A late Quaternary ostracod record from Wallywash Great Pond, a Jamaican marl lake

Abstract

Two assemblages typify the ostracod fauna of a 9.23 meter core taken from Wallywash Great Pond, a small perennial freshwater marl lake in Jamaica. The first, dominated by Cypretta brevisaepta, lived in deep water, similar to present-day conditions. The second, dominated by Candonopsis sp., reflects the existence of a shallower lake. The core has a basal date of c. 125 kaBP. Four inferred deep-water phases occurred in the period 125–93.5 kaBP with periods of inferred shallower water in between. The lake was dry between 93.5 kaBP and c. 10 kaBP as suggested by the absence of ostracods or fossils of other aquatic organisms. Ostracod faunal evidence indicates that there have been three highstands and two lowstands of the lake during the Holocene, although ostracods are not preserved in the organic mud and lignite that formed under swampy conditions as the basin filled at the start of the Holocene and during part of the two subsequent lowstands of the lake. A major hydrological perturbation, associated with the flooding of the nearby Black River catchment around 1.2 kaBP, caused an increase in the ostracod species diversity of the Great Pond, although this was relatively short lived and the lake attained a faunal composition similar to present around 1 kaBP. Major variations in ostracod assemblages in the core thus represent lake-level changes and accord well with previously-published interpretations of water depth based on lithofacies variation and stable oxygen isotope ratios in authigenic carbonates.