Journal
HOLOCENE
Volume 21, Issue 7, Pages 1081-1091Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/0959683611400458
Keywords
Ariopsis felis; Calusa; Mercenaria campechiensis; oxygen and carbon isotopes; southwest Florida; Vandal Minimum
Funding
- National Science Foundation [ATM-0455947, ATM-0317578]
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Archaeological evidence from coastal southwest Florida suggests this region and its local inhabitants (the Calusa) were affected by drought and cooling during the Vandal Minimum climate episode (AD 500-800). To test this hypothesis, we reconstructed seasonal-scale climate conditions using stable oxygen and carbon isotope ratios (delta O-18 and delta C-13) preserved in Ariopsis felis otoliths and Mercenaria campechiensis shells. Comparing delta O-18 records from both species distinguishes between cool versus warm and wet versus dry conditions. delta O-18 values from four otoliths indicate cooling of winter temperatures occurred in the early Vandal Minimum (AD 500-600) and late half of the middle Vandal Minimum (AD 650-700). Persistent dry summers punctuated by occasional years with wet summers throughout the Vandal Minimum were detected from delta O-18 values of eight archaeological shells. Our climate reconstructions are in good agreement with archaeological observations and with the cool and dry conditions documented in Europe.
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