). Previous studies of these lake sediments Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 197 (2013) 186–204 ⁎ Corresponding authors. E-mail addresses: M.H.M.Groot@uva.nl (M.H.M. Groot), H.Hooghiemstra@uva.nl (H. Hooghiemstra). 0034-6667/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2013.04.005 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/revpalbo