Pollen Database as a Tool for Paleoclimate Interpretation: The Case of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, Central México

A fossil pollen and proxy database is key to a proper understanding of vegetation and climate, but in Mexico work on integrating databases for paleoenvironmental reconstruction at regional scales is limited. The objective of the present work was to compile a database of fossil pollen studies and other proxies in three sectors (western, central, and eastern) of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB), with data from 1980 to 2022. The information was obtained from an exhaustive bibliographic search of indexed publications through the use of specialized search engines. The information was classified, categorized, and standardized to understand the types of sedimentary environments, proxies, bibliographic sources, and environmental interpretations. The database allowed the analysis of the progress made and the challenges faced in Holocene paleoenvironmental research. The central and eastern sectors of the TMVB concentrated 22 sites analyzed by fossil pollen and other proxies (e.g., geochemistry, stratigraphy, magnetism), of which 18 sites were analyzed by pollen. In the western sector, only four sites were reported using other proxies. The years between 2005 and 2022 show a significant increase in the number of publications, with 17 publications on pollen and 10 on other proxies. The formation of multidisciplinary research teams may have contributed to the higher number of publications after 2005 in each of the sectors analyzed. Pollen studies were accompanied by stratigraphic, microfossil (e.g., diatom), charcoal, and geochemical analyses for paleoclimate and vegetation interpretation. The present research can serve as a basis for quantitative reconstructions of vegetation and climate in different time periods in Mexico.