After the hurricane hits: Recovery and response to large storm events in a saline lake, San Salvador Island, Bahamas

The shallow, saline lakes of San Salvador Island, Bahamas contain important high-resolution records of faunal dynamics, hurricane deposition and salinity changes that can be used to examine the effects of storms on these ecosystems. Two cores, measuring approximately 60 cm each in length, were taken from Salt Pond, a hypersaline lake, on the eastern side of the island that has been frequently inundated by storm surge overwash. Multiproxy analyses of loss on ignition, sediment grain size, composition and fabric, invertebrate fauna, as well as trace element and oxygen and carbon isotope analyses were performed. These cores record sedimentation punctuated by hurricane and other large storm events, and a salinity history that varies from brackish to hypersaline, with the formation of salts such as halite and gypsum. Four species of ostracodes—Cyprideis americana, Dolerocypria inopinata, Hemicyprideis setipunctata and Perissocytheridea bicelliforma—were analyzed for their diversity, trace elements and isotopes and compared to the salinity and depositional history of the lake. Faunal diversity and abundance appears to increase after storm events due to the freshening of the lake, suggesting that the system continues to reset itself, recovering quickly from each major disturbance in a threshold-like response. The recovery period is rapid and does not appear to affect the long-term faunal composition of the lake.