Mid- to late-Holocene El Nino-Southern Oscillation dynamics reflected in the subtropical terrestrial realm.
High resolution pollen analysis of mid- to late-Holocene peat deposits from southwest Florida reveals a stepwise increase in wetland vegetation that points to an increased precipitation-driven fresh water flow during the past 5,000 years. The tight coupling between winter precipitation patterns in Florida and the strength of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) strongly suggests that the paleo-hydrology record reflects changes in ENSO intensity. A terrestrial subtropical record outside the Indo Pacific Warm Pool both documents ecosystem response to the known onset of modern-day ENSO periodicities, between approximately 7,000 and 5,000 years B.P., and subsequent ENSO intensification after 3,500 years B.P. The observed increases in "wetness" are sustained by a gradual rise in relative sea level that prevents a return to drier vegetation through natural succession.
Donders
Timme H
TH
Department of Palaeoecology, Laboratory of Palaeobotany and Palynology, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD Utrecht, The Netherlands. t.h.donders@bio.uu.nl
Wagner
Friederike
F
Dilcher
David L
DL
Visscher
Henk
H
D017753:Ecosystem; D005431:Florida; D005580:Fossils; D011058:Pollen; D032489:Taxodium; D013997:Time Factors; D014329:Tropical Climate