Solar Forcing of Drought Frequency in the Maya Lowlands

@article{Hodell2001SolarFO,
  title={Solar Forcing of Drought Frequency in the Maya Lowlands},
  author={David A. Hodell and Mark Brenner and Jason H. Curtis and Thomas Guilderson},
  journal={Science},
  year={2001},
  volume={292},
  pages={1367 - 1370}
}
We analyzed lake-sediment cores from the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, to reconstruct the climate history of the region over the past 2600 years. Time series analysis of sediment proxies, which are sensitive to the changing ratio of evaporation to precipitation (oxygen isotopes and gypsum precipitation), reveal a recurrent pattern of drought with a dominant periodicity of 208 years. This cycle is similar to the documented 206-year period in records of cosmogenic nuclide production (carbon-14 and… 
View on AAAS
courses.seas.harvard.edu
521 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
45
Background Citations
215
Methods Citations
15
Results Citations
10

521 Citations

Solar forcing of early Holocene droughts on the Yucatán peninsula
A speleothem record from the north-eastern Yucatán peninsula (Mexico) provides new insights into the tropical hydro-climate of the Americas between 11,040 and 9520 a BP on up to sub-decadal scale.…
Solar modulation of Little Ice Age climate in the tropical Andes.
TLDR
A 1,500-year reconstruction of climate history and glaciation in the Venezuelan Andes using lake sediments highlights the sensitivity of high-altitude tropical regions to relatively small changes in radiative forcing, implying even greater probable responses to future anthropogenic forcing.
An 8700 year paleoclimate reconstruction from the southern Maya lowlands
3800 Years of Quantitative Precipitation Reconstruction from the Northwest Yucatan Peninsula
TLDR
Precipitation over the last 3800 years has been reconstructed using modern pollen calibration and precipitation data via the linear method of partial least squares and it is estimated that precipitation deficits were greater than surpluses, reaching 21% and <9%, respectively.
Climate change and population history in the pacific lowlands of Southern Mesoamerica
A 2400 yr Mesoamerican rainfall reconstruction links climate and cultural change
Droughts are a recurring feature of Mexican climate, but few high-resolution data are available to test for climate-change forcing of Mesoamerican civilizations. We present a quantitative 2400 yr…
Holocene hydrologic variation at Lake Titicaca, Bolivia/Peru, and its relationship to North Atlantic climate variation
A growing number of sites in the Northern Hemisphere show centennial‐ to millennial‐scale climate variation that has been correlated with change in solar variability or with change in North Atlantic…
Cyclic Variation and Solar Forcing of Holocene Climate in the Alaskan Subarctic
High-resolution analyses of lake sediment from southwestern Alaska reveal cyclic variations in climate and ecosystems during the Holocene. These variations occurred with periodicities similar to…
POLLEN EVIDENCE FOR CLIMATIC VARIABILITY AND CULTURAL DISTURBANCE IN THE MAYA LOWLANDS
  • B. Leyden
  • Environmental Science, Geography
    Ancient Mesoamerica
  • 2002
Palynology provides a record of past environmental change in the Maya Lowlands. The underlying principles are simple, but, as with all proxies, there are limitations. During the late glacial period,…
Solar forcing of climatic change during the mid-Holocene: indications from raised bogs in The Netherlands
Two cores of mid-Holocene raised-bog deposits from the Netherlands were 14C wiggle-match dated at high precision. Changes in local moisture conditions were inferred from the changing species…
...
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 33 REFERENCES
Reconstruction of Caribbean climate change over the past 10,500 years
SEDIMENT cores from low-latitude lakes provide some of the best records of tropical climate change since the late Pleistocene. Here we report a high-resolution reconstruction of Caribbean climate…
Rainfall and drought in equatorial east Africa during the past 1,100 years
TLDR
A decade-scale reconstruction of rainfall and drought in equatorial east Africa over the past 1,100 years is presented, based on lake-level and salinity fluctuations of Lake Naivasha inferred from three different palaeolimnological proxies: sediment stratigraphy and the species compositions of fossil diatom and midge assemblages.
Late Holocene palaeolimnology of Bal Lake, Northern Nigeria, a multidisciplinary study
Greater drought intensity and frequency before AD 1200 in the Northern Great Plains, USA
EXTREME large-scale droughts in North America, such as the 'Dust Bowl' of the 1930s, have been infrequent events within the documented history of the past few hundred years, yet this record may not…
A 10,300 14C yr Record of Climate and Vegetation Change from Haiti
Pleistocene and Holocene vegetation dynamics in the American tropics are inferred largely from pollen in continental lake sediments. Maritime influences may have moderated climate and vegetation…
Climate Variability on the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) during the Past 3500 Years, and Implications for Maya Cultural Evolution
Climate variability on the Yucatan Peninsula during the past 3500 yrs is reconstructed from the measurement of δ18O in monospecific ostracods and gastropods in a 6.3-m sediment core from Lake Punta…
Changes in oxygen 18 as a measure of long‐term fluctuations in tropical lake levels and molluscan populations1
In Laguna Chichancanab, the largest closed basin in northern Yucatan, large-scale changes in lake levels have been documented by “0 analyses of snail shell carbonates. A continuous 9-m series of lake…
Possible role of climate in the collapse of Classic Maya civilization
THE Maya civilization developed around 3,000 years ago in Mesoamerica, and after flourishing during the so-called Classic period, it collapsed around 750–900 AD1. It has been specula ted2–6 that…
Variations in Low-Latitude Circulation and Extreme Climatic Events in the Tropical Americas
Abstract Departure characteristics of the general circulation in the tropical Atlantic and eastern Pacific are studied in relation to extreme climatic events identified from collectives of long-term…
The role of solar forcing upon climate change
...
...