Caracterização paleoclimática do quaternário tardio em áreas planálticas do Estado do Paraná

Abstract

This paper presents a study on a detailed regional scale for understanding the Quaternary paleoenvironmental settings in the Paraná Highlands, Southern Brazil (Ponta Grossa, Guarapuava, and Palmas. The main object of analysis was phytolitc assemblies, combined with isotopic data of soil organic matter and carbon-14 dating, sampled from peat testimonies at altitudes that ranged from 850 to 1,280 m. For the reverse of the Escarpa Devoniana, in Ponta Grossa, the results suggest that since 34,550 yrs. cal BP up to 11,000 yrs. cal BP the region had a colder and dryer climate than the current one, dominated by grassland. In contrast, in Serra da Esperança, in Guarapuava, in the period between 13,660 yrs. cal BP up to 10,000 yrs. cal BP despite the colder climate than the current, there was enough moisture for a kind of forest predominance. For both locations, however, the interval between 10-and 56,000 yrs. 11,000 BP is marked by greater aridity, occupied by a mosaic forest/field with prevalence of grasses. From 6,000 yrs. BP, it begins a significant shift towards a warmer moister climate. Nevertheless, while in the Escarpa Devoniana vegetation takes similar configuration to the current one, favorable to a mosaic field/forest, in Serra da Esperança the vegetation tends to be much more closed, as a mosaic forest/field. The Palmas testimony only comprises the last years 4,920 yrs. cal BP and suggests the establishment of an environment of mosaic field/forest, gradually more open. From the past 1,500 yrs., changes in grassland configuration suggest a moister environment under climatic conditions closer to the present, a typical grassland landscape with forest patches. The data indicate possible variations in the intensity of climate change in the Late Pleistocene due to differences in the Highlands’ relief and its capacity of microclimatic interference.