Shifts in global diversity are driven by a complex interplay between ongoing climatic changes and the growing impact of anthropogenic pressures. Although ecosystems have continuously evolved throughout Earth’s history, the changes that we are currently observing are unprecedented. Studying long-term past ecosystem responses to climate and human pressures can help improve current management policies and conserve ecosystem services. In South America, the Quaternary was characterized by major landscape transformations, primarily caused by climate variability, fire regimes, and human activity; however, there remains a substantial gap in the spatial coverage of studied ecosystems, as well as in the temporal resolution.

This session welcomes investigations that integrate multi-proxy analyses to test the responses of South American ecosystems to glacial-interglacial cycles, millennial-scale climate events, Holocene climatic variability, and human influence.