Establishment of wetlands on the southeastern Atlantic Coastal Plain: Paleolimnological evidence of a mid-Holocene hydrologic threshold from a South Carolina pond

Abstract

The series of climatic events affecting landscapes on the southeastern Atlantic Coastal Plain over the past several thousand years is poorly understood. This is due, in part, to the paucity of depositional basins in this region containing adequately preserved microfossils for paleoecological analyses. This research reconstructs past hydrologic environments from the microfossil record of Peat Bay, a small, peat-filled pond in south-central South Carolina. We cored the deepest location in the pond and retrieved 120 cm of sediment representing 5200 yr of deposition. Fine clays at the base of the core resembled sediments deposited in abandoned channels of the nearby Savannah River, suggesting the basin may have functioned as an oxbow wetland prone to periodic flooding and drying. Overlying peats containing planktonic diatom assemblages mark the onset of persistent open-water conditions ca. 4600 B.P. These data, in conjunction with a small body of paleoecological evidence from other southeastern wetlands, suggest that a hydrologic 'threshold' was surpassed during the mid-Holocene that resulted in flooding and expansion of low-lying depressions that characterize the regional landscape. This is likely the culmination of long-term hydrologic trends related to glacial retreat, including increased precipitation and a rise in ground water levels corresponding to a global rise in sea level. In Peat Bay, lake-like conditions persisted until about 3800 B.P., after which time aerophilic diatoms and remains of other temporary pond organisms dominated the fossil record. Episodic drying of pond sediments during the late-Holocene may have been a response to decreased precipitation, stabilization of the water table and infilling of the pond by decaying vegetation and terrigenous clastics. The microfossil record indicates that temporary pond conditions persisted until recent years (ca. 1985) when the basin returned to a permanently flooded state due to groundwater connection to a large reservoir constructed nearby.