Late Quaternary (24–10 ka BP) environmental history of the Neotropical lowlands inferred from ostracodes in sediments of Lago Petén Itzá, Guatemala

We inferred late Pleistocene and early Holocene (24–10 ka BP) environmental conditions in and around Lago Petén Itzá, Guatemala from ostracode remains in the lake sediments. Multivariate statistics were run on autecological information for 29 extant ostracode species collected in 63 aquatic ecosystems on the Yucatán Peninsula along a steep, increasing NW–S precipitation gradient and across a large altitudinal range. Conductivity and water depth are the most important factors that shape ostracode communities. Transfer functions were developed and applied to fossil ostracode assemblages in a *76-m sediment core (PI-6, *85 ka) taken in 71 m of water from Lago Petén Itzá, to infer past shifts in conductivity and water level. Results suggest climate was cold and wet during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Alternating dry and wet conditions characterized the deglacial. Early Holocene climate was warmer and wetter. The LGM was characterized by low ostracode species richness (4 spp.) and Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10933-011-9514-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. L. Pérez (&) P. Frenzel B. Scharf A. Schwalb Institut für Umweltgeologie, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Langer Kamp 19c, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany e-mail: [email protected] B. Scharf e-mail: [email protected] A. Schwalb e-mail: [email protected] P. Frenzel Institut für Geowissenschaften, Friedrich-SchillerUniversität Jena, Burgweg 11, 07749 Jena, Germany e-mail: [email protected] M. Brenner Department of Geological Sciences & Land Use and Environmental Change Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA e-mail: [email protected] J. Escobar Center for Tropical Paleoecology and Archaeology, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Balboa 0843-03092, Republic of Panama e-mail: [email protected] P. Hoelzmann Institut für Geographische Wissenschaften, Physische Geographie, Freie Universität Berlin, Malteserstrasse 74-100, 12249 Berlin, Germany e-mail: [email protected] J. Escobar School of Natural Resources and Environment & Land Use and Environmental Change Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA