Response of diatom assemblages to orbital- and millennial-scale climatic variability since the penultimate glacial maximum in the northern limit of the Neotropics

Lake Chalco, in Central Mexico, has a long diatom record which provides an excellent opportunity to document the biotic and hydrological responses of this ecosystem to orbital- and millennial-scale climatic variability during the last 150 ka. Detrended correspondence analysis was used to evaluate the ecological turnover and to identify diatom species associations throughout the sequence. Millennial-scale climatic fluctuations were identified as peaks in freshwater (mostly small Fragilariaceae spp.) or as peaks in salt-tolerant species. At orbital scales, species turnover involved changes between freshwater assemblages dominated by Stephanodiscus spp. – small Fragilariaceae spp. – Cocconeis placentula, present during low-evaporation, cool intervals [late Marine Isotope Stage (MIS)6, MIS5d, MIS2] against salt-tolerant taxa, dominated by Stephanocyclus and Cyclotella spp., in higher evaporation, higher salinity conditions (MIS5e, MIS5c–a, MIS4, MIS3, early MIS1). Comparatively, MIS6 and MIS5d seem to have been cooler (~ −6 to −7 °C) and wetter than MIS2 (~ − 4 to −5 °C). In contrast, MIS5e and early MIS1 (11.5–6 ka) had similar warmer, low lake level, saline conditions. In addition, MIS5 was a period of intense climatic change associated with wide-amplitude orbital forcing that favored a Stephanocyclus–Cyclotella spp. ecological succession (S. meneghinianus, C. tlalocii, C. poyeka, S. quillensis). In contrast, smaller temperature changes were inferred during MIS4 and MIS3.