220-3 From Picrodendron to Pinus: Community Shifts in Sub-Fossil Flora from New Providence, the Bahamas

Session: Life and Environments Through Time and Space: Multi-Record Approaches to Stratigraphic Paleobiology (Posters)

Poster Booth No.: 129

Presenting Author:

Connor Hopps

Authors:

Hopps, Connor¹, Mitton-Fry, Norah², Kjellmark, Eric³, Leonard-Pingel, Jill⁴

(1) School of Earth Sciences, the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA, (2) Granville High School, Granville, OH, USA, (3) Biology Department, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL, USA, (4) School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University Newark, Newark, OH, USA,

Abstract:

Pollen records are invaluable datasets for reconstructing local ecologies over time. They serve as direct accounts of floral diversity and indirect proxies of environmental and climatic conditions. They also play an important role in conservation, helping to form pre-human ecological baselines. While pollen records of multiple Bahamian islands have been recorded and analyzed, little to no work has been done on New Providence. Using previously collected sediment cores from a local blue hole, we have begun to record the pollen diversity and abundance of New Providence over the last 6500 years.

Our earliest processed samples, dating to approximately 5600 yBP, consist of abundant wetland flora such as Sagittaria and Acrostichum, with hardwood Picrodendron and softwood Pinus also present. Progressing up the core to sections dating approximately 1200 yBP, the wetland flora slowly decreases while flora like Picrodendron persist. In sections after 1200 yBP to the present, Pinus seems to dominate the pollen assemblages with other forms being limited in abundance. Community shifts prior to 1200 yBP were likely due to a widespread or local environmental shift, such as drought. Community shifts seen after 1200 yBP are likely anthropogenic, as Lucayan settlement of the Bahamas began around this time. The pines likely persisted throughout these community shifts due to their tendency for quick and aggressive regrowth.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-5920

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