Arenas, F., H., Fujita, A., Ainis, D., Medina-Contreras, A., Sánchez, J., Cantera-Kintz & R., Vellanoweth (2025). Shifts in mangrove ecosystem distribution along the Baja California Peninsula following the Early-Middle Holocene transition. Bulletin of Marine Science. 101(3): 1107–1123. DOI: 10.5343/bms.2023.0138.
Fernando Arenas 1, Harumi Fujita 2, Amira Ainis 3, Diana Medina-Contreras 1, Alberto Sánchez 1, Jaima Cantera-Kintz 4 y René Vellanoweth 3
The Baja California Peninsula is the northernmost global limit for mangrove forests. This modern distribution has evolved due to climatic shifts that occurred throughout the Holocene, as current regional climate dynamics developed and settled. With the objective of inferring the effectsof Holocene climate change on mangrove habitats, archaeological records of Faro Punta Marquez, Baja California Sur were analyzed. Our analysis indicates the abundance of mangrove bivalves Anadara tuberculosa and Larkina grandis in Early Holocene archaeological assemblages, suggestingthe importance of estuary and mangrove ecosystems for the subsistence of early coastal human communities. The absence of these species in upper archaeological components of two excavation units postdating ca. 9500 cal BP suggests the disappearance of mangrove forests in the region resultingfrom the extreme climatic effects of the 8.2 ky event and the Early-Middle Holocene transition. This new climatic regime established a generalized decrease in SST coupled with sea level rise and increasing aridity along Baja California’s Pacific Coast significantly impacting mangroveecosystems, leading to their fragmentation, distribution contraction, and readjusting local resource availability requiring humans to adapt to shifting environmental phenomena.
Palabras clave: climatic variation; 8.2 ky event; environmental reconstruction; Mangroves; mangrove associated bivalves; human subsistence
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