Abstract
The updated inventory of the Latin American Pollen Database (LAPD) offers a wide range of new insights. This paper presents a systematic compilation of palynological research in Latin America. A comprehensive inventory of publications in peer-reviewed and grey literature shows a major expansion of studies over the last decades. The inventory includes 1379 cores and sections with paleoecological data and more than 4800 modern samples from throughout the continent. Through the years, pollen datasets extend over increasing spans of time and show improved taxonomic and temporal resolution. Currently, these datasets are from 12 modern biomes and 30 countries, covering an altitudinal range of 0 to 6300 m asl. The most densely sampled regions are the Colombian Andes, the southeast coast of Brazil, and Patagonia. Underrepresented biomes are the warm temperate mixed forest (3%), dry forests (3%), and warm temperate rainforest (1%); whereas steppe, tropical rainforest, and cool grass shrublands, such as the páramos, are generally well represented (all N17%). There are 126 records that span the late Pleistocene to the Last Glacial Maximum transition (21,000 cal yr BP), and N 20% of the records cover the Younger Dryas interval and the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. Reanalysis of numerous sites using multiproxy tools emphasize the informative value of this approach in paleoenvironmental reconstruction. We make suggestions for several pollen sites and regions to be visited again; similarly we identify some key research questions that have yet to be answered. The updated LAPD now provides the platform to support an exciting new phase of global palynological research in which multi-site data are being integrated to address current cuttingedge research questions. The LAPD compilation of sites and the literature database will be available through the Neotoma Paleoecology Database website and a new LAPD website by the end of 2015.