Rainfall variation,snowline depression and vegetational shifts in Chile during the Pleistocene

Palynological, geomorphological, and relict vegetation evidence point to the existence of cooler and more humid conditions along semiarid and temperate Chile during the Pleistocene. Departing from an actualistic model, and utilizing a regression technique that includes significant independent variables on the basis of R ² and F statistics, the best fit multivariable model was produced for annual rainfall and snowline elevation. Predicted values for rainfall are obtained by controlling sea surface temperatures and air temperatures (the most significant variables in the model) at different latitudes. A variation of only 1 °C of the winter sea and air temperatures induces more than a doubling of the annual precipitation in north-central Chile, and increases by nearly fifty percent in southern Chile. Entering the predicted values of precipitation and lowering the winter temperatures by 1 or 2 °C produces a slight depression of the snowline in semiarid north-central Chile and a significant descent in southern Chile. The predicted depression of the snowline coincided well with geomorphological evidence of glacial advances and fossil periglacial phenomena in the Andes. Cooling and increased precipitation during the Pleistocene pluvial elicited northward shifts of the temperate rainforest of southern Chile in the order of 7 deg latitude.