PERSISTENCE OF TROPICAL FOREST IN AMAZONIA AND CENTRAL AFRICA THROUGH THE PLEISTOCENE

How tropical forests might have responded to large variations in past climate and atmospheric composition is important for understanding trends in species richness and processes of endemism. Incomplete reconstruction of low latitude paleovegetation due to so few pollen records can be supplemented using the results of global vegetation modelling. Simulations of forest cover in Amazonia and central Africa at the last glacial maximum indicate a general persistence of tropical forest through colder and more arid periods of the Pleistocene. Sensitivity modelling experiments indicate that tropical carbon (water) balance is partially conserved in glacial vegetation because of the effects of decreased temperature on rates of soil evaporation and plant respiration. Paleovegetation simulations will be placed in the context of not only understanding tropical endemism, but also in reconstructing paleohydrological cycling in tropical basins and interpreting Andean glacier records of volatile organic compounds.