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Climate change on the Yucatan Peninsula during the Little Ice Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

David A. Hodell ,
Mark Brenner ,
Jason H. Curtis ,
Roger Medina-González ,
Enrique Ildefonso-Chan Can ,
Alma Albornaz-Pat  and
Thomas P. Guilderson
David A. Hodell*
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences and Land Use and Environmental Change Institute (LUECI), University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Mark Brenner
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences and Land Use and Environmental Change Institute (LUECI), University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Jason H. Curtis
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences and Land Use and Environmental Change Institute (LUECI), University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Roger Medina-González
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ecologia, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Merida, Yucatán, México
Enrique Ildefonso-Chan Can
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ecologia, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Merida, Yucatán, México
Alma Albornaz-Pat
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ecologia, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Merida, Yucatán, México
Thomas P. Guilderson
Affiliation:
Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94551, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: +1 352 392 9294.E-mail address:dhodell@geology.ufl.edu (D.A. Hodell).
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Abstract

We studied a 5.1-m sediment core from Aguada X'caamal (20° 36.6′N, 89° 42.9′W), a small sinkhole lake in northwest Yucatan, Mexico. Between 1400 and 1500 A.D., oxygen isotope ratios of ostracod and gastropod carbonate increased by an average of 2.2‰ and the benthic foraminifer Ammonia beccarii parkinsoniana appeared in the sediment profile, indicating a hydrologic change that included increased lake water salinity. Pollen from a core in nearby Cenote San José Chulchacá showed a decrease in mesic forest taxa during the same period. Oxygen isotopes of shell carbonate in sediment cores from Lakes Chichancanab (19° 53.0′N, 88° 46.0′W) and Salpeten (16° 58.6′N, 89° 40.5′W) to the south also increased in the mid-15th century, but less so than in Aguada X'caamal. Climate change in the 15th century is also supported by historical accounts of cold and famine described in Maya and Aztec chronicles. We conclude that climate became drier on the Yucatan Peninsula in the 15th century A.D. near the onset of the Little Ice Age (LIA). Comparison of results from the Yucatan Peninsula with other circum-Caribbean paleoclimate records indicates a coherent climate response for this region at the beginning of the LIA. At that time, sea surface temperatures cooled and aridity in the circum-Caribbean region increased.

Keywords

Climate changeLittle Ice AgeIsotope
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 63 , Issue 2 , March 2005 , pp. 109 - 121
Copyright
University of Washington

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