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Post-colonial pollution of the Bay of Cartagena, Colombia

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Abstract

The city of Cartagena, Colombia, was founded in 1533, making it the fifth oldest, continuously inhabitated colonial city in South America. Today, Cartagena is the fifth largest city in Colombia, with ~ 1.2 million inhabitants. Las Quintas Lagoon lies near the center of Cartagena and is connected hydrologically to the Bay of Cartagena and Las Virgenes Lagoon via channels. The sediments of Las Quintas Lagoon thus offer a unique opportunity to explore the environmental history of one of the oldest cities in South America. We analysed a 210Pb- and 14C-dated sediment core from Las Quintas Lagoon to investigate the environmental effects of long-term urban development in this tropical, estuarine setting. The sediment core from Las Quintas Lagoon displays evidence of change in the depositional environment during the last few centuries. Principal Component Analysis indicated relatively stable conditions in Las Quintas Lagoon from the begining of the record (about 1300 CE) until ca. 1900 CE, when the ongoing eutrophication began. PC1 shows statistical significance and was dominated by geochemical indicators, whereas PC2 correlated with pollen spectra. Upcore decreases in TOC/TN values, together with increases in TOC, TN and δ15N values, indicate greater autochthonous (i.e. phytoplankton) production and eutrophication. Lack of statistical significance of PC2 points to low variability among pollen spectra, and hence vegetation, through time. Diatom assemblages in the Las Quintas Lagoon sediment record display two shifts during the last 100 years, ca. 1940 and 2000, which also reflect progressive eutrophication of the system.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded partially by a grant from the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) CRN3038, which is supported by the US National Science Foundation (Grant GEO-1128040). J Escobar and N Hoyos were funded partially by Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarships (QES), a partnership among Universities in Canada, the Rideau Hall Foundation (RHF), and Community Foundations of Canada (CFC). The QES is made possible with financial support from the International Development Research Centre and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. N Hoyos was supported partially by the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Fisica y Geologia, Universidad del Norte, Km 5 Via Puerto Colombia, Barranquilla, Colombia

    Yuliana Serna & Juan Camilo Restrepo

  2. Instituto de Geologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 04510, Coyoacán, Mexico D.F., Mexico

    Alexander Correa-Metrio

  3. Land Use and Environmental Change Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA

    William Francis Kenney

  4. Department of Geological Sciences, and Land Use and Environmental Change Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA

    Jason Hillary Curtis & Mark Brenner

  5. Department of Geology, University of Regina, Regina, SK, S4S 0A2, Canada

    Maria Isabel Velez

  6. Departamento de Historia y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad del Norte, Km 5 Via Puerto Colombia, Barranquilla, Colombia

    Natalia Hoyos

  7. Posgrado en Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 04510, Coyoacán, Mexico D.F., Mexico

    Cecilia Cordero-Oviedo

  8. School of Marine Science and Ocean Engineering, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 03824, USA

    David Buck

  9. Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnologia, Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, Mazatlán, Mexico

    Nancy Suarez

  10. Departamento de Ingenieria Civil y Ambiental, Universidad del Norte, Km 5 Via Puerto Colombia, Barranquilla, Colombia

    Jaime Escobar

  11. Center for Tropical Paleoecology and Archaeology, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Box 0843-03092, Balboa, Panama

    Jaime Escobar

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  1. Yuliana Serna
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Serna, Y., Correa-Metrio, A., Kenney, W.F. et al. Post-colonial pollution of the Bay of Cartagena, Colombia. J Paleolimnol 63, 21–35 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-019-00101-4

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