Marcacocha palaeoenvironmental proxy dataset (NERC grant NE/J014206/1)

Concentration and accumulation palaeoenvironmental proxy data derived from a 6.3m sedimentary core drilled at Marcacocha, a present-day wetland (formerly a small lake) located at 3355m above sea-level in the Cordillera Oriental of the Peruvian Andes. Multi-proxy analysis of the sediments at decadal to sub-decadal temporal resolution has provided detailed datasets that include sedimentology, palynology, geochemistry, plant macrofossils, diatoms and oribatid mite remains (Chepstow-Lusty et al., 2003, 2007, 2009; Sterken et al., 2006). Select data are presented here relating to the uppermost 1.9m of the sequence (ca. the last 1200 years). The data relate specifically to: Chepstow-Lusty, A., Frogley, M.R., Baker, A.S. Comparison of Sporormiella dung fungal spores and oribatid mites as indicators of large herbivore presence: evidence from the Cuzco region of Peru. J. Arch. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2018.12.006 Chepstow-Lusty, A., Bennett, K., Fjeldså, J., Kendall, A., Galiano, W., Tupayachi Herrera, A., 1998. Tracing 4000 years of environmental history in the Cuzco area, Peru, from the pollen record. Mt. Res. Dev. 18, 159–172. Chepstow-Lusty, A., Frogley, M.R., Bauer, B.S., Bush, M.B., Tupayachi Herrera, A., 2003. A late Holocene record of arid events from the Cuzco region, Peru. J. Quat. Sci. 18, 491–502. Chepstow-Lusty, A., Frogley, M.R., Bauer, B.S., Leng, M., Cundy, A., Boessenkool, K.P., Gioda, A., 2007. Evaluating socio-economic change in the Andes using oribatid mite abundances as indicators of domestic animal densities. J. Arch. Sci. 34, 1178–1186. Chepstow-Lusty, A.J., Frogley, M.R., Bauer, B., Leng, M.J., Boessenkool, K.P., Carcaillet, C., Ali, A.A., Gioda, A., 2009. Putting the rise of the Inca empire within a climatic and land management context. Clim. Past 5, 1–14. Sterken, M., Sabbe, K., Chepstow-Lusty, A., Frogley, M., Vanhoutte, K., Verleyen, E., Cundy, A., Vyverman, W., 2006. Climate and land-use changes in the Cuzco region (Cordillera Oriental, South East Peru) during the last 1200 years: a diatom based reconstruction. Arch. Hydrobiol. 165, 289–312.