climate record

Reconstruction of a high-resolution Holocene climate record. The undisturbed, annually-layered sedimentary record of the Blue Hole offers an ideal opportunity to study climate variation of the past 8.000 years at very high resolution. Potential climate parameters include sea surface temperature, salinity, and nutrients, as well as major storm frequency. The record could not only serve for regional but also for larger-scale climate reconstructions because the study area is connected with the Gulf Stream and the northern Atlantic Ocean via the Caribbean Current.

Pleistocene high-resolution climate records

Possible reconstruction of Pleistocene high-resolution climate records from late Pleistocene interglacial periods. The sinkhole did not form during the last glacial sea-level highstand alone. Presumably, it took several subaerial exposure phases in order to dissolve the more than 10 million cubic meters of limestone, the current volume of the Blue Hole. Therefore, similarly undisturbed and layered deposits of late Pleistocene interglacials should underlie the Holocene sediment package. These late Pleistocene sediments will allow to obtain high-resolution climate archives from previous interglacial periods.

Maya culture

Investigation of Holocene climate record in the context of human cultural evolution in the hinterland, i.e., rise and fall of the Maya Culture. Because of the study area location, the climate record may be compared with the evolution of the Maya Culture since ca. 2.000 BC. The collapse of the Classic Maya Culture around 1000 AD may be further investigated regarding its relation to climate variation. In turn, the influence of the Maya Culture on the environment may also be estimated (e.g., run-off caused by forest clearing, agriculture).