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In order to understand the paleogeographic evolution of Viedma Lake (252 masl) sedimentary sequences with glaciolacustrine and lacustrine strata between 307 masl and 266 masl and bathymetric fluctuations between 27 ka. and 2.4 ka. were identified. The paleoenvironmental interpretation of the stratigraphic profiles was carried out based on the analysis of facies and their associations. The oldest age was recorded at 301 masl (27 ka) and the youngest corresponds to 266 masl (2.4 ka). The record of 27 ka was compared with another dated record of the Tar-San Martin Lakes basin showing that Viedma – Tar-San Martín Lakes were formed at similar ages. Taking into account that the deposits of Bahía Túnel are located at 266 masl and that the level of the lake would be above this height, it is proposed that this lake level would have restricted the movement of hunter-gatherer populations along the coast and to the west. From 2.4 ka on a new space started to be available for these populations broadening the wintering grounds (≤400 masl). The chronology of the archaeological record found in this new space fits the proposed paleogeographic evolution. This paper complements the research on the evolution of lacustrine systems in the Patagonian Mountain range and broadens the discussion of human mobility in the Viedma Lake basin during the Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the analysis of a radiocarbon database of the North Coast of Santa Cruz (central Patagonia, Argentina), is presented. Dated archaeological samples were obtained from 56 different types of archaeological sites (open-air -residential sites and burials-, and also rock shelters). The objective of this paper is assessing the continuities and discontinuities in the chronological signal of the area and identifying tendencies along the Holocene. The database currently contains 75 radiocarbon dates falling between ca. 8000 and 300 BP. The radiocarbon data base provides information on the chronological, spatial and contextual variability of the archaeological record of North Coast of Santa Cruz. By means of different analysis of sum of probabilities, we present three different chronological moments of human use of the coast and intermediate zone can be identified. A first moment is represented by early evidence of settlement during Middle Holocene. A second moment corresponds to a hiatus between ca. 5800 and ca. 3900 BP without archaeological evidence. Finally, a third moment is where an increasing of chronological signal occurred, related to greater artifactual variability and an increase in the intensity of human settlement in the Patagonian region. The causes that could have influenced in the discontinuity of the chronological signal of the study area, and the characteristics of the different moments identified are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Northern Patagonia, the long-term vegetation–climate relationships that gave shape to southern South American forests have been the subject of extensive investigations in the Andean regions of Argentina and Chile for about a century. The Río Manso Superior originates in one of the tongues of the Cerro Tronador Glacier, near the international border, discharging into the Pacific Ocean after feeding present Lago Mascardi and flowing east to west on a mountain landscape. Ongoing pollen studies in this watershed provide us with a modern analogue to better understand the vegetation history of the region. A pollen record from a 15 m long sediment core retrieved from Lago Mascardi (41°08°S, 71°34°W) contains continuous evidence of vegetation changes in the Río Manso watershed extending back to the last deglaciation. High Andean steppe vegetation with forest patches, and extended waterlogged areas gave place to a forest, probably deciduous, during the Lateglacial–Holocene transition. A forest diversification took place during the climate amelioration that encompassed the deglaciation whilst the vegetation became more open before the onset of the Huelmo-Mascardi cold reversal. A mixed Nothofagus-Austrocedrus forest expanded during the middle Holocene. This forest became denser under the higher climate variability registered in the region during the late Holocene as shown by independent published data. Statistical analyses of modern pollen samples along an altitudinal transect from low Nothofagus forest and shrubland to high Andean semi-desert support this interpretation. Pollen results are discussed in the context of paleoenvironmental reconstructions at a regional scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]