Holocene sedimentation at Corkscrew Swamp (Collier Co. ): A model for the origin and evolution of the present wetland-dominated regime of south Florida

Conference · Mon Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1993 · Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States)

OSTI ID:6077612

Stone, P A ^[1]; Duever, M J; Meeder, J F ^[2]

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1. South Carolina Dept. of Health and Environmental Control, Columbia, SC (United States)
2. National Audubon Society, Naples, FL (United States)

A two-layer peat-over-marl (calcitic mud) sequence characterizes Corkscrew Swamp, a swamp/marsh complex in northern Big Cypress Swamp. The marl began depositing about 10,600 BP and based upon the regional modern analog represents a marsh (grassy) environment of relatively short seasonal flooding, rather than a marl lake. The marsh succeeded formerly dry land of full-glacial times on a long-emerged marine-sand and limestone peninsula. About 5,700 BP peat deposition began by the development of longer-flooded wetland, either marsh or woody swamp vegetation. Both shifts (Pleistocene/Holocene and mid-Holocene) represent onsets of wetter conditions, either episodically or by slowly passing critical thresholds, under control of climate and sea level (hydrologic baselevel). With the rise in average water level at and following each shift, in part by feedback from sediment infilling of the shallow (ca. 2.5m) mineral-substrate basin, the wetland and its deposit expanded upslope, both vertically and outward. A younger basal-peat date (3,900 BP) occurs toward the periphery. Some local topographic alteration by peat fire about 500 BP persists and affects the modern swamp vegetation. A wide swamp-to-marsh shift in other parts may have a similar cause. The shorter record yet revealed for the northern Everglades shows the same two-stage sequence, similar timing in peatland development, wetland and sediment expansion, and long-term (but there different) influences of local peatland topographic alteration. Many wetland areas in South Florida data from a mid-Holocene shift (7,000--4,000 BP).

• OSTI ID: 6077612
• Report Number(s): CONF-9304188-; CODEN: GAAPBC
• Journal Information: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 25:4; Conference: 42. annual Geological Society of America (GSA) Southeastern Section meeting, Tallahassee, FL (United States), 1-2 Apr 1993; ISSN 0016-7592
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
FLORIDA
WETLANDS
GEOLOGIC MODELS
SEDIMENTATION
ORIGIN
PALEOCLIMATOLOGY
PEAT
QUATERNARY PERIOD
SEA LEVEL
SWAMPS
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
CENOZOIC ERA
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
ECOSYSTEMS
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GEOLOGIC AGES
LEVELS
MATTER
NORTH AMERICA
ORGANIC MATTER
PALEONTOLOGY
TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS
USA
580000* - Geosciences