HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Wooller, M. J. Articles by Zweigert, M. E. GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Late Holocene hydrologic and vegetation changes at Turneffe Atoll, Belize, compared with records from mainland Central America and Mexico

¹ Alaska Stable Isotope Facility, Water Environmental Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA
² School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA
³ Department of Palynology and Climate Dynamics, Albrecht-von-Haller-Institute for Plant Sciences, University of Göttingen, Untere Karspüle 2, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
⁴ Biology and Wildlife, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA
⁵ ffmjw{at}uaf.edu

We present pollen and stable isotope (¹³C, ¹⁸O, ¹⁵N) data from a 4 m core (TNF-1) of primarily mangrove peat taken from Turneffe Atoll, Belize. Radiocarbon (accelerator mass spectrometry) dates show that the record represents ca. 5000 years of sediment accumulation. Vegetation composition varied between dominant mangroves (primarily Rhizophora mangle) and Chenopodiaceae-Amaranthaceae, most likely Salicornia bigelovii. The pollen data, along with inferences from stable isotope analyses of bulk peat and fossil leaf fragments, indicate that marked environmental changes occurred at this location over the past ca. 5000 years. There was a transition between ca. 4100 and 2900 cal yr BP, from vegetation dominated by relatively tall mangroves (R. mangle) to one dominated by Chenopodiaceae-Amaranthaceae and then Myrica, most likely wax myrtle (M. cerifera). These changes bracket a period centered at ca. 3500 calibrated years before present, where there is a peak in the ¹⁸O of mangrove leaf fragments. This timing corresponds with other paleoenvironmental records of climate drying in Central America and increases the geographic and habitat scope (i.e., mangrove habitat) of records documenting these changes. Interpretations of shifts in mangrove habitat, however, require consideration of additional environmental influences, including changes in groundwater hydrology and relative inputs of seawater and freshwater (i.e., precipitation) during the Holocene.