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Middle to late Holocene paleolimnology of a sinkhole lake in the northern Bahamas and its linkage to regional climate variability

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Abstract

Sinkholes develop on carbonate landscapes when caves collapse and can subsequently become lake-like environments if they are flooded by local groundwater. Sediment cores retrieved from sinkholes have yielded high-resolution reconstructions of past environmental change, hydroclimate, and hurricane activity. However, our understanding of the internal sedimentary processes of these systems remains incomplete. Here, we use a multiproxy approach including sedimentology (stratigraphy, coarse-grained particle density, bulk organic matter content), micropaleontology (ostracods), and geochemistry (δ13C and δ2H on n-alkanoic acids) to reconstruct evidence for paleolimnology and regional hydroclimate from a continuous stratigraphic record (Emerald Pond sinkhole) in the northern Bahamas that spans the middle to late Holocene. Basal peat at 8.9 m below modern sea level documents the maximum sea-level position at ~ 8200 cal. yr BP. Subsequent upward vertical migration of the local aquifer caused by regional sea-level rise promoted carbonate-marl deposition from ~ 8300 to 1700 cal. yr BP. A shift in coarse particle deposition and ostracods at 5500 cal. yr BP suggests some environmental change, which may be related to one or multiple internal or external drivers. Sapropel deposition from ~ 1700 to 1300 cal. yr BP indicates a fundamental change in limnology to promote increased organic matter preservation, perhaps related to the regional cooling during the Dark Ages Cold Period. We find δ2H28 values are largely invariant from 7700 to 6150 cal. yr BP suggesting a generally stable hydroclimate (mean − 133‰, 1σ = 5‰). The shift to more depleted values (− 156‰, 1σ = 19‰) at ~ 6000–4800 cal. yr BP may be linked to a weakened (eastern displaced) North Atlantic Subtropical High. Nevertheless, additional local hydroclimate records are needed to better disentangle uncertainties from either internal or external influences on the resultant measurements.

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Data availability

All data associated with this submission are publicly available within the NOAA Paleoclimatology repository: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/31372.

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Acknowledgements

Field access and permissions were supported by AMMC/National Museum of The Bahamas and permits granted by The Bahamas Environment, Science and Technology (BEST) Commission. Additional coring/field support from Victoria Keeton. Sample preparation for plant-wax analyses were conducted with laboratory assistance at USC from undergraduates Efrain Vidal and Hyo Sun (Sunny) Lee. We thank Dr. Sally Horn for helpful discussions throughout the project. The manuscript was improved with the review comments of two anonymous reviewers.

Funding

Plant wax analyses were funded by US National Science Foundation EAR-1703141 to SF, EAR-1703087 to PvH and by a 2019 Graduate Student Research Grant to AT from the Geological Society of America. Additional analytical support was funded by EAR-1702946 and AGS-1805480 to SC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Anne E. Tamalavage

  2. Department of Coastal and Environmental Science, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Galveston, TX, USA

    Peter J. van Hengstum

  3. Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Anne E. Tamalavage, Peter J. van Hengstum, Tyler S. Winkler & Richard M. Sullivan

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Sarah J. Feakins

  5. Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Galveston, TX, USA

    Shawna N. Little

  6. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Sloan Coats

  7. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA

    Tyler S. Winkler & Jeffrey P. Donnelly

  8. School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Patrick Louchouarn

  9. Coastal Cave Survey, West Branch, IA, USA

    Nancy A. Albury

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  1. Anne E. Tamalavage
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Contributions

We use the formal Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) to acknowledge the work of this team. All authors contributed to the conceptualization of this work over a three-year period. AET: data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, project administration, supervision, validation, visualization, writing- original draft. PJH: funding acquisition, investigation, project administration, resources, supervision, visualization, writing-original draft. SJF: data curation, funding acquisition, investigation, resources, validation, writing-original draft. SC: funding acquisition, investigation, resources, writing-original draft. SNL: data curation, investigation, validation, visualization, writing-original draft. TSW: investigation, validation, writing-review and editing. RMS: formal analysis, investigation, visualization, writing-review and editing. NAA: investigation, project administration, resources, writing-review and editing. JPD: funding acquisition, validation, resources, writing review and editing. PL: funding acquisition, resources, writing review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anne E. Tamalavage.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Tables

Table 1 Conventional radiocarbon dates for EMLD C1, C2, C3, and RP5
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1 and

Table 2 Bulk coarse particle density and OM for the three main facies present within the EMLD cores
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2.

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Tamalavage, A.E., van Hengstum, P.J., Feakins, S.J. et al. Middle to late Holocene paleolimnology of a sinkhole lake in the northern Bahamas and its linkage to regional climate variability. J Paleolimnol 70, 265–291 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-023-00291-y

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