LATE GLACIAL AND HOLOCENE ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY REVEALED FROM CARBON, NITROGEN AND GRAIN SIZE MEASUREMENTS OF A HIGH-RESOLUTION BOG CORE FROM THE PáRAMO DE FRONTINO, COLOMBIA

The objective of this research is to investigate late Glacial and Holocene South American summer monsoon (SASM) variability in the Northern Hemisphere tropical Andes. To accomplish this, we are developing a decadally resolved multi-proxy record from a 14 m-long peat core from the Páramo de Frontino (3460m asl) in the western cordillera of Colombia that spans the last ~17ka. Despite its vital importance as a primary freshwater source to millions people and sensitive ecosystems, the long-term history of SASM variability is poorly understood in the Northern Hemisphere. As part of an ongoing initiative to develop new high-resolution paleoclimate records from the Colombian Andes this research will help to fill a gap in knowledge that is the result of there being no published decadally resolved paleoclimate records from this region. Here, we present the initial results of carbon and nitrogen elemental abundances and isotropic variations as well as grain size measurements from the Páramo de Frontino bog core. These data complement recent work on the Páramo de Frontino core that utilized pollen and geochemical analyses (XRF) to investigate late Glacial and Holocene vegetation and climate changes at the site (Velasquez, 2005; Munoz, 2013). With these new carbon, nitrogen and grain size data, we investigate biological, geochemical and physical changes in the depositional environment at the Páramo de Frontino bog site and its watershed, which are linked to SASM variability. In addition, we explore the relationship between Northern and Southern Hemisphere SASM variability on millennial timescales.