Abstract
We examined intra-basin spatial variability of sedimentary geochemical and isotopic signals using a network of five sediment cores from a small lake in southern Costa Rica with a history of prehistoric maize agriculture in its watershed. All cores show a similar pattern of agricultural activity (2000–1000 cal yr BP), a transitional period of forest recovery (1000–675 cal yr BP), and a period after forest reestablishment (675–400 cal yr BP). During the agricultural period, bulk sediment stable carbon isotope ratios (δ13CTOC) indicate significant forest clearance, percent total organic carbon (%TOC) is low due to accelerated erosion and dilution from mineral inputs to the lake, and carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratios are consistent with increased productivity. At the conclusion of the agricultural period, δ13CTOC and %TOC indicate rapid forest recovery and reduced mineral inputs and C/N ratios suggest lower lake productivity. There is little between-core variation in the magnitude of the agricultural signal for the four cores taken near the shore, but these cores indicate different timing for the end of widespread agriculture in the watershed. Three of these four cores indicate nearly all agriculture ended by 1000 cal yr BP, but in the fourth core agricultural indicators persist until 675 cal yr BP. The core from the center of the lake shows a gradual decline in proxies indicating agriculture from 950 to 650 cal yr BP, which suggests sediment-reworking processes are integrating material from the entire basin as it is transported to the deeper portions of the lake. Differences between the records from the cores recovered near the shore illustrate the potential of multiple core studies to create spatially explicit paleoenvironmental reconstructions, while the delayed and less abrupt changes in the core from the center of the lake highlight the importance of sediment reworking of paleoenvironmental indicators.
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Acknowledgments
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 0538420 (SPH, K. Orvis, and L. Champion) and 0825406 (SPH, DBF, and ZPT); by the Geological Society of America (ZPT); and by the Jones Environmental Geochemistry Endowment (DBF) and other funds at the University of Tennessee. We thank G. Hewson Hull and H. Hull for access to Laguna Zoncho; M. Sánchez for logistical support; Z. Li for guidance in the University of Tennessee Stable Isotope Laboratory; G. Metcalf for field and laboratory assistance; J. Malik and L. Goethert for laboratory assistance; and K. Orvis, C. Harden, and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.
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Taylor, Z.P., Horn, S.P. & Finkelstein, D.B. Assessing intra-basin spatial variability in geochemical and isotopic signatures in the sediments of a small neotropical lake. J Paleolimnol 54, 395–411 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-015-9859-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-015-9859-x