Comment on “The Response of Vegetation on the Andean Flank in Western Amazonia to Pleistocene Climate Change”

Abstract

Cárdenas et al. (Reports, 25 February 2011, p. 1055) used the presence of Podocarpus pollen and wood to infer =5°C cooling of Andean forests during Quaternary glacial periods. We show that (i) Podocarpus has a wide elevation range in the Neotropics, and (ii) edaphic factors cannot be discounted as a factor governing its distribution. Paleoecologists should therefore reevaluate Podocarpus as a cool-temperature proxy.