The authors conducted a high-resolution multi-proxy analysis of pollen, charcoal particles and diatoms found in the sediments of Lago Verde (18°36'46" N, 95°20'52"W) -- a small closed-basin lake on the outskirts of the Sierra de Los Tuxtlas (a volcanic field on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico) -- which covered the past 2000 years.
What was learned?
The five Mexican researchers say their data "provide evidence that the densest tropical forest cover and the deepest lake of the last two millennia were coeval with the Little Ice Age, with two deep lake phases that follow the Sporer and Maunder minima in solar activity." In addition, they suggest that "the high tropical pollen accumulation rates limit the Little Ice Age's winter cooling to a maximum of 2°C," and they conclude that the "tropical vegetation expansion during the Little Ice Age is best explained by a reduction in the extent of the dry season as a consequence of increased meridional flow leading to higher winter precipitation."
WOW - Laguna Verde is about the size of a dishpan and not much deeper, near La Nueva Victoria, a few kilometers off the coast of The Gulf of Mexico.
Basically what they are saying is that lots of vegetation inhibits colder temperatures during ice ages, which is very good to know during the current epoch of global warming.
Maybe we should bulldoze the remaining trees to stay cooler!
Source: CO2 Science
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