Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T07:17:45.290Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Late Holocene Changes in Precipitation and Hydrography Recorded in Marine Sediments from the Northeastern Caribbean Sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Johan Nyberg ,
Antoon Kuijpers ,
Björn A. Malmgren  and
Helmar Kunzendorf
Johan Nyberg*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences-Marine Geology, Göteborg University, Box 460, Göteborg, SE-405 30, Sweden
Antoon Kuijpers
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), Thoravej 8, Copenhagen NV, DK-2400, Denmark
Björn A. Malmgren
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences-Marine Geology, Göteborg University, Box 460, Göteborg, SE-405 30, Sweden
Helmar Kunzendorf
Affiliation:
Risø National Laboratory, Box 49, Roskilde, DK-4000, Denmark
*
1Corresponding author. Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We present a record of climate variability spanning the last 2000 years obtained from sediment cores retrieved south and west of Puerto Rico in the northeastern Caribbean Sea. The records include lithological and mineral magnetic parameters as well as planktonic foraminifer data. For chronostratigraphic control, AMS 14C and 210Pb/137Cs measurements were made. Harmonic analysis of the values of the mineral magnetic parameters “saturation isothermal remanent magnetization” (SIRM), “anhysteric remanent magnetization divided by magnetic susceptibility” (ARM/χ), and “saturation isothermal remanent magnetization divided by magnetic susceptibility” (SIRM/χ) indicate the existence of a ∼200-year-long climate cycle in the northeastern Caribbean during the last 2000 years. The detected cycle may reflect changes in precipitation patterns over the low-latitude North Atlantic Ocean and surrounding continental areas. Higher organic carbon contents appear in the sediments both off southern and western Puerto Rico before and at the onset of the Little Ice Age around A.D. 1300 to 1500. This is indicative of increased run off and/or enhanced surface productivity possibly associated with more intense wind-induced upwelling. Major changes in the geochemical and mineral magnetic records around A.D. 850–1000 concur with changes in other records from the Caribbean and North African regions indicating a shift toward a more humid climate over the low-latitude North Atlantic.

Keywords

Northeastern CaribbeanPuerto RicoLate Holoceneclimate variabilitymineral magnetic parametersgeochemical parameters
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , July 2001 , pp. 87 - 102
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, R.Y. (1992). Possible connection between surface winds, solar activity, and the earth's magnetic field. Nature 358, 51–53.Google Scholar
Andrews, J.T., and Barnett, D.M. (1979). Holocene (Neoglacial) moraine and proglacial lake chronology, Barnes Ice Cap, Canada. Boreas 8, 341–358.Google Scholar
Banerjee, S.K., King, J.W., and Marwin, J. (1981). A rapid method for magnetic granulometry with applications to environmental studies. Geophysical Research Letters 8, 333–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnston, G., and Livezey, R.E. (1987). Classification, seasonality and low-frequency atmospheric circulation patterns. Monthly Weather Review 115, 1083–1126.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beach, D. K, and Trumbull, J. V. A. Marine geological map of the Puerto Rico insular shelf, Isla Caja de Muertos area. U.S. Geological Survey miscellaneous investigation series Map I-1265, scale 1:40 000.Google Scholar
Black, D.E., Peterson, L.C., Overpeck, J.T., Kaplan, A., Evans, M.N., and Kashgarian, M. (1999). Eight centuries of North Alantic ocean atmosphere variability. Science 286, 1709–1713.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradshaw, R.H.W., and Thompson, R. (1985). The use of magnetic measurements to investigate the mineralogy of some Icelandic sediments and to study catchment processes. Boreas 14, 203–215.Google Scholar
Broecker, W.S., Bond, G., Klaus, M., Bonanni, G., and Wolffi, W. (1990). A salt oscillator in the glacial Atlantic? 1. The concept. Paleoceanography 5, 469–477.Google Scholar
Carton, J.A., Cao, X., Giese, B.S., and da Silva, A.M. (1996). Decadal and interannual SST variability in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. Journal of Physical Oceanography 26, 1165–1175.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, P., Ji, L., and Li, H. (1997). A decadal climate variation in the tropical Atlantic ocean from thermodynamic air-sea interactions. Nature 385, 516–518.Google Scholar
Coetzee, J.A., and van Zinderen Bakker, E.M. (1981). Paleoecology of Africa and surrounding islands. Balkerna, Rotterdam.Google Scholar
Curtis, J.H., Hodell, D.A., and Brenner, M. (1996). Climate variability on the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) during the past 3500 years, and implications for Maya cultural evolution. Quaternary Research 46, 37–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickson, R.R., Meincke, J., Malmberg, S.A., and Lee, A.J. (1988). The great salinity anomaly in the northern North-Atlantic 1968–1982. Progress in Oceanography 20, 103–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Druffel, E.M. (1982). Banded corals: Changes in oceanic carbon 14 during the little Ice Age. Science 218, 13–19.Google Scholar
Dunlop, D.J. (1973). Superparamagnetic and single-domain threshold sizes in magnetite. Journal of Geophysical Research 78, 1780–1793.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunlop, D.J. (1986). Hysterisis properties of magnetite and their dependence of particle size: A test of pseudo-single domain remanence models. Journal of Geophysical Research 91, 9569–9584.Google Scholar
Enfield, D.B., and Mayer, D.A. (1997). Tropical Atlantic sea surface temperature variability and its relation to El Nino-Southern Oscillation. Journal of Geophysical Research 102, 929–945.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Etter, P.C., Lamb, P.J., and Potis, D.H. (1987). Heat and freshwater budgets of the Caribbean with revised estimates of the Central American seas. Journal of Physical Oceanography 17, 1232–1248.Google Scholar
Fisher, R.A. (1929). Tests of significance in harmonic analysis. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A 125, 54–59.Google Scholar
George, S.E., and Saunders, M.A. (2001). North Atlantic Oscillation impact on tropical north Atlantic winter atmospheric variability. Geophysical Research Letters 28, 1015–1018.Google Scholar
Gordon, A.L. (1967). Circulation of the Caribbean Sea. Journal of Geophysical Research 72, 6207–6223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grove, K. A. Marine Geological Map of the Puerto Rico insular shelf, northwestern area: Rio Grande de Anasco to Rio Camuy. U.S. Geological Survey miscellaneous investigation series Map I-1418, scale 1:40 000.Google Scholar
Greatbatch, R.J., Fanning, A.F., and Goulding, A.D. (1993). A diagnosis of interpentadal circulation changes in the North Atlantic. Journal of Geophysical Research 96, 22009–22023.Google Scholar
Hasselmann, K. (1976). Stochastic climate models: Part I. Theory. Tellus 28, 473–485.Google Scholar
Hastenrath, S. (1976). Variations in low-latitude circulation and extreme climatic events in the tropical Americas. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences 33, 202–215.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hastenrath, S. (1984). Interannual variability and annual cycle: Mechanisms of circulation and climate in the tropical Atlantic sector. Monthly Weather Review 112, 1097–1107.Google Scholar
Hastenrath, S. (1991). Climate dynamics of the tropics. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hastenrath, S., and Kaczmarczyk, E.B. (1991). On spectra and coherence of tropical climate anomalies. Tellus 33, 453–462.Google Scholar
Hodell, D.A., Curtis, J.H., Jones, G.A., Higuera-Gundy, A., Brenner, M., Binford, M.W., and Dorsey, K.T. (1991). Reconstruction of Caribbean climate change over the past 10,500 years. Nature 352, 790–793.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodell, D.A., Curtis, J.H., and Brenner, M. (1995). Possible role of climate in the collapse of Classic Maya civilization. Nature 375, 391–394.Google Scholar
Hodell, D. A, Brenner, M, Curtis, J. H, and Guilderson, T. Drought frequency in the Maya lowlands. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, San Fransisco.Google Scholar
Horn, S.P., Sandford, R.L. Jr. (1992). Holocene fires in Costa Rica. Biotropica 24, 354–361.Google Scholar
Hurrell, J.W. (1995). Decadal trends in the North Atlantic Oscillation: Regional temperatures and precipitation. Science 169, 676–679.Google Scholar
Karlén, W. (1982). Holocene glacier fluctuations in Scandinavia. Striae 18, 26–34.Google Scholar
Keigwin, L.D. (1996). The little Ice Age and Medieval Warm Period in the Sargasso Sea. Science 274, 1504–1508.Google Scholar
King, J., Banerjee, S.K., Marvin, J., and Özdemir, Ö. (1982). A comparison of different magnetic methods for determining the relative grain size of magnetite in natural materials: Some results from lake sediments. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 59, 404–419.Google Scholar
Kreutz, K.J., Mayewski, P.A., Meeker, L.D., Twickler, M.S., Whitlow, S.I., and Pittalwala, I.I. (1997). Bipolar changes in Atmospheric circulation during the Little Ice Age. Science 277, 1294–1296.Google Scholar
Kunzendorf, H., Emeis, K.-C., and Christiansen, C. (1998). Sedimentation in the central Baltic Sea as viewed by non-destructive Pb-210 dating. Danish Journal of Geography 98, 1–9.Google Scholar
Kushnir, Y. (1994). Interdecadal variations in North Atlantic sea-surface temperature and associated atmospheric conditions. Journal of Climate 7, 141–157.Google Scholar
Lamb, H. H., Ed. Climate, History and the modern world. Methuen, London.Google Scholar
Leventer, A., Domack, E.G., Ishman, S.E., Brachfeld, S., McClennen, C.E., and Manley, P. (1996). Productivity cycles of 200-300 years in the Antarctic Peninsula region: Understanding linkages among the sun, atmosphere, oceans, sea ice, and biota. Geological Society of America Bulletin 108, 1626–1644.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lomb, N.R. (1976). Least squares frequency analysis of unequally spaced data. Astrophysics and Space Science 39, 447–462.Google Scholar
Lopez, M.A., and Colon-Dieppa, E. (1973). Magnitude and frequency of floods in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico Co-operative Water Resource Investigation Data Release PR-9 Google Scholar
Maher, B.A. (1988). Magnetic properties of some synthetic sub-micron magnetites. Geophysical Journal International 94, 83–96.Google Scholar
Malmgren, B.A., Winter, A., and Chen, D. (1998). El-nino-southern oscillation and North Atlantic oscillation control of climate in Puerto Rico. Journal of Climate 11, 2713–2717.Google Scholar
Metcalf, W.G. (1976). Caribbean-Atlantic exchange through the Anegada-Jungfern Passage. Journal of Geophysical Research 81, 6401–6409.Google Scholar
Metcalfe, S.E. (1995). Holocene environmental change in the Zacapu Basin, Mexico: A diatom-based record. The Holocene 5, 196–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Metcalfe, S. E., Street-Perrott, F. A., O'Hara, S. L., Hales, P. E., and Perrott, R. A. The paleolimnological record of environmental change: Examples from the arid frontier of Mesoamerica. in Environmental change in drylands: Biogeographical and Geomorphological Perspectives Millington, A. C. and Pye, K., Eds., pp. 131–145. Wiley, Chichester.Google Scholar
Mikolajewicz, U., and Maier-Reimer, E. (1990). Internal secular variability in an ocean general circulation model. Climate Dynamics 4, 145–156.Google Scholar
Morrison, J.M., Nowlin, W.D. Jr. (1982). General distributions of water masses with the eastern Caribbean Sea during the winter of 1972 and fall of 1973. Journal of Geophysical Research 87, 4207–4229.Google Scholar
Moulin, C., Lambert, C.E., Dulac, F., and Dayan, U. (1997). Control of atmospheric export of dust from North Africa by the North Atlantic Oscillation. Nature 387, 691–694.Google Scholar
Mysak, L.A., Stocker, T.F., and Huang, F. (1993). Century-scale variability in a randomly forced, two-dimensional thermohaline ocean circulation model. Climate Dynamics 8, 103–116.Google Scholar
Nyberg, J, Malmgren, B. A, Kuijpers, A, and Winter, A, A centennial-scale variability of subtropical North Atlantic surface hydrography during the late Holocene derived from an artificial neural network and δ18O of planktonic foraminifera. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, in press.Google Scholar
O'Brien, S.R., Mayewski, P.A., Meeker, L.D., Meese, D.A., Twickler, M., and Whitlow, S.I. (1995). Complexity of Holocene climate as reconstructed from a Greenland ice core. Science 270, 1962–1964.Google Scholar
Parry, L.G. (1965). Magnetic properties of dispersed magnetite powders. Philosophical Magazine 11, 303–312.Google Scholar
Peterson, L.C., Overpeck, J.T., Kipp, N.G., and Imbrie, J. (1991). A high-resolution late Quaternary upwelling record from the anoxic Cariaco Basin, Venezuela. Paleoceanography 6, 99–119.Google Scholar
Pittalwala, I.I., and Hameed, S. (1991). Simulation of the North Atlantic Oscillation in a general circulation model. Geophysical Research Letters 18, 841–844.Google Scholar
Prospero, J.M. (1968). Atmospheric dust studies on Barbados. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 49, 645–652.Google Scholar
Raisbeck, G.M., Yiou, F., Jouzel, J., and Petit, J.R. (1990). 10Be and δ2H in polar ice cores as a probe of the solar variability's influence on climate. Royal Society of London Philosophical Transactions 330, 463–470.Google Scholar
Reynolds, R.L., Tuttle, M.L., Rice, C.A., Fishman, N.S., Karachewski, J.A., and Sherman, D.M. (1994). Magnetization and geochemistry of greigite-bearing Cretaceous strata, North Slope Basin, Alaska. American Journal of Science 294, 485–528.Google Scholar
Rind, D. (1990). Puzzles form the tropics. Nature 346, 317–318.Google Scholar
Rind, D., and Overpeck, J.T. (1993). Hypothesized causes of decade-to-century climate variability: Climate model results. Quaternary Science Reviews 12, 357–374.Google Scholar
Ruttenberg, K.C., and Goni, M.A. (1997). Phosphorus distribution, C:N:P ratios, and δ13Coc in arctic, temperate, and tropical coastal sediments: Tools for characterizing bulk sedimentary organic matter. Marine Geology 139, 123–145.Google Scholar
Röthlisberger, F. Ed. 10000 Jahre Gletschergeschichte der Erde. Verlag Sauerländer, Aarau, Switzerland.Google Scholar
Schlosser, P., Bonisch, G., Rhein, M., and Bayer, R. (1991). Reduction of deep-water formation in the Greenland Sea during the 1980's: Evidence from tracer data. Science 251, 1054–1056.Google Scholar
Schmittner, A., Appenzeller, C., and Stocker, T.F. (2000). Enhanced Atlantic freshwater export during El Niño. Geophysical Research Letters 27, 1163–1166.Google Scholar
Schulz, M, and Mudelsee, M. REDFIT: Estimating red-noise spectra directly from unevenly spaced paleoclimatic time series, Computers and Geosciences, in press.Google Scholar
Schulz, M., and Stattegger, K. (1997). Spectrum: Spectral analysis of unevenly spaced paleoclimate time series. Computers and Geosciences 23, 929–945.Google Scholar
Scuderi, L.A. (1993). A 2000-year tree ring record of annual temperatures in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Science 259, 1433–1436.Google Scholar
Siegel, A.F. (1980). Testing for periodicity in a time series. Journal of the American Statistical Association 75, 345–348.Google Scholar
Snowball, I.F., and Thompson, R. (1990). A stable chemical remanence in Holocene sediments. Journal of Geophysical Research 95, 4471–4479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stober, J.C., and Thompson, R. (1979). Magnetic remanence of acquisition in Finnish lake sediments. Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 57, 727–739.Google Scholar
Street-Perrott, F.A., Holmes, J.A., Waller, M.P., Allen, M.J., Barer, N.G.H., Fothergill, P.A., Harkness, D.D., Inovich, M., Kroon, D., and Perrott, R.A. (2000). Drought and dust deposition in the West African Sahel: A 5500-year record from Kajemarum Oasis, northeastern Nigeria. The Holocene 10, 293–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M., and Brazuinas, T.F. (1993). Sun, ocean, climate, and atmospheric 14CO2: An evaluation of causal and spectral relationships. The Holocene 3, 289–305.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., and Reimer, P.J. (1993). Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C age calibration program. Radiocarbon 35, 215–230.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Beck, J.W., Burr, G.S., Hughen, K.A., Kromer, B., McCormac, F.G., v. d. Plicht, J., and Spurk, M. (1998). INTCAL98 Radiocarbon age calibration 24,000 - 0 cal BP. Radiocarbon 40, 1041–1083.Google Scholar
Suess, H.E., and Linick, T.W. (1990). The 14C record in bristlecone pine wood of the past 8000 yr based on the dendrochronology of the late C. W. Ferguson. Royal Society of London Philosophical Transactions 330, 403–412.Google Scholar
Thompson, L.G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Bolzan, J.F., and Koci, B.R. (1985). A 1500-year record of tropical precipitation in ice cores from the Quelccaya ice cap, Peru. Science 229, 971–973.Google Scholar
Thompson, L.G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Dansgaard, W., and Grootes, P.M. (1986). The little Ice Age as recorded in the stratigraphy of the Quelccaya ice cap. Science 234, 361–364.Google Scholar
Thompson, L.G., Davis, M.E., Mosley-Thompson, E., and Liu, K-b. (1988). Pre-Incan agricultural activity recorded in dust layers in two tropical ice cores. Nature 336, 763–765.Google Scholar
Thompson, R., and Oldfield, F. (1986). Environmental Magnetism. Unwin and Allen, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toledo, V.M. (1980). Las Illuvias en Mexico. Nexos 32, 10–12.Google Scholar
Weaver, J.D. (1964). Guidebook for a field trip in Puerto Rico, 22-24 November 1964. Univ. Puerto Rico, Mayaguez.Google Scholar
Weisse, R., Mikolajewicz, U., and Maier-Reimer, E. (1994). Decadal variability of the North Atlantic in an ocean general circulation model. Journal of Geophysical Research 99, 12411–12421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wigley, T.M.L. (1964). The climate of the last 10000 years and the role of the sun. Stephenson, F.R., and Wolfendale, A. (1988). Secular solar and geomagnetic variations in the last 10000 years. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht. 209–224.Google Scholar
Wood, E.D., Youngbluth, J.J., Nutt, M.E., Yeaman, M.N., Yoshioku, P., and Canoy, M.J. (1975). Punta Manati Environmental Studies. Puerto Rico Nuclear Center 182, 225 Google Scholar
Wüst, G. Stratification and circulation in the Antillean-Caribbean basins. Columbia Univ. Press, New York.Google Scholar
Yang, J.A. (1999). A linkage between deacadal climate variations in the Labrador Sea and the tropical Atlantic ocean. Geophysical Research Letters 26, 1023–1026.Google Scholar
Yoshioka, P., Owen, G.G., and Pesante, D. (1985). Spatial and temporal variations in Caribbean zooplankton near Puerto Rico. Journal of Plankton Research 7, 733–751.CrossRefGoogle Scholar