A 6000-year record of ecological and hydrological changes from Laguna de la Leche, north coastal Cuba |
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| Authors: | Matthew C Peros Eduard G Reinhardt |
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| Institution: | a Department of Geography, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2E1
b School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4M1 |
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| Abstract: | Laguna de la Leche, north coastal Cuba, is a shallow (≤ 3 m), oligohaline (∼ 2.0-4.5‰) coastal lake surrounded by mangroves and cattail stands. A 227-cm core was studied using loss-on-ignition, pollen, calcareous microfossils, and plant macrofossils. From ∼6200 to ∼ 4800 cal yr BP, the area was an oligohaline lake. The period from ∼ 4800 to ∼ 4200 cal yr BP saw higher water levels and a freshened system; these changes are indicated by an increase in the regional pollen rain, as well as by the presence of charophyte oogonia and an increase in freshwater gastropods (Hydrobiidae). By ∼ 4000 cal yr BP, an open mesohaline lagoon had formed; an increase in salt-tolerant foraminifers suggests that water level increase was driven by relative sea level rise. The initiation of Laguna de la Leche correlates with a shift to wetter conditions as indicated in pollen records from the southeastern United States (e.g., Lake Tulane). This synchronicity suggests that sea level rise caused middle Holocene environmental change region-wide. Two other cores sampled from mangrove swamps in the vicinity of Laguna de la Leche indicate that a major expansion of mangroves was underway by ∼ 1700 cal yr BP. |
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| Keywords: | Cuba Holocene Pollen Benthic foraminifera Sea level Mangroves |
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