Palynological reconstruction of environmental changes in coastal wetlands of the Florida Everglades since the mid-Holocene.

Published in Quaternary Research, v. 83(3)
Authors

Yao, Q., Liu, K.B., Platt, W.J. and Rivera-Monroy, V.H.

Publication year 2015
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2015.03.005
Affiliations
  • Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, School of the Coast and Environment, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
  • Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA

 

IAI Program

CRN3

IAI Project CRN3025
Keywords

Abstract

Palynological, loss-on-ignition, and X-ray fluorescence data from a 5.25 m sediment core from a mangrove forest at the mouth of the Shark River Estuary in the southwestern Everglades National Park, Florida were used to reconstruct changes occurring in coastal wetlands since the mid-Holocene. This multi-proxy record contains the longest paleoecological history to date in the southwestern Everglades. The Shark River Estuary basin was formed ~ 5700 cal yr BP in response to increasing precipitation. Initial wetlands were frequently-burned short-hydroperiod prairies, which transitioned into long-hydroperiod prairies with sloughs in which peat deposits began to accumulate continuously about 5250 cal yr BP. Our data suggest that mangrove communities started to appear after ~ 3800 cal yr BP declines in the abundance of charcoal suggested gradual replacement of fire-dominated wetlands by mangrove forest over the following 2650 yr. By ~ 1150 cal yr BP, a dense Rhizophora mangle dominated mangrove forest had formed at the mouth of the Shark River. The mangrove-dominated coastal ecosystem here was established at least 2000 yr later than has been previously estimated.