7th INTERNATIONAL MEETING

ON PHYTOLITH RESEARCH

4th SOUTHAMERICAN MEETING

ON PHYTOLITH RESEARCH

ABSTRACTS

Osterrieth, M.; Fernndez Honaine, M.; Borrelli, N. Editors

MAR DEL PLATA
11 14 December 2008

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 PHYTOLITHS IN PEDOSEDIMENTARY SEQUENCES OF THE LATE
QUATERNARY, IN RIO TERCERO, CORDOBA, ARGENTINA

Arguello, G.1; M. Osterrieth 2; J. Sanabria 1

1
Depto de Geologa, Universidad Nacional de Crdoba. garguello@latinmail.com
2
Centro de Geologa de Costas y del Cuaternario, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y
Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, CC 722, Correo Central, (7600) Mar
del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The study area is located at the central part of the province of Crdoba (32 05
to 31 45 S; 6410 to 6330W) in the Plains region, inside Tercero Arriba
Department. It belongs to the Chacopampean Plain, and more precisely inside
the Pampean Plain (Sayago, 1981). It is described as a depressed to undulated
plain, involving Quaternary aeolian, fluvial and lacustrine materials. According to
the Lands Classification System (Sayago,1982; Sanabria, 2000), Corralito
barranco lies within Plataforma Basculada Association (Tilted Platform
Association) (Capitanelli, 1979). Regarding climate, it is considered as
mesothermal with a warm summer. Two seasonal cycles are clearly
distinguishable during the hydrologic year: one for the summer, from October to
March, and the other from April to September, corresponding to winter. During
the summer cycle, rain average surpasses 82 mm/month, whereas during the
autumn-winter one, it stays below 50 mm. The whole area is nowadays almost
exclusively used for agriculture. The profile comprises about 115 ka, and
because of the presence of both loess and paleosoils, many assumptions,
concerning climate and environment may be made. The study of phytoliths has
permitted the detection of a sequence of paleoedaphic levels from the mid-
upper section of the sequence (1.6 m), which continues to its base (9 m). Some
levels show a predominance of short-celled phytolithssaddle, cross and
panicoid bilobatesthe majority of which indicate C4 grasses, possible
indicators of meadows with a high proportion of graminea subfamilies:
Chloridoideae and Panicoideae. Toward the base there are grass phytoliths of
the subfamily pooideae, typical C3 grasses, with bilobate, rondel and
trapeziform morphotypes. Both situations alternate throughout the length of this
Late Quaternary sequence; moreover levels with very low levels of phytoliths
are intercalated where pedogenesis was either incipient or inexistent with others
affected by fluvial processes and reworkings of sediments, including the
phytoliths.

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