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Sedimentary stable carbon isotope evidence of late Quaternary vegetation and climate change in highland Costa Rica

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Abstract

Continuous terrestrial records of paleoclimate and paleovegetation that extend to the late Pleistocene are rare for the circum-Caribbean uplands. In this study we analyzed the bulk and compound-specific carbon isotope composition of lake sediments spanning this period from Lago de las Morrenas 1 (LM1), a glacial lake in the highlands of southern Costa Rica, for evidence of climate and vegetation changes that may not have been apparent in previous analyses. The stable carbon isotope ratios of n-alkanes typically derived from terrestrial plants (δ13CC27–C33) indicate an increased abundance of C4 plant taxa during the late Pleistocene and earliest Holocene that may be related to decreased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, increased aridity, or habitat availability. These n-alkane isotope ratios also provide evidence of more arid conditions during the early and late Holocene, and more mesic conditions during the middle Holocene, a pattern prevalent in other paleoclimate records from the region that is thought to be related to millennial-scale dynamics of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). The sensitivity of the LM1 paleorecord to trade wind dynamics provides further support for the role of millennial-scale shifts in ITCZ dynamics in driving neotropical environmental change, and indicates that the effects of ITCZ migration were not limited to the lowlands.

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Acknowledgments

Laboratory analyses and field work were supported by the Global Environmental Change Research Group at the University of Tennessee and grants to S. Horn from the National Geographic Society and The A.W. Mellon Foundation. Isotopic analyses were supported by NSF grant EAR-0004104 to C. Mora. Radiocarbon dates were provided by the NSF-Arizona AMS Laboratory through their program of student research support. During portions of this research, C. Lane was supported by Hilton-Smith and Yates Dissertation Fellowships from the University of Tennessee, and by NSF grant BCS-0550382. Katie Milam, an undergraduate research assistant on the project, was supported by NSF grant BCS-0550382 and a Future Faculty Grant to C. Lane from the Academic Keys Foundation. We thank the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment and Energy and the La Amistad-Pacifico Conservation Area for allowing us to conduct research in Chirripó National Park, and Maureen Sanchéz, José Luis Garrita, and Daniel Lewis for field assistance. We also thank Zheng-Hua Li and Maria Uhle for assistance with isotope analyses, and A. Schimmelmann for providing standards.

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  1. Chad S. Lane

    Present address: Department of Geography and Geology, University of North Carolina-Wilmington, Wilmington, NC, 28403, USA

  2. Claudia I. Mora

    Present address: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA

  3. David B. Finkelstein

    Present address: Department of Geosciences, The University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    Chad S. Lane, Sally P. Horn & Kenneth H. Orvis

  2. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    Claudia I. Mora & David B. Finkelstein

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Lane, C.S., Horn, S.P., Mora, C.I. et al. Sedimentary stable carbon isotope evidence of late Quaternary vegetation and climate change in highland Costa Rica. J Paleolimnol 45, 323–338 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-011-9500-6

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