Doctoral Dissertations

Keywords and Phrases

Anthropogenic impacts; Climate changes; Lake Izabal; Pollen analysis; Vegetation history

Abstract

"The Maya Region in Central America is characterized by pronounced discrepancies in precipitation, resulting in high precipitation gradients that support large-scale differences in vegetation across the region. Several lake deposits and other paleoclimate archives in the region have been studied to reconstruct past climates and palaeoecological conditions. However, actual data from proxy records have not been qualitatively and quantitatively utilized to interpret the behavior of the vegetation in moister areas within the Maya Region, such as the Lake Izabal Basin (LIB). The palynomorphs from two sediment cores in the LIB provided a good opportunity to infer the patterns of past precipitation, and environmental and human controls on paleo vegetation trends in the region that can be used to test models of Central American climate variability on different timescales. The analytical results of the 4.5 m-long Punta Chapin core, dated ~1300 cal. yr. BP based on six AMS14C dates of woody fragments, revealed a highly disturbed forest vegetation in the lower part of the core (~1300 -500 cal. yr. BP). This time corresponded to an overlap of the Terminal Classic Period and the Post Classic Period of Maya Civilization and was succeeded by a stable forest vegetation from ~500 cal. yr. BP to present. The 7.6 m-long Location 5 core was dated 9500 cal. yr. BP based on the extrapolation of eleven AMS14C dates of woody debris in the core and revealed complex interactions between climate, environments, and humans, and how they affected vegetation variability through time. Modeled mean annual temperature (MAT), mean annual precipitation (MAP), and precipitation seasonality (PSE) reveal high seasonality in the region that is reflected in the vegetation trends" -- Abstract, p. iv

Advisor(s)

Oboh-Ikuenobe, Francisca

Committee Member(s)

Correa-Metrio, Alex
Hogan, John Patrick
Mormile, Melanie R.
Yang, Wan

Department(s)

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Geology and Geophysics

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Summer 2024

Pagination

xii, 100 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes_bibliographical_references_(pages 32, 78 & 97-98)

Rights

©2024 Erdoo Mongol , All Rights Reserved

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 12398

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