Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-zklqj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T13:21:45.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Holocene Palaeosalinity in a Maya Wetland, Belize, Inferred from the Microfaunal Assemblage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Javier A. Alcala-Herrera ,
John S. Jacob ,
Maria Luisa Machain Castillo  and
Raymond W. Neck
Javier A. Alcala-Herrera
Affiliation:
Geochemical and Environmental Research Group, Texas A&M University, 833 Graham Road, College Station, Texas 77845
John S. Jacob
Affiliation:
Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-2474
Maria Luisa Machain Castillo
Affiliation:
Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnologia, Apartado postal 70-305, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México D.F. 04510, Mexico
Raymond W. Neck
Affiliation:
Houston Museum of Natural Science, One Herman Circle Drive, Houston, Texas 77030-1799
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A 5.4-m sequence of peat and marl overlying a basal clay in a northern Belize wetland was studied to assess salinity changes over the past 7000 yr. The distribution of ostracods, gastropods, and foraminifers revealed initially freshwater conditions in a terrestrial wetland, changing to at least mesohaline conditions by about 5600 yr B.P. The mesohaline conditions corresponded to the formation of an open-water lagoon (and precipitation of a lacustrine marl) that was contemporaneous with rapidly rising sea level in the area. A mangrove peat filled the lagoon by 4800 yr B.P. probably as a result of increasingly shallow waters as sea level rise slowed and marl precipitation continued. A new lagoon began to form sometime after 3400 yr B.P. Freshwater ostracods and gastropods found in the marl of this lagoon suggest that it formed under near-limnetic conditions. Freshwater input likely resulted from massive deforestation by the Maya that began by 4400 yr B.P. Subsidence of the mangrove peat likely permitted the formation of a lagoon. A peat has filled the lagoon since at least 500 yr B.P.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , January 1994 , pp. 121 - 130
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Bold, W. A. van den, (1990). Stratigraphic distribution of fresh and brackish water Ostracoda in the late Neogene of Hispaniola. In “Ostracoda and Global Events” (Whatley, R. and Maybury, C., Ed.), pp. 222–232. Chapman and Hall, University Press, Cambridge, Great Britain.Google Scholar
Bradbury, J. P. Forester, R. M. Bryant, W. A., and Covich, A. P. (1991). Paleolimnology of Laguna de Cocos, Albion Island, Rio Hondo, Belize. In “Ancient Maya Wetland Agriculture” (Pohl, M. D., Ed.), pp. 119–154. Westview, Boulder, CO.Google Scholar
Covich, A. P. (1976). Recent changes in molluscan species diversity of a large tropical lake (Lago de Petdn, Guatemala). Limnology and Oceanography 21, 51–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Covich, A. P. (1983). Mollusca: A contrast in species diversity from aquatic and terrestrial habitats. In “Pulltrouser Swamp” (Tlimer, B. L. II and Harrison, P. D., Eds.), pp. 120–139. Univ. of Texas Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, W. E., and Fouch, T. D. (1983). Lacustrine. In “Carbonate Depositional Environments” (Scholle, P. A. Bebout, D. G, and Moore, C. H., Eds.) pp. 97–130. American Association of Petroleum Geology, Tulsa, OK.Google Scholar
Fairbanks, R.G. (1989). A 17000 year glacio-eustatic see level record: Influence of glacial melting rates on the Younger Dryas event and deep-ocean circulation. Nature 342, 637–642.Google Scholar
Gasse, F. Fontes, J. C. Plaziat, J. C. Carbonel, P. Yrczmarsyr, I. Deckker, P. de, Souli£-Marsche, I. Callot, Y., and Dupeuble, P. A. (1987). Biological remains, geochemistry and stable isotopes for the reconstruction of environmental and hydrological changes in the Holocene Lakes from the north Sahara. Palaeogeography, Paleaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 60, 1–46.Google Scholar
Goodrich, C., and van der Schalie, H. (1937). “Mollusca of Pet6n and North Alta Vera Paz, Guatemala,” University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Miscellaneous Publications, Vol. 34, pp. 1–50.Google Scholar
Hartshorn, G, S. (1988). Tropical and subtropical vegetation of MesoAmerica. In “North American Terrestrial Vegetation” (Barboun, M. G. and Billing, W. D., Eds.), pp. 365–390.Google Scholar
Hartshorn, G, S., and others. (1984). “Belize. Country Environmental Profile. A Field Study.” United State Agency for International Development. Robert Nicolait and Associates, Belize City, Belize.Google Scholar
High, L. R. (1975). Geomorphology and sedimentology of Holocene coastal deposits, Belize. In “Belize Shelf-Carbonate Sediments, Clastic Sediments, and Ecology” (Wantland, K. F. and Pusey, W. C. III, Eds.), pp. 53–96. American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, OK.Google Scholar
Jacob, J. S. (1992). “The Agroecological Evolution of Cobweb Swamp, Belize.” Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Texas A&M University.Google Scholar
Jones, J. G. (1991). “Pollen Evidence of Prehistoric Forest Manipulation and Maya Cultivation in Belize.” Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Texas A&M University.Google Scholar
Keyser, D. (1975), Ostracodes of the mangroves of south Florida, their ecology and Biology. Bulletin of American Paleontology 65, 489–499.Google Scholar
Keyser, D. (1977). Ecology and zoogeography of recent brackish-water Ostracoda (Crustaea) from south-west Florida. In “Aspects of Ecology and Zoogeography of Recent and Fossil Ostracoda” (Loffler, H. and Danielopol, D., Eds.), pp. 207–222. Proceedings of the 6th Inter-national Symposium on Ostracods, Saalfelden (Salzburg), Junk Publishers, The Hague.Google Scholar
Lai, R. (1983). Soil erosion in the humid tropics with particular reference to agricultural land development and soil management. In “Hy-drology of Humid Tropical Regions with Particular Reference to the Hydrological Effects of Agriculture and Forestry Practice” (Keller, R., Ed.), pp. 221–239. International Association of Hydrological Scientist Publication 140, Oxforshire, U.K. Google Scholar
Lighty, R. G. Macintyre, I. G., and Stuckenrath, R. (1982). Acropora Palmata reef framework: A reliable indicator of sea level in the western Atlantic for the past 10,000 years. Coral Reefs 1, 125–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loblich, A. L. Jr., and Tappan, H. (1964). Sarcodina, chiefly the Camoebians and Foraminiferids. In “Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology” (Moore, R. C., Ed.), Part C, Vols. 1-2 Geological society of America, New York.Google Scholar
Morely, S. G. Brainerd, G. W., and Sharer, R. J. (1983). “The Ancient Maya.” Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, CA.Google Scholar
Murray, J. W. (1991). “Ecology and Palaeocology of Benthic Foraminifera.” Longman Scientific and Technical, Essex, England.Google Scholar
Neale, J. W. (1988). Ostracods and paleosalinity reconstruction. In“Ostracoda in the Earth Sciences” (Decker, P. D., et al., Eds.), pp. 125–155. Elsevier, Netherlands.Google Scholar
Pohl, M. D. Bloom, P. R., and Pope, K. O. (1990). Interpretation of wetland farming in northern Belize: Excavation at San Antonio Rio Hondo. In “Ancient Maya wetland Agriculture” (Pohl, M. D., Ed.), pp. 187–254. Westview, Boulder, CO.Google Scholar
Rice, D. S., and Culbert, T. P. (1990). Historical context for population reconstruction in the Maya lowlands. In “Precolumbian Population History in the Maya Lowlands” (Culbert, T. P. and Rice, D. S., Eds.). Univ. of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Sanger, D. B., and Teeter, J. W. (1982). “The Distribution of Living and Fossil Ostracoda and Their Use in the Interpretation of the Post-Pleistocene History of Little Lake, San Salvador Island, Bahama.” Occasional Papers, San Salvador Station, San Salvador, Bahamas, No. 1.Google Scholar
Shafer, H. J., and Hester, T. R. (1983). Ancient Maya chert work shops in northern Belize, Central America. American Antiquity 48, 519–543.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, C. S. T£rano, J. M., and Pinto, J. H. (1959). “Clasificacion de reconocimiento de los suelos de la Republica de Guatemala.” Instituto Agropecuario Nacional, Ministerio de Agricultra, Guatemala City, Guatemala.Google Scholar
Turner, B. L., and Harrison, P. D. (Eds.) (1983). “Pulltrouser Swamp.” Univ. of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Wantland, K. F. (1975). Distribution of Holocene benthonic foraminifera on the Belize Shelf. In “Belize Shelf-carbonate Sediments, Clastic Sediments, and Ecology” (Wantland, K. F. and Pusey, W. C. III, Eds.), pp. 332–399. American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, OK.Google Scholar
Warmke, G., and Abbot, R. T. (1961). “Caribbean Seas hells. A Guide to the Marine Molluscs of Puerto Rico and Other West Indian Islands, Bermuda and the Lower Florida Keys.” Livingston, Narberth, PA.Google Scholar
Weyl, R. (1980). “Geology of Central America.” Gebriider Bomtraeger, Berlin.Google Scholar
Wright, A. C. S. Romney, D. H. Arbuckle, R. H., and Vial, V. E., (1959). “Land in British Honduras.” Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, London.Google Scholar