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Coastal karst aquifers have an upper meteoric water mass stratified from a saline groundwater mass below that increasingly mix and discharge towards the ocean. Preserved sediment in caves and sinkholes provide an opportunity to evaluate the long-term hydrodynamics in the local coastal karst aquifer (e.g., salinity, oxygenation, vertical displacement in response to sea-level forcing). Here we evaluate the response of shallow ( 45 μm versus >63 μm mesh sieve fractions. These modern analog results can be used to interpret subfossil benthic foraminiferal records from coastal karst aquifers, especially during early cave inundation by concomitant groundwater and sea-level rise.

Karst basins (e.g., blueholes, sinkholes) accumulate well-preserved sedimentary successions that provide transformative paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental information. However, the sedimentary processes within these basins are not yet fully understood. Here we present stable carbon isotopic values (δ13Corg) and C:N ratios of bulk organic matter in well-dated sediment cores from Blackwood Sinkhole (Abaco, The Bahamas) to investigate the changing flux of organic matter into the sinkhole during the late Holocene. The provenance of preserved organic matter changed through the late Holocene between three primary sources, as determined by three-endmember mixing modeling: wetland organic matter from the adjacent epikarst surface, authigenic primary productivity in the oligohaline meteoric lens, and terrestrial organic matter from the surrounding landscape. Expansion of wetlands on the adjacent epikarst surface played a critical role by increasing the flux of wetland organic matter to the sinkhole, especially during the last 1000 years. Hurricanes and regional rainfall may have mediated organic matter delivery to the benthos, either through hampering wetland development (prior to 1000 cal yr BP) or by changing dissolved nutrient concentrations available in the basin for primary producers. These results demonstrate that organic matter provenance in karst basins is not constant through time, and is significantly dependent upon both landscape vegetation on the epikarst surface and changing hydrographic conditions that impacts nutrient availability to primary producers.

Intensification and western displacement of the North Atlantic Subtropical High (NASH) is projected for this century, which can decrease Caribbean and southeastern American rainfall on seasonal and annual timescales. However, additional hydroclimate records are needed from the northern Caribbean to understand the long-term behavior of the NASH, and better forecast its future behavior. Here we present a multi-proxy sinkhole lake reconstruction from a carbonate island that is proximal to the NASH (Abaco Island, The Bahamas). The reconstruction indicates the northern Bahamas experienced a drought from ∼3300 to ∼2500 Cal yrs BP, which coincides with evidence from other hydroclimate and oceanographic records (e.g., Africa, Caribbean, and South America) for a synchronous southern displacement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and North Atlantic Hadley Cell. The specific cause of the hydroclimate change in the northeastern Caribbean region from ∼3300 to 2500 Cal yrs BP was probably coeval southern or western displacement of the NASH, which would have increased northeastern Caribbean exposure to subsiding air from higher altitudes.

Islands across the Bahamian Archipelago have been devastated by five major hurricanes from 2010 to 2020 CE, including Category 5 Hurricane Dorian in 2019 that inundated parts of Abaco and Grand Bahama with up to 4 m of surge, killing 84 people and leaving >245 others missing. Up to 1 m relative sea-level rise is estimated for The Bahamas by 2100 CE, which could enhance flooding from weaker storms (

Coastal communities are vulnerable to sea-level rise and hurricane-induced flooding. Our ability to assess flooding risk at coastal locations is restricted by the short observational record and limited knowledge on storm surge generation during hurricanes of different strength, size and orientation. Here, we present a transect of sediment cores collected from a blue hole near Middle Caicos in the Turks & Caicos Islands. Storm deposits found across cores in the transect record the passage of hurricanes passing to the south of Middle Caicos over the past 1500 years including Hurricane Irma in 2017. The record indicates historically unprecedented multi-decadal periods of elevated storm strikes on the island. We add this new reconstruction to a compilation of near-annually resolved paleohurricane records of the past millennium in The Bahamas. This compilation indicates increased storm activity in The Bahamas from 650 to 800 CE, 930 to 1040 CE, and 1400 to 1800 CE. Taken together with compilations of published paleohurricane records from New England and the Gulf Coast of Florida, we observe periods of elevated hurricane activity in all three spatially disparate regions over the past millennium and periods when New England and the Bahama Archipelago are active while the Gulf Coast of Florida is not. We argue that both regional-scale changes in vertical wind shear patterns and shifting storm tracks may explain the discrepancies we observe between different regions of the North Atlantic. This research informs how hurricane frequency has changed over the past 1500 years specifically in the Turks & Caicos Islands and regionally along the Bahama Archipelago.

Detrital sediment in Florida's (USA) submerged cave systems may preserve records of regional climate and hydrologic variability. However, the basic sedimentology, mineralogy, stratigraphic variability, and emplacement history of the successions in Florida's submerged caves remains poorly understood. Here we present stratigraphic, mineralogical, and elemental data on sediment cores from two phreatic cave systems in northwestern Florida (USA), on the Dougherty Karst Plain: Hole in the Wall Cave (HITW) and Twin Cave. Water flowing through these caves is subsurface flow in the Apalachicola River drainage basin, and the caves are located just downstream from Jackson Blue (1st magnitude spring, > 2.8 m3 s− 1 discharge). Sedimentation in these caves is dominated by three primary sedimentary styles: (i) ferromanganese deposits dominate the basal recovered stratigraphy, which pass upsection into (ii) poorly sorted carbonate sediment, and finally into (iii) fine-grained organic matter (gyttja) deposits. Resolving the emplacement history of the lower stratigraphic units was hampered by a lack of suitable material for radiocarbon dating, but the upper organic-rich deposits have a punctuated depositional history beginning in the earliest Holocene. For example, gyttja primarily accumulated in HITW and Twin Caves from ~ 5500 to 3500 cal yr. BP, which coincides with regional evidence for water-table rise of the Upper Floridian Aquifer associated with relative sea-level rise in the Gulf of Mexico, and evidence for invigorated drainage through the Apalachicola River drainage basin. Gyttja sediments were also deposited in one of the caves during the Bolling/Allerod climate oscillation. Biologically, these results indicate that some Floridian aquatic cave (stygobitic) ecosystems presently receive minimal organic matter supply in comparison to prehistoric intervals. The pre-Holocene poorly sorted carbonate sediment contains abundant invertebrate fossils, and likely documents a period of enhanced limestone dissolution and cave formation (speleogenesis) during lower paleo water levels. Further work is still required to (a) determine whether precipitation of the ferromanganese deposits is inorganically or biologically mediated, (b) temporally constrain the emplacement history of the primary sedimentary styles, and (c) determine the full geographic extent of these sedimentary signals. However, these preliminary observations suggest that sedimentation in the inland underwater caves of northwestern Florida is related to Quaternary-scale hydrographic variability in the Apalachicola River drainage basin in response to broader ocean and atmospheric forcing.

Plant wax hydrogen isotopic composition is commonly used to reconstruct the hydrogen isotopic composition of precipitation used by terrestrial vegetation. However, mangroves growing in coastal environments take up a mixture of freshwater and seawater. Biosynthetic fractionation (between source water and plant wax) differs between plant types and as a function of salinity, potentially complicating interpretations of past precipitation in coastal environments. In order to reconstruct Holocene hydrologic and ecologic changes archived within sediments from Blackwood Sinkhole on Abaco Island in The Bahamas, we adopt a multi-proxy approach using plant wax hydrogen isotopic composition (δ2H) to reconstruct paleohydrology, together with plant wax carbon isotopic composition (δ13Cwax), sterol biomarkers and pollen abundances to identify vegetation change. When pollen indicates a stable terrestrial plant community (2950–850 cal yrs BP), variations of δ2H values measured on the plant wax C28 n-alkanoic acid are interpreted in terms of precipitation isotope (δ2Hprecip) changes, with 2H-depletion from 2950 to ∼2100 cal yrs BP and ∼1700 to 1000 cal yrs BP. However, interpretation is complicated at 850 cal yrs BP, when δ2H values decrease (−50‰) concurrent with increased Laguncularia racemosa (white mangrove) and Conocarpus erectus (buttonwood mangrove), and the mangrove-derived biomarker, taraxerol. We develop a pollen-based correction for mangrove inputs, yielding reconstructed precipitation isotope estimates (δ2Hprecip-corr). Low δ2Hprecip-corr values are synchronous with increased abundance of pine pollen, both of which may indicate wetter conditions from 850 cal yrs BP to present. This study provides additional evidence that mangroves can complicate hydrologic reconstructions from n-alkyl terrestrial plant wax biomarkers, and that such complication can be removed by pollen-based correction. After correcting for mangrove inputs, we obtain estimates of δ2Hprecip-corr from −33 to +25‰ throughout the last 2950 years, with uncertainties on the order of 10–20‰.

The Little Bahama Bank was likely the last island group colonized by the Lucayan natives in the tropical North Atlantic, but preserved Lucayan remains are rare from this region. Furthermore, the Lucayan diet included both marine and terrestrial contributions, which must be considered when calibrating conventional radiocarbon results from human remains into Common Era (CE) calendar years. Here we present a new discovery of Lucayan remains (proximal epiphysis of a right tibia) identified within a sinkhole on Great Abaco Island in the northern Bahamas, which was preserved in the extremely well-dated sedimentary infill (dated with 22 independent radiocarbon ages). The age of the human tibia was estimated through both the associated stratigraphy (relative age), and direct radiocarbon dating of the bone (absolute age). The direct age of the bone was calibrated by using a two-endmember mixing model to estimate the average proportion of marine versus terrestrial contributions to this individuals’ diet using the δ 13C value of the bone collagen and applying a local ΔR value for regional aquatic settings. Absolute dating places the age of the remains from Great Cistern between 1255 and 1340 CE (2σ, probability: 0.89). Applying the same mixing model to the previously discovered remains from Sawmill Sink on Great Abaco Island indicates those remains are in fact 100 to 200 years younger than the previous estimate with internment likely occurring between 1110 and 1290 CE (2σ, probability: 0.95).

The sediment in North Atlantic blue holes preserves paleoclimate records. However, accurate paleoclimate reconstructions require an improved understanding of allogenic versus autogenic processes controlling blue hole sedimentation. Here we provide a detailed case study of the Holocene stratigraphy within Freshwater River Blue Hole, which is currently surrounded by carbonate tidal flats in the northern Bahamas (Abaco Island). During the Holocene, concomitant coastal aquifer elevation and relative sea-level rise controlled internal blue hole depositional environments. The general Holocene facies succession observed is: (i) basal detrital and freshwater peat, (ii) palustrine to lacustrine marl, (iii) algal sapropel, and finally (iv) bedded carbonate mud. During the middle Holocene when groundwater levels were lower, small changes in accommodation space that were inherited from the bedrock surface below (

Deciphering how the climate system has controlled North Atlantic tropical cyclone activity through the Holocene will require a larger observational network of prehistoric hurricane activity. Problematically, the tropical North Atlantic is dominated by carbonate landscapes that typically preserve poorer quality coastal sediment records in comparison to their temperate-region counterparts (e.g., sedimentation continuity and rate). Coastal karst basins (CKBs), such as sinkholes, blueholes, and underwater caves, are widely distributed on carbonate platforms and contain overlooked sedimentary records. Here we present a millennium of hurricane deposits on the Little Bahama Bank archived in a 165 cm core that was extracted from 69 m below sea level in a bluehole on Great Abaco Island, The Bahamas. The coarse-grained overwash deposits associated with both hurricanes Jeanne (2004) and Floyd (1999) were identified using radioisotopes (137Cs, 14C, 210Pb), and indicate that the bluehole is sensitive to hurricane-induced sedimentation. Over the last millennium, the Little Bahama Bank experienced heightened hurricane activity from 1350 to 1650 AD. The simplest explanation for this active interval is that favorable climate conditions (El Nino, West African Monsoon, and sea surface temperatures) encouraged North Atlantic hurricane activity at that time. However, asynchronous hurricane activity at similar latitudes in the North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico suggest that regional oceanography has modulated or amplified regional hurricane activity over the last millennium.

It remains poorly understood how sea level drives environmental change and hydrographic development in coastal karst basins (underwater caves, sinkholes, blueholes, etc.) over millennial timescales. It was previously hypothesized that coastal karst basins (CKBs) transition from vadose, to littoral, then anchialine, and finally submarine environments as sea-level rise inundates coastal karst landscapes, but the initial flooding event of CKBs remains challenging to sample. Runway Sinkhole hosts a modern anchialine ecosystem located ∼225 m from Great Abaco Island coastline in The Bahamas, and its shallow water depth (∼1.8 mbsl) permits an investigation into the early environmental evolution and hydrographic development in a CKBs after inundation by sea-level rise. Four sediment cores were collected from Runway Sinkhole, and late Holocene environmental change was reconstructed with benthic foraminiferal paleoecology, organic matter geochemistry (OM%, δ 13 C org , and C:N), X-radiography, and radiocarbon dating. Despite some uncertainties associated with the chronology, it appears that Holocene sea-level rise initially flooded Runway Sinkhole and created a littoral environment at least by ∼3.9 ka, whereafter a detrital peat deposit accumulated in the sinkhole. This detrital peat had a high organic matter content (mean 88%), a δ 13 C org value indicative of organic matter derived from C 3 plants including mangroves (−28‰), and an unknown calcareous microfossil suggestive of a non-marine habitat in the sinkhole. A shift to carbonate sand deposition, organic matter with more marine-influenced δ 13 C org values (−23‰), and expansion of euryhaline ( Bolivina striatula , Elphidium poeyanum , and Triloculina bermudezi ) and anchialine ( Physalidia simplex and Conicospirillina exleyi ) benthic foraminifera at ∼1.2 ka marks the onset of modern anchialine environmental conditions at the sediment–water interface (∼1.8 mbsl). These results suggest that relative sea-level rise in the Bahamas forced environmental change in Runway sinkhole at ∼1.2 ka, and indicate that peat deposits in coastal sinkholes must be verified as in-situ before being utilized as sea-level indicators.

The recent report from Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) called for an increased understanding of how groundwater interacts with the ocean-atmospheric system. This remains a prerequisite to better understand how groundwater will respond to climate change. However, achieving this goal is hampered by several problems, including: (1) our minimal understanding of how current groundwater conditions evolved and responded to previous climatic perturbations, and (2) the scarcity of techniques available for evaluating prehistoric groundwater. Subfossil benthic foraminifera in underwater caves are an overlooked method of evaluating prehistoric groundwater on coastal carbonate terrain because they provide a proxy for groundwater salinity and circulation. Twelve radiocarbon dates and foraminiferal paleoecology from two sediment cores obtained from Green Bay Cave (GBC), Bermuda, provide the first Holocene-scale groundwater reconstruction. First, the cave floor (− 20.7 mbsl) was flooded at 7.7 ka as North Atlantic sea level and groundwater rose in near synchrony. Over the Holocene, groundwater conditions (salinity, circulation and degree of oxygenation) shifted a minimum of five times, primarily in response to sea-level rise. Most importantly, we provide evidence that a prehistoric meteoric lens collapsed at 1.6 ka as sea-level rise breached a local sill and completely altered Bermudian coastal circulation. The complete loss, or retreat, of a groundwater mass associated with a minor sea-level change validates some numerical predictions that small changes in sea level can destabilize coastal groundwater resources, when coastal geometry and circulation are considered.

Quaternary climate and sea-level research in coastal karst basins (caves, cenotes, sinkholes, blueholes, etc.) generally focuses on analyzing isotopes in speleothems, or associating cave elevations prior sea-level highstands. The sediments in coastal karst basins represent an overlooked source of climate and sea-level information in the coastal zone, but to accurately interpret these sediments first requires an understanding of the forcing mechanisms that emplace them. In this study, we hypothesize that coastal karst basins transition through vadose, littoral, anchialine, and finally into submarine environments during sea-level rise because groundwater and sea level oscillate in near synchrony in the coastal zone, causing each environment to deposit a unique sedimentary facies. To test this hypothesis, the stratigraphy in twelve sediment cores from a Bermudian underwater cave (Green Bay Cave) was investigated and temporally constrained with twenty radiocarbon dates. The results indicate that we recovered the first succession spanning the entire Holocene from an underwater cave (~ 13 ka to present). The sediments were characterized with X-radiography, fossil remains, bulk organic matter, organic geochemistry (δ13Corg, C:N), and grain size analysis. Four distinct facies represent the four depositional environments: (i) vadose facies (> 7.7 ka, calcite rafts lithofacies), (ii) littoral facies (7.7 to 7.3 ka: calcite rafts and mud lithofacies), (iii) anchialine facies (7.3 to 1.6 ka: slackwater and diamict lithofacies), and (iv) submarine facies (

Three sediment cores spanning the last 4200 years from Aktun Ha Cave on the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) demonstrate that underwater caves can document changes to regional hydrogeology and climate. Benthic microfossils (testate amoebae, foraminifera), organic matter geochemistry (δ 13 C, δ 15 N, C/N), and particle size distributions were analyzed. However, microfossil paleoecology proved the most useful for indicating three salinity phases in the Aktun Ha sediment cores. Phase 1 (>4300 yr BP) contains predominantly foraminifera ( Physalidia simplex , 78%) that indicate the meteoric lens flooding the cave was initially brackish (salinity >3.5 g L −1 ). Phase 2 (2800–4300 Cal yr BP) has both freshwater testate amoebae ( Centropyxis spp. 40%) and P. simplex (42%), which indicates a slight freshening of the meteoric lens to 1.5–2 g L −1 . Phase 3 ( Lagenodifflugia vas and Difflugia oblonga , with a reduction in P. simplex (10%). This last faunal shift represents the initiation of modern freshwater conditions in the cave (1.5 g L −1 ). This final freshening is synchronous with a significant reduction in the C/N ratio (e.g., Core 2: ∼27 to 19), which suggests an expansion of primary productivity in the adjacent cenote. The δ 15 N values ranged from 1.5 to 3.5‰ with observed cycles likely from intervals of increased terrestrial OM input into the cave during high rainfall events (e.g., hurricanes). The observed paleoenvironmental shifts in the cave correlate well with regional precipitation patterns, aquifer recharge, and storm activity caused by southward migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. Therefore, regional climate change impacted eastern Yucatan groundwater during the mid to late Holocene. However, decelerating Holocene sea-level rise and aquifer occlusion are likely contributing factors. These results demonstrate that underwater cave sediments and microfossils can be useful proxies for aquifer evolution and climate change.

Two hypotheses have been proposed to explain the origin of marine isotope stage (MIS) 11 deposits in small Bermudian caves at +21 m above modern sea level: (1) a +21 m MIS 11 eustatic sea-level highstand, and (2) a MIS 11 mega-tsunami event. Importantly, the foraminifera reported in these caves have yet to be critically evaluated within a framework of coastal cave environments. After statistically comparing foraminifera in modern Bermudian littoral caves and the MIS 11 Calonectris Pocket A (+21 m cave) to the largest available database of Bermudian coastal foraminifera, the assemblages found in modern littoral caves – and Calonectris Pocket A – cannot be statistically differentiated from lagoons. This observation is expected considering littoral caves are simply sheltered extensions of a lagoon environment in the littoral zone, where typical coastal processes (waves, storms) homogenize and rework lagoonal, reefal, and occasional planktic taxa. Fossil protoconchs of the Bermudian cave stygobite Caecum caverna were also associated with the foraminifera. These results indicate that the MIS 11 Bermudian caves are fossil littoral caves (breached flank margin caves), where the total MIS 11 microfossil assemblage is preserving a signature of coeval sea level at +21 m. Brackish foraminifera (Polysaccammina, Pseudothurammina) and anchialine gastropods (∼95%, >300 individuals) indicate a brackish anchialine habitat developed in the elevated caves after the prolonged littoral environmental phase. The onset of sea-level regression following the +21 m highstand would first lower the ancient brackish Ghyben-Herzberg lens (