There are many evidences that socio-political conflicts, human pressure on environmental and
climate forcing (e.g., climate change) were of the main mechanisms that triggered the disintegration
of classical Maya civilization (750 - 950 A.D.) (Demarest et al., 2004; Gill, 2000; Hodell et al.,
2005; Hodell et al., 1995; Medina-Elizalde et al., 2010; Medina-Elizalde and Rohling, 2012;
Medina-Elizalde et al., 2016). This historical event brings a unique opportunity to study the role of
climate change in this complex phenomenon and how several factors interact among them. The aim
of this talk, which is open to discussion with the attendees, is threefold: 1) present a state of the art
of this topic, 2) to build a link between researchers that are working in paleoclimate, ecology and
human sciences and 3) to obtain knowledge and a wide perspective on the role of climate change in
the classical Maya collapse and how this can be used to face the current and future climate change
in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Demarest, A. A., Rice, P. M., and Rice, D. S., 2004, The terminal classic in the Maya lowlands:
collapse, termination, and transformation, Boulder, CO, University Press of Colorado, 676 p.
Gill, R. B., 2000, The Great Maya Droughts: Water, Life, and Death Albuquerque, University of
New Mexico Press, 445 p.
Hodell, D. A., Brenner, M., and Curtis, J. H., 2005, Terminal Classic drought in the northern Maya
lowlands inferred from multiple sediment cores in Lake Chichancanab (Mexico): Quaternary
Science Reviews, v. 24, no. 12-13, p. 1413-1427.
Hodell, D. A., Curtis, J. H., and Brenner, M., 1995, Possible role of climate in the collapse of
Classic Maya civilization: Nature, v. 375, no. 6530, p. 391-394.
Medina-Elizalde, M., Burns, S. J., Lea, D. W., Asmerom, Y., von Gunten, L., Polyak, V., Vuille, M.,
and Karmalkar, A., 2010, High resolution stalagmite climate record from the Yucatan Peninsula
spanning the Maya terminal classic period: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 298, no. 1-2, p.
255-262.
Medina-Elizalde, M., and Rohling, E. J., 2012, Collapse of Classic Maya civilization related to
modest reduction in precipitation: Science, v. 335, p. 956-959.
Medina -Elizalde, M., Polanco-Martínez, J.M., Lases-Hernández, F., Bradley, R., Burns, S.J., 2016.
Testing the “tropical storm hypothesis” of Yucatan Peninsula climate variability during the Maya
Terminal Classic Period. Quat. Res. (in review).