Paleoenvironmental Dynamics in Central American Aquatic Systems

Central America hosts a tapestry of aquatic environments—karstic sinkholes, crater lakes, volcanic highland basins and lowland floodplains—each recording a rich archive of past climate and landscape change. Sedimentary sequences and speleothem records preserve alternating intervals of humidity and aridity driven by glacial–interglacial cycles, shifts in the position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and fluctuations in Atlantic Ocean circulation. High‐resolution cores from lakes such as Petén Itzá reveal how variations in precipitation, temperature and terrestrial input have governed limnological properties, including water chemistry, productivity and habitat structure. Geodiversity—understood as the diversity of geological substrates, landforms and processes—exerts a primary control on lake chemistry and biotic assemblages, with calcite‐rich karst basins supporting distinct ostracode and diatom faunas compared with volcanic systems rich in silica and iron. Multi‐proxy approaches combining faunal indicators (ostracodes, diatoms, chironomids), sediment geochemistry and isotopic tracers have refined our understanding of climate forcing at sub‐millennial scales. These reconstructions not only elucidate the response of Neotropical aquatic ecosystems to rapid climate events such as Heinrich stadials but also inform contemporary assessments of water security, biodiversity resilience and conservation planning under anthropogenic climate change.

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Technical terms

Paleoenvironmental proxy: A natural archive (such as a fossil, chemical signature or sediment characteristic) used to infer past environmental conditions.

Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ): A band of low atmospheric pressure near the equator where trade winds converge, driving tropical rainfall patterns.

Marine Isotope Stage (MIS): A period defined by variations in oxygen isotope ratios in marine sediments, reflecting global glacial and interglacial phases.

Ostracode: A small, bivalved crustacean whose calcite shell preserves well in sediments and serves as an indicator of past water chemistry and temperature.

Geodiversity: The variety of geological environments, processes and substrate types that influence ecosystem characteristics and species distributions.

References

1. Geodiversity influences limnological conditions and freshwater ostracode species distributions across broad spatial scales in the northern Neotropics. Biogeosciences (2022).
2. Precipitation variability and environmental change across late Quaternary glacial-interglacial cycles in lowland Central America: Insights from Lake Petén Itzá (Guatemala) sediments. Quaternary Science Reviews (2024).
3. Persistent Link Between Caribbean Precipitation and Atlantic Ocean Circulation During the Last Glacial Revealed by a Speleothem Record From Puerto Rico. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology (2020).
4. Influence of late Quaternary climate on the biogeography of Neotropical aquatic species as reflected by non-marine ostracodes. Biogeosciences (2020).