Climate variability on the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) during the past 3500 years, and implications for Maya cultural evolution

Quaternary Research

Volumn 46, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 37-47

  Curtis, Jason H ^a   Hodell, David A ^a   Brenner, Mark ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CLIMATE VARIABILITY; DROUGHT; HOLOCENE; MAYAN CIVILIZATION;

MEXICO, YUCATAN PENINSULA;

EID: 0030440230     PISSN: 00335894     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1006/qres.1996.0042     Document Type: Article

References (54)

1. Abell, P. I. (1985). Oxygen isotope ratios in modern African gastropod shells: A data base for paleoclimatology. Chemical Geology (Isotope Geoscience Section) 58, 183-193.
2. APHA (American Public Health Association) (1992). "Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 18th ed." American Public Health Association, Washington, D.C.
3. Bradbury, J. P. (1982). Holocene chronostratigraphy of Mexico and Central America. Striae 16, 46-48.
4. Castillo, A. B., and Peraza, R. L. Z. (1991). Punta Laguna: Un sitio prehispánico de Quintana Roo. Estudios de Cultura Maya 18, 23-64.
5. Chivas, A. R., De Deckker, P., Cail, J. A., Chapman, A., Kiss, E., and Shelley, J. M. G. (1993). Coupled stable-isotopic and trace-element measurements of lacustrine carbonates as paleoclimatic indicators. In "Climate Change in Continental Isotopic Records" (P. K. Swart, K. C. Lohmann, J. McKenzie, and S. Savin, Eds.), pp. 113-121. American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C.
6. Coe, M. D. (1987). "The Maya." Thames and Hudson, London.
7. Covich, A., and Stuiver, M. (1974). Changes in oxygen 18 as a measure of long-term fluctuations in tropical lake levels and molluscan populations. Limnology and Oceanography 19, 682-691.
8. Craig, H. (1965). The measurement of oxygen isotope paleotemperatures. In "Proceedings of the Spoleto Conference on Stable Isotopes in Oceanographic Studies and Paleotemperatures" (E. Tongiorgi, Ed.), pp. 161-182. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Laboratorio di Geologia Nucleare, Pisa.
9. Craig, H., and Gordon, L. I. (1965). Deuterium and oxygen-18 variations in the ocean and the marine atmosphere. In "Proceedings of the Spoleto Conference on Stable Isotopes in Oceanographic Studies and Paleotemperatures" (E. Tongiorgi, Ed.), pp. 1-22. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Laboratorio de Geologia Nucleare, Pisa.
10. Curtis, J. H., and Hodell, D. A. (1993). An isotopic and trace element study of ostracods from Lake Miragoane, Haiti: A 10,500 year record of paleosalinity and paleotemperature change in the Caribbean. In "Climate Change in Continental Isotopic Records" (P. K. Swart, K. C. Lohmann, J. McKenzie, and S. Savin, Eds.), pp. 135-152. American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C.
11. Dahlin, B. H. (1983). Climate and prehistory on the Yucatan Peninsula. Climatic Change 5, 245-263.
12. Deevey, E. S., and Stuiver, M. (1964). Distribution of natural isotopes of carbon in Linsley Pond and other New England lakes. Limnology and Oceanography 9, 1-11.
13. Durazzi, J. T. (1977). Stable isotopes in ostracod shell: A preliminary study. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 41, 1168-1170.
14. Engleman, E. E., Jackson, L. L., and Norton, D. R. (1985). Determination of carbonate carbon in geological materials by coulometric titration. Journal of Great Lakes Research 2, 307-323.
15. Fisher, M. M., Brenner, M., and Reddy, K. R. (1992). A simple, inexpensive piston corer for collecting undisturbed sediment/water interface profiles. Journal of Paleolimnology 7, 157-161.
16. Folan, W. J., and Hyde, B. H. (1985). Climatic forecasting and recording among the ancient and historic Maya: An ethnohistoric approach to epistemological and paleoclimatological patterning. In "Contributions to the Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Greater Mesoamerica" (W. J. Folan, Ed.), pp. 15-48. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.
17. Folan, W. J., Kintz, E. R., and Fletcher, L. A. (1983). "Coba: A Classic Maya Metropolis." Academic Press, New York.
18. Fontes, J. C., and Gonfiantini, R. (1967). Comportement isotopique au cours de l'evaporation de deux bassins sahariens. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 3, 258-266.
19. 13C in the shells of freshwater molluscs and their environments. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 24, 91-98.
20. Gasse, F., Techet, R., Durand, A., Gilbert, E., and Fontes, J. C. (1990). The arid-humid transition in the Sahara and Sahel during the last glaciation. Nature 346, 141-146.
21. Gill, R. B. (1995). "The Great Maya Droughts." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, Austin.
22. Grossman, E. L., and Ku, T. (1981). Aragonite-water isotopic paleotemperature scale based on the benthic foraminifer Hoeglundina elegans. Geological Society of America, Annual Meetings, Abstracts with Programs 13, 464.
23. Gunn, J., and Adams, R. E. W. (1981). Climatic change, culture, and civilization in North America. World Archaeology 13, 87-100.
24. Hastenrath, S. (1976). Variations in low-latitude circulation and extreme climatic events in the tropical Americas. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences 33, 202-215.
25. Hastenrath, S. (1984). Interannual variability and annual cycle: Mechanisms of circulation and climate in the tropical Atlantic sector. Monthly Weather Review 112, 1097-1107.
26. Hastenrath, S. (1991). "Climatic Dynamics of the Tropics." Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
27. Hastenrath, S., and Kaczmarczyk, E. B. (1981). On spectra and coherence of tropical climate anomalies. Tellus 33, 453-462.
28. Heaton, T. H. E., Holmes, J. A., and Bridgwater, N. D. (1995). Carbon and oxygen isotope variations among lacustrine ostracods: Implications for paleoclimatic studies. The Holocene 5, 428-434.
29. Hodell, D. A., Curtis, J. H., Jones, G. A., Higuera-Gundy, A., Brenner, M., Binford, M. W., and Dorsey, K. T. (1991). Reconstruction of Caribbean climate change over the past 10,500 years. Nature 352, 790-793.
30. Hodell, D. A., Curtis, J. H., and Brenner, M. (1995). Possible role of climate in the collapse of Classic Maya civilization. Nature 375, 391-394.
31. Holmes, J. A., Street Perrott, F. A., Ivanovich, M., and Perrott, R. A. (1995). A late Quaternary palaeolimnological record from Jamaica based on trace-element chemistry of ostracod shells. Chemical Geology 124, 143-160.
32. Horn, S. P., and Sanford, R. L., Jr. (1992). Holocene fires in Costa Rica. Biotropica 24, 354-361.
33. INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica Geografia e Informatica) (1981). 1:1000000 Merida, Carta de Evapotranspiracion y deficit de agua. Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.
34. INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica Geografia e Informatica) (1983). 1:1000000 Merida, Carta de Climas. Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.
35. Lean, J., and Warrilow, D. A. (1989). Simulation of the regional climatic impact of Amazon deforestation. Nature 342, 411-413.
36. Leyden, B. W., Brenner, M., Whitmore, T. J., Curtis, J. H., Piperno, D. R., and Dahlin, B. H. (in press). A record of long- and short-term climate variation from northwest Yucatan: Cenote San Jose Chulchaca. In "The Managed Mosaic: Ancient Maya Agriculture and Resource Use" (S. L. Fedick, Ed.). University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
37. Lister, G. S., Kelts, K., Zao, C. K., Yu, J., and Niessen, F. (1991). Lake Qinghai, China: Closed-basin lake levels and the oxygen isotope record for ostracoda since the latest Pleistocene. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 84, 141-162.
38. Lowe, J. W. G. (1985). "The Dynamics of the Apocalypse." University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
39. Messenger, L. C., Jr. (1990). Ancient winds of change: Climatic settings and prehistoric social complexity in Mesoamerica. Ancient Mesoamerica 1, 21-40.
40. Metcalfe, S. E. (1995). Holocene environmental change in the Zacapu Basin, Mexico: A diatom-based record. The Holocene 5, 196-208.
41. Metcalfe, S. E., Street-Perrott, F. A., O'Hara, S. L., Hales, P. E., and Perrott, R. A. (1994). The palaeolimnological record of environmental change: Examples from the arid frontier of Mesoamerica. In "Environmental Change in Drylands: Biogeographical and Geomorphological Perspectives" (A. C. Millington and K. Pye, Eds.), pp. 131-145. Wiley, Chichester.
42. Ortloff, C. R., and Kolata, A. L. (1993). Climate and collapse: Agro-ecological perspectives on the decline of the Tiwanaku state. Journal of Archaeological Science 20, 195-221.
43. Rozanski, K., Araguás-Araguás, L., and Gonfiantini, R. (1993). Isotopic patterns of modern global precipitation. In "Climate Change in Continental Isotopic Records" (P. K. Swart, K. C. Lohmann, J. McKenzie, and S. Savin, Eds.), pp. 1-36. American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C.
44. Socki, R. A., Karlsson, H. R., and Gibson, E. K. (1992). Extraction technique for the determination of oxygen-18 in water using preevacuated glass vials. Analytical Chemistry 64, 829-831.
45. Stuiver, M., and Becker, B. (1993). High-precision calibration of the radiocarbon time scale AD 1950-6000 BC. Radiocarbon 35, 35-65.
46. 14C age calibration program. Radiocarbon 35, 215-230.
47. Talbot, M. R. (1990). A review of the palaeohydrological interpretation of carbon and oxygen isotopic ratios in primary lacustrine carbonates. Chemical Geology 80, 261-279.
48. Thompson, L. G., and Mosley-Thompson, E. (1987). Evidence of abrupt climatic change during the last 1,500 years recorded in ice cores from the tropical Quelccaya ice cap, Peru. In "Abrupt Climatic Change: Evidence and Implications" (W. H. Berger and L. D. Labeyrie, Eds.), pp. 99-110. Reidel, Dordrecht.
49. Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Bolzan, J. F., and Koci, B. R. (1985). A 1500-year record of tropical precipitation in ice cores from the Quelccaya ice cap, Peru. Science 229, 971-973.
50. Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Dansgaard, W., and Grootes, P. M. (1986). The Little Ice Age as recorded in the stratigraphy of the tropical Quelccaya ice cap. Science 234, 361-364.
51. Thompson, L. G., Davis, M. E., Mosley-Thompson, E., and Liu, K-b. (1988). Pre-Incan agricultural activity recorded in dust layer in two tropical ice cores. Nature 336, 763-765.
52. Whitmore, T. J., Brenner, M., Curtis, J. H., Dahlin, B. H., and Leyden, B. W. (in press). Holocene climatic and human influences on lakes of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico: An interdisciplinary, paleolimnological approach. The Holocene 6.
53. Wilson, E. M. (1984). Physical geography of the Yucatan Peninsula. In "Yucatan: A World Apart," 2nd printing (E. H. Moseley and E. D. Terry, Eds.), pp. 5-40. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
54. Wright, H. E., Jr., Mann, D. H., and Glaser, P. H. (1984). Piston corers for peat and lake sediments. Ecology 65, 657-659.