Abstract
A 250 cm long core from El Palmar, a swamp area located along the Rio Hondo river in the south of the Yucatan Peninsula, near the Belizean border, reveals the environmental history of the mangrove and tropical forest of the last 5000 years. The period between 5000 and 4600 b.p. shows sandy deposits, which form the early infill and development of the swamp. A medium-statured tropical forest covered the area and members of the Moraceae and Fabacaeae dominated this early forest. The period between 4600 and 4000 b.p. presents a clear change to a mangrove system with Conocarpus erecta and Rhizophora mangle as dominant trees. This vegetational change is due to flooding of the Rio Hondo river, which deposits sediments of high salinity due to higher sea-level. The medium-statured forest became established at some distance from the swamp area. After 4400 b.p. C. erecta appears as the dominant mangrove species and the R. mangle stands are less predominant in the area. The tropical forest was close to the swamp area and was mainly composed of members of the Moraceae, Arecaceae and Fabaceae as dominant taxa of this vegetational mosaic.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
CETENAL (1975) Estudio de gran visión para la colonización de la zona de Ucum, estado de Quintana Roo. Subsecretaria de la Presidencia. Departamento de estudios interdisciplinarios, México, D.F.
Curtis JH, Hodell DA, Brenner M (1996) Climate variability on the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) during the past 3500 years, and implications for Maya Cultural Evolution. Quatern Res 46:37–47
Faegri K, Iversen J (1975) Textbook of pollen analysis, 3rd edn. Blackwell, Oxford
Haug GA, Guenther D, Peterson LC, Sigman DM, Hughen KA, Aeschlimann B (2003) Climate and the collapse of Maya Civilization. Science 299:1731–1735
High LR (1975) Geomorphology and sedimentology of Holocene coastal deposits, Belize. In: Grace JB, Pussey III WC (eds) Belize shield carbonate sediments, clastic sediments, and ecology. American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, pp 53–96
Hill MO (1979) TWINSPAN-A Fortran program for arranging multivariate data in an ordered two-way table by classification of the individuals and attributes. Cornell University, Ithaca
Hodell DA, Curtis JH, Brenner M (1995) Possible role of climate in the collapse of Classic Maya civilization. Nature 375:391–394
Hodell DA, Brenner M, Curtis JH, Guilderson T (2001) Solar forcing of drought frequency in the Maya lowlands. Science 292:1367–1370
Hooghiemstra H (1984) Vegetational and climate history of the high plain of Bogotá, Colombia: a continuous record of the last 3.5 million years. Dissertationes Botanicae 79. Cramer, Vaduz
Islebe GA (1998) Vegetación de Quintana Roo. In: Xacur J (ed) Enciclopedia de Quintana Roo, vol 8, pp 337–343
Islebe GA, Sánchez O (2001) Pasado y presente de la vegetación de Quintana Roo. Foresta Veracruzana 3:47–52
Islebe GA, Sánchez O (2002) History of Late Holocene vegetation at Quintana Roo, Caribbean coast of Mexico. Plant Ecol 160:187–192
Islebe GA, Hooghiemstra H, Brenner M, Curtis JH, Hodell DA (1996) A Holocene vegetation history from lowland Guatemala. The Holocene 6:265–271
Islebe GA, Villanueva R, Sánchez O (2001) Relación lluvia de polen—vegetación en selvas de Quintana Roo. Boletín de la Sociedad Botánica de México 69:31–38
Juggins S (2002) Palaeo Data Plotter. Version 1.0
Leyden BW (1984) Guatemalan forest synthesis after Pleistocene aridity. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 81:4856–4859
Leyden BW, Brenner M, Whitmore T, Curtis JH, Piperno D, Dahlin B (1996) A record of long and short-term climatic variation from northwest Yucatan: Cenote San Jose Chulchacá. In: Fedick SL (ed) The managed mosaic: Ancient Maya agriculture and resource use. University of Utah Press, Utah, pp 30–50
Leyden BW, Brenner M, Dahlin B (1998) Cultural and climatic history of Coba, a lowland Maya City in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Quatern Res 49:111–122
Miranda F (1958) Estudios acerca de la vegetación. Instituto Mexicano de Recursos Renovables México
Palacios CP, Ludlow-Wiechers B, Villanueva-Gutierrez R (1991) Flora palinológica de la Reserva de Sian Ka'an, Quintana Roo, México. CIQRO, Quintana Roo, México
Quero E (1982) Las palmas silvestres de la península de Yucatán, UNAM, Instituto de Biología, México
Rejmankova E, Pope KE, Pohl MD, Rey-Benayas JM (1995) Freshwater wetland plant communities of northern Belize: Implications for paleoecological studies of Maya wetland agricultura. Biotropica 27:28–36
Roubik DW, Moreno JE (1991) Pollen and spores of Barro Colorado Island. Miss Bot Garden 36:1–270
Rzedowski J (1978) Vegetación de México. Editorial Limusa
Sánchez O (2000) Análisis estructural de la selva del jardín botánico. In: Sánchez O, Islebe GA (eds) El Jardín Botánico Dr. Alfredo Barrera Marín, fundamento y estudios particulares, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur and Consejo Nacional de la Biodiversidad, pp 59–74
Sánchez O, Islebe GA (1999) Hurricane Gilbert and structural changes in a tropical forest in southeastern Mexico. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 8:29–37
Sánchez O, Islebe GA (2002) Tropical forest communities in southeastern Mexico. Plant Ecol 158:183–200
Siemens AH (1978) Karst and pre-hispanic Maya in the Southern Lowlands. In: Harrison PD, Turner BL (eds) Pre-Hispanic Maya agriculture. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp 117–143
Stuiver M, Braziunas TF (1993) Modelling atmospheric 14C influences and 14C ages of marine samples back to 10000 bc. Radiocarbon 35:137–189
Stuiver M, Reimer PJ (1993) Extended14C database and revised CALIB radiocarbon calibration pogram. Radiocarbon 35:215–230
Stuiver M, Reimer PJ, Bard E, Beck JW, Burr GS, Hughen KA, Kromer B, McComarc FG, Plicht J van der, Spurk M (1998a) INTCAL98 radiocarbon age calibration 24000-0 cal b.p. Radiocarbon 40:1041–1083
Stuiver M, Reimer PJ, Brazuinas TF (1998b) High-precision radiocarbon age calibration for terrestrial and marine samples. Radiocarbon 40:1127–1151
Toscano MA, Macintyre IG (2003) Corrected western Atlantic sea-level curve for the last 11, 000 years based on calibrated14C dates from Acropora palmata framework and intertidial mangrove peat. Coral Reefs 22:257–270. DOI 10:1007/s00338-003-0315-4
Tryon RA, Tryon AF (1982) Ferns and Allied Plants with special reference to tropical America. Springer, New York
Van't Veer R, Ran ETH, Mommersteeg JPM, Hooghiemstra H (1995) Multivariate analysis of the Middle and Late Pleistocene Funza pollen records of Colombia. Mededelingen Rijks Geologische Dienst 52:195–212
Vaughan HH, Deevey ES, Garrett-Jones SE (1985) Pollen stratigraphy of two cores from the Petén Lake District. In: Pohl M (ed) Prehistoric lowland Maya environment and subsistence economy. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, pp 73–89
Whitmore TJ, Brenner M, Curtis JH, Dahlin B, Leyden BW (1996) Holocene climatic and human influence on lakes of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico: an interdisciplinary, paleolimnological approach. The Holocene 6:273–287
Acknowledgements
CONACYT is acknowledged for financial support to the Project (N25035) “Sinopsis actual and paleoecológica de la selva de Quintana Roo”. We thank O. Sanchez, H. Weissenberger, H. Behling and one anonymous reviewer for comments on the manuscript
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by Felix Bittmann
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Torrescano, N., Islebe, G.A. Tropical forest and mangrove history from southeastern Mexico: a 5000 yr pollen record and implications for sea level rise. Veget Hist Archaeobot 15, 191–195 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-005-0007-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-005-0007-9