Ruben Hernandez-Morales 

Current Research

Paleolimnological analysis of lakes in central Mexico: regional comparisons, human forcing, and teleconnections during the late Quaternary

This project analyzes the information provided by the sedimentary sequences of 29 lakes in central Mexico, 10 of which are currently paleolakes. During the Late Quaternary, the lakes from central Mexico experienced environmental changes drove by global and local climatic and geological processes, showing regional trends of wet and dry periods. Paleoenvironmental reconstructions are based on the use of 20 proxies, including diatoms, pollen, geochemistry, mineralogy, granulometry, magnetic susceptibility, and isotopes. Seven major episodes are recognized in the historical evolution of the lakes from central Mexico: i. Late Miocene-Pliocene; Period of formation of large lakes in central Mexico by volcano tectonic activity under a regime of continuous humidity; ii. Pleistocene-Drought and climatic variability of the interglacial period; iii. Drying and successive lacustrine transgression during the Last Glacial Maximum; iv. Spatial climate variability in the Heinrich 1 period; v. Lake regression and expansion of terrestrial vegetation in the Bølling-Allerød period; vi. Transgression of lakes from central Mexico during the Younger Dryas and mid-Holocene; and vii. Late Holocene – lake desiccation influenced by the impact of human Activities. The analysis of the data allows us to propose six challenges for the scientific community in future research from central Mexico.