Historical State of This Ecosystem

Lake Pátzcuaro is located in the south-western Mexican state of Michoacán on sloping, volcanic terrain. The lake itself has experienced brief but extreme fluctuations in water level over the course of history, especially in the late Pleistocene-Holocene period. Lake Pátzcuaro has been dubbed an “amplifier” lake, which insinuates that the shifts in water level allowed it to become an evidence rich environment for past climate change in the area. While exact lake level at the time of the Spanish Conquest (ca. 1521) is debated, the general consensus amongst scholars is that water elevation then was definitely higher than the modern level. Data taken into account previously suggested that subsequent Europeanized development (including structures, agriculture, grazing animals, etc) led to erosion and environmentally detrimental occurrences. However, more recent analysis leads many scientists to believe that there was actually a period of landscape recovery following conquest due to the massive deaths of Indigenous peoples and, therefore, a great reduction in land use across Mexico. Prior to the Conquest, the area surrounding the Lake Pátzcuaro basin was central to the Tarascan Empire. A significant decline in human population of the land followed the Spaniard's arrival with superior weaponry and monumentally fatal diseases.