Sensitivity of wetland hydrology to external climate forcing in central Florida

Available proxy records from the Florida peninsula give a varying view on hydrological changes during the late Holocene. Here we evaluate the consistency and sensitivity of local wetland records in relation to hydrological changes over the past ~. 5. ka based on pollen and diatom proxies from peat cores in Highlands Hammock State Park, central...

A 2,500-year record of environmental change in Highlands Hammock State Park (Central Florida, U.S.A.) inferred from siliceous microfossils

Analysis of siliceous microfossils of a 79 cm long peat sediment core from Highlands Hammock State Park, Florida, revealed distinct changes in the local hydrology during the past 2,500 years. The coring site is a seasonally inundated forest where water availability is directly influenced by precipitation. Diatoms, chrysophyte statospores, sponge...

Natural Environmental Changes versus Human Impact in a Florida Estuary (Rookery Bay, USA)

Assessing the impact of climate change and anthropogenic activity on Florida coastal areas requires a thorough understanding of natural climate variability. The available instrumental record, however, is too short and too limited to capture the full range of natural variability. In order to provide additional data on the natural state of the...

Impact of the Atlantic Warm Pool on precipitation and temperature in Florida during North Atlantic cold spells

Recurrent phases of increased pine at Lake Tulane, Florida have previously been related to strong stadials terminated by so-called Heinrich events. The climatic significance of these pine phases has been interpreted in different ways. Using a pollen-climate inference model, we quantified the climate changes and consistently found that mean...

Late Holocene sea-level rise in Tampa Bay: Integrated reconstruction using biomarkers, pollen, organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts, and diatoms

A suite of organic geochemical, micropaleontological and palynological proxies was applied to sediments from Southwest Florida, to study the Holocene environmental changes associated with sea-level rise. Sediments were recovered from Hillsborough Bay, part of Tampa Bay, and studied using biomarkers, pollen, organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts...

Drought stress signals in modern and subfossil Quercus laurifolia (Fagaceae) leaves reflect winter precipitation in southern Florida tied to El Niño-Southern Oscillation activity

In the present study, structural xeromorphic features in modern and subfossil Quercus laurifolia leaves from southern Florida were quantified to reconstruct past precipitation changes in sensitive terrestrial settings. Absolute cell numbers/mm², quantified as epidermal cell density (ED) have been analyzed on leaves from herbarium...

Three-hundred-year hydrological changes in a subtropical estuary, Rookery Bay (Florida): Human impact versus natural variability

The coastal wetland ecosystems in Florida are highly sensitive to changes in freshwater budget, which is driven by regional sea surface temperature, tropical storm activity, and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Although studying Florida wetlands is pivotal to the understanding of these interacting climate systems, wetland dynamics have...

Diatoms (Bacillariophyceae) and dinoflagellate cysts (dinophyceae) from Rookery Bay, Florida, U.S.A

This paper is a report, on the diatoms and dinoflagellate cysts identified in a sediment core and a water sample recovered from Rookery Bay, a subtropical estuarine system located on the west coast of Florida. Eighty-eight diatom taxa representing 48 genera, many of which have been rarely observed, and 14 dinoflagellate cyst genera with 20 taxa...