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Title: Mass balance implies Holocene development of a low-relief karst patterned landscape

Abstract

We constructed mass balances of both calcium and phosphorus for two watersheds in Big Cypress National Preserve in southwest Florida (USA) to evaluate the time scales over which the striking landscape pattern developed. This low-relief carbonate landscape is dotted with evenly spaced, evenly sized, shallow surface depressions that annually fill with surface water and thus support wetland ecosystems (e.g. cypress domes) embedded in a pine-dominated upland matrix with exposed bedrock. Local and landscape scale feedbacks between hydrology, ecological  dynamics and limestone dissolution are hypothesized to explain this karst dissolution patterning. This hypothesis requires the region to be wet enough to initiate surface water storage, which constrains landscape formation to interglacial periods. The time scale therefore would be relatively recent if creation of the observed pattern occurred in the current interglacial period (i.e. Holocene), and older time scales could reflect inherited patterns from previous inter-glacial periods, or from other processes of abiotic karstification. We determined phosphorus stocks across four landscape compartments and estimated the limestone void space (i.e., wetland depression volume) across the landscape to represent cumulative calcium export. We calculated fluxes in (e.g., atmospheric deposition) and out (i.e., solute export) of the landscape to determine landscape denudation rates through massmore » balance. Comparing stocks and annual fluxes yielded independent estimates of landscape age from the calcium and phosphorus budgets. Our results indicate that the landscape began to develop in the early-mid Holocene (12,000 – 5,000 ybp). This supports the hypothesis that ecohydrologic feedbacks between hydrology and vegetation occurring during the present interglacial period are sufficient to shape this landscape into the patterns we see today.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [4];  [1];  [2];  [5];  [6];  [2];  [1]
  1. Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States). Nicholas School of the Environment
  2. Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States). Dept. of Geological Sciences
  3. Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States). School of Forest Resources and Conservation
  4. Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States). Dept. of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation
  5. Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States). Dept. of Soil and Water Sciences
  6. Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States). Dept. of Geological Sciences; Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Sequim, WA (United States). Marine Sciences Lab.
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1457744
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1578159
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-128697
Journal ID: ISSN 0009-2541; PII: S0009254118302729
Grant/Contract Number:  
DEB#1354783; AC05-76RL01830
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Chemical Geology
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 527; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0009-2541
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
58 GEOSCIENCES; 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Biokarst; Mass balance; Chemical denudation; Self-organization; Calcium; Phosphorus; Weathering; aquatic, karst, wetland, wetland inundation, wetland model, wetland soils, calcium, potassium, carbon, radiocarbon, holocene, geology, hydrogeology, hydrogeomorphic, pattern, patterned landscape, biogeochemistry, carbon cycling, ecosystem, erosion, export, global change, interface, marsh, terrestial aquatic interface, terrestrial, inorganic

Citation Formats

Chamberlin, Catherine A., Bianchi, Thomas S., Brown, Amy L., Cohen, Matthew J., Dong, Xiaoli, Flint, Madison K., Martin, Jonathan B., McLaughlin, Daniel L., Murray, A. Brad, Pain, Andrea, Quintero, Carlos J., Ward, Nicholas D., Zhang, Xiaowen, and Heffernan, James B. Mass balance implies Holocene development of a low-relief karst patterned landscape. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1016/J.CHEMGEO.2018.05.029.
Chamberlin, Catherine A., Bianchi, Thomas S., Brown, Amy L., Cohen, Matthew J., Dong, Xiaoli, Flint, Madison K., Martin, Jonathan B., McLaughlin, Daniel L., Murray, A. Brad, Pain, Andrea, Quintero, Carlos J., Ward, Nicholas D., Zhang, Xiaowen, & Heffernan, James B. Mass balance implies Holocene development of a low-relief karst patterned landscape. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.CHEMGEO.2018.05.029
Chamberlin, Catherine A., Bianchi, Thomas S., Brown, Amy L., Cohen, Matthew J., Dong, Xiaoli, Flint, Madison K., Martin, Jonathan B., McLaughlin, Daniel L., Murray, A. Brad, Pain, Andrea, Quintero, Carlos J., Ward, Nicholas D., Zhang, Xiaowen, and Heffernan, James B. Wed . "Mass balance implies Holocene development of a low-relief karst patterned landscape". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.CHEMGEO.2018.05.029. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1457744.
@article{osti_1457744,
title = {Mass balance implies Holocene development of a low-relief karst patterned landscape},
author = {Chamberlin, Catherine A. and Bianchi, Thomas S. and Brown, Amy L. and Cohen, Matthew J. and Dong, Xiaoli and Flint, Madison K. and Martin, Jonathan B. and McLaughlin, Daniel L. and Murray, A. Brad and Pain, Andrea and Quintero, Carlos J. and Ward, Nicholas D. and Zhang, Xiaowen and Heffernan, James B.},
abstractNote = {We constructed mass balances of both calcium and phosphorus for two watersheds in Big Cypress National Preserve in southwest Florida (USA) to evaluate the time scales over which the striking landscape pattern developed. This low-relief carbonate landscape is dotted with evenly spaced, evenly sized, shallow surface depressions that annually fill with surface water and thus support wetland ecosystems (e.g. cypress domes) embedded in a pine-dominated upland matrix with exposed bedrock. Local and landscape scale feedbacks between hydrology, ecological  dynamics and limestone dissolution are hypothesized to explain this karst dissolution patterning. This hypothesis requires the region to be wet enough to initiate surface water storage, which constrains landscape formation to interglacial periods. The time scale therefore would be relatively recent if creation of the observed pattern occurred in the current interglacial period (i.e. Holocene), and older time scales could reflect inherited patterns from previous inter-glacial periods, or from other processes of abiotic karstification. We determined phosphorus stocks across four landscape compartments and estimated the limestone void space (i.e., wetland depression volume) across the landscape to represent cumulative calcium export. We calculated fluxes in (e.g., atmospheric deposition) and out (i.e., solute export) of the landscape to determine landscape denudation rates through mass balance. Comparing stocks and annual fluxes yielded independent estimates of landscape age from the calcium and phosphorus budgets. Our results indicate that the landscape began to develop in the early-mid Holocene (12,000 – 5,000 ybp). This supports the hypothesis that ecohydrologic feedbacks between hydrology and vegetation occurring during the present interglacial period are sufficient to shape this landscape into the patterns we see today.},
doi = {10.1016/J.CHEMGEO.2018.05.029},
journal = {Chemical Geology},
number = C,
volume = 527,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed May 23 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Wed May 23 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

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Cited by: 12 works
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Figures / Tables:

Fig. 1 Fig. 1: Aerial and ground-level images of BICY. A) Satellite image of a domain in RP; Imagery © 2017 Google. B) LiDAR high resolution DEM of the same domain. C) Panorama view of an intensively sampled dome and the surrounding pine matrix in RP. D) The LiDAR point cloud resultsmore » of the same dome. LiDAR data provided by the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping.« less

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