Sur les possibilités de reconstitution paléo-environnementale offertes par les andosols des hautes terres tropicales. Exemple des Nilgiri (Inde du Sud)

An example, from South India, shows the potentialities offered by the study of high altitude non-allophanic andisols to reconstitute the local palaeoenvironmental history. In this type of soils, organic matter is stabilised in the form of organometallic complexes that migrate downwards very slowly. Compared to the broad signal recorded by peat bogs, the soil organic matter signal appears to be more site-specific, which enables precise palaeoenvironmental studies. This application comes just when precise palaeoclimatic reconstitutions are necessary to build reliable climatic models.