Developing new paleoenvironmental approaches for Caribbean coastal systems - case studies from Punta de Cartas and Playa Bailen, Cuba, and Little Salt Spring, Florida

Abstract

Tropical latitudes play an important role in global climate as they export moisture and energy pole-ward. Recent tests of predictive climate models against Holocene paleoclimate data show discrepancies between predicted and observed values in Tropical regions. Terrestrial paleoclimate records could help resolve these discrepancies by all allowing for better understand of the sensitive ocean-atmosphere climate dynamics in the tropics and by providing additional information from a diverse source of proxies.

The Caribbean is an ideal location for study as its climate is influenced by both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. However, there are relatively few sources of paleoclimate proxies in this region due to its archipelagic nature. If Caribbean climate is to be thoroughly investigated, additional environments and climate proxies need to be investigated.

As coastal systems are ubiquitous throughout the Caribbean, they are ideal for investigation of Holocene paleoclimate in this region. However, they can be ephemeral on millennial timescales making them challenging to use in paleoclimate analysis. This dissertation discusses new methods and basins that facilitate the study of these systems. Several important contributions have been made by this thesis. (1) Core scanning XRF data, when examined with additional proxies such as foraminifera, can be used to infer shifts in regional precipitation patterns in a coastal setting. Though these methods have been used before in deep basins, this represents the first use of core scanning XRF in a littoral setting. (2) The evolution of sinkhole sedimentation is reliant on both the morphology of the sinkhole and water level within the feature. This thesis shows that coastal systems are a viable source of paleoclimate information and which can hold valuable information for reconstructing climate.