Las preguntas fundamentales que dirigen mi investigación están enfocadas a entender cómo han respondido los diferentes ecosistemas áridos del sur de Sudamérica a las variaciones del clima y el ciclo hidrológico durante los últimos 50.000 años (conocido informalmente como el Cuaternario tardío). Para esto hemos desarrollado varias líneas de investigación en el laboratorio que utilizan diferentes metodologías, siendo algunas bastante poco “ortodoxas”. Sin embargo, son muy efectivas a la hora de entregar información importante sobre la dinámica espacial y temporal de las especies que componen estos ecosistemas.
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Latorre, C., Betancourt, J. L., Rylander, K. A., & Quade, J. (2002). Vegetation invasions into absolute desert: a 45,000-yr rodent midden record from the Calama-Salar de Atacama basins, northern Chile (22°–24°S). Geological Society of America Bulletin, 114(3), 349-366.
Latorre, C., Betancourt, J. L. & Arroyo, M. T. K. (2006). Late Quaternary vegetation and climate history of a perennial river canyon in the Río Salado Basin (22°S) of northern Chile. Quaternary Research, 65(3), 450–466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2006.02.002
Latorre, C., A. L. González, J. Quade, J. M. Fariña, R. Pinto, & P. A. Marquet (2011) Establishment and formation of fog dependent Tillandsia landbeckii dunes in the Atacama Desert: Evidence from radiocarbon and stable isotopes, Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences 116: G03033, doi:10.1029/2010JG001521.
Gayo, E.M., Latorre, C., Jordan, T.E., Nester, P.L., Estay, S.E., Ojeda, K.F. & Santoro, C.M. (2012) Late Quaternary hydrological and ecological change in the hyperarid core of the northern Atacama Desert (~21˚S). Earth-Science Reviews 113: 120-140.
Latorre, C., Santoro, C.M., Ugalde, P.C., Gayo, E.M., Osorio, D., Salas-Egaña, C., de Pol-Holz, R., Joly, D. & Rech, J.A. (2013) Late Pleistocene human occupation of the hyperarid core in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile. Quaternary Science Reviews 77: 19-30, DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.06.008.
Latorre, C., De Pol-Holz, R., Carter, C., Santoro, C.M. (2017) Using archaeological shell middens as a proxy for past local coastal upwelling in northern Chile. Quaternary International 427 (part A), 128-136, DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.11.079.
Díaz, F.P., Latorre, C., Carrasco‐Puga, G., Wood, J.R., Wilmshurst, J.M., Soto, D.C., Cole, T.L., Gutiérrez, R.A. (2019) Multiscale climate change impacts on plant diversity in the Atacama Desert, Global Change Biology 25, 1733-1745.
Fuentealba, M., Bahamóndez, C., Sarricolea, P., Meseguer-Ruiz, O., Latorre, C. (2021) The 2010–2020 ‘megadrought’ drives reduction in lake surface area in the Andes of central Chile (32º-36ºS) Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies 38, 100952, DOI: 10.1016/j.ejrh.2021.100952.
Frugone-Alvarez, M., Contreras, S., Meseguer-Ruiz, O., Tejos, E., Delgado-Huertas, A., Valero-Garcés, B., Díaz, F.P., Briceño, M., Bustos-Morales, M., Latorre, C. (2023) Hydroclimate variations over the last 17,000 years as estimated by leaf waxes in rodent middens from the south-central Atacama Desert, Chile, Quaternary Science Reviews 311, 108084.
Gonzalez-Guarda, E., Segovia, R.A., Valenzuela, M., Asevedo, L., Villavicencio, N., Tornero, C., Ramírez-Pedraza, I., Ortega, S., Capriles, J., Labarca, R., Latorre, C. (2024) The extinct Notiomastodon platensis (Proboscidea, Gomphoteriidae) inhabited mediterranean ecosystems during the Late Pleistocene in north-central Chile (31°S–36°S), Quaternary Science Reviews 344 Fuentealba, M., Bahamóndez, C., Sarricolea, P., Meseguer-Ruiz, O., Latorre, C. (2021) The 2010–2020 ‘megadrought’ drives reduction in lake surface area in the Andes of central Chile (32º-36ºS) Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies 38, 100952, DOI: 10.1016/j.ejrh.2021.100952.