The main interest of this research group is to determine the natural climate variability and their effects in the environment (distribution of vegetation, soils, lakes, etc). In order to achieve this goal, people from this group have focused on the study of lacustrine sediments, where the gradual accumulation of minerals, vegetal and animal debris, generate a continuous record of the regional variability on climate and environment conditions. People from this group is then specialized in the study of different kind of records applied with a multi and interdisciplinary scope.
The period of more interest is the Quaternary (the last two million years), which has been characterized by its extreme climatic variability, with fluctuations of cold (glacial) periods and warm (interglacial) periods. The studies of environmental and climatic change in Mexico are particularly interesting since the latitude, topography and history of our country. Mexico’s latitudes lie in the border between the template and tropical weather, hence important modifications in the climate global distribution may be recorded. Due to its topography, Mexico has a diversity of climates and vegetation, which distribution patterns are particularly sensitive to climatic variability. Mexico history indicates that it was an important cultural center (Mesoamérica) particularly interesting in the study of the interrelations between human culture, climate and environment during the different stages of its cultural development.