Abstract:
Abstract. Available proxy records witnessing palaeoclimate
of the tropical Andes are comparably scarce. Major implications
of palaeoclimate development in the humid and arid
parts of the Andes are briefly summarized. The long-term
behaviour of ENSO has general significance for the climatic
history of the Andes due to its impact on regional circulation
patterns and precipitation regimes, therefore ENSO history
derived from non-Andean palaeo-records is highlighted.
Methodological constraints of the chronological precision
and the palaeoclimatic interpretation of records derived from
different natural archives, such as glacier sediments and ice
cores, lake sediments and palaeo-wetlands, pollen profiles
and tree rings are addressed and complementary results concerning
former climatic conditions are discussed in terms of
possible implications of former atmospheric circulation patterns
and main climatic forcing factors. During the last years,
increasing tree-ring information is getting available from the
tropical Andes, providing high-resolution climate-sensitive
records covering the past centuries for the study of climate
variability.
