Amazon Basin ; C 14 dating ; Carbon ; Climatic variation ; Forest ; Holocene ; Isotope analysis ; Palaeo-environment ; Quaternary ; Savanna ; South America ; Vegetation dynamics
Carbon isotopes of soil organic matter (SOM) were used to evaluate and establish the chronology of the vegetation dynamics of an ecosystem presently composed of savannas surrounded by forests. The study was carried out on a 200-km transect along
highway BR 319, on the border of Amazonas and Rondônia states, in southern Amazon, Brazil. The results indicate that extensive forested areas existed in the Amazon during the last glaciation and that savanna vegetation expanded in response to warm and dry