This article analyzes the information provided by the sedimentary sequences of 29 lakes in central Mexico, 10 of which are currently paleolakes. During the Late Quaternary, the lakes of central Mexico experienced environmental changes driven by global and local climatic and geological processes, showing regional trends of wet and dry periods. Paleoenvironmental reconstructions are based on the use of 20 indicators, including diatoms, pollen, geochemistry, mineralogy, granulometry, magnetic susceptibility, and isotopes. Seven major episodes are recognized in the historical evolution of the lakes of central Mexico: i. Late Miocene–Pliocene: A period that includes the formation of large lakes in central Mexico by volcano tectonic activity under a regime of continuous humidity. ii. Pleistocene–Drought and climatic variability of the interglacial period. iii. Drying and successive lacustrine transgression during the Last Glacial Maximum. iv. Spatial climate variability in the Heinrich 1 period. v. Lake regression and expansion of terrestrial vegetation in the Bølling–Allerød period. vi. Transgression of lakes of central Mexico during the Younger Dryas and mid-Holocene periods. vii. Late Holocene: A period that includes lake desiccation influenced by the impact of human activities. The analysis of the data allows us to propose six challenges for the scientific community in future research of central Mexico.
Hernández-Morales et al. (Sat,) studied this question.