Sedimentary record of recent climate impacts on an insular coastal lagoon in the Gulf of California

Sedimentary records are useful to evaluate environmental changes, either from natural or anthropogenic causes, such as global and climate change. The recent changes in accumulation rates and geochemical characteristics (grain size distribution, elemental composition, organic carbon and carbonate concentrations) recorded in a sediment core from San Jose Island Lagoon (SJIL, Gulf of California) were evaluated to determine its relationship with anthropogenic impacts and climatic variability. The 210Pb-derived chronology was corroborated with 239+240Pu and 137Cs stratigraphic markers. The mass accumulation rate increased up to ∼3 times during the past ∼100 years (0.16 ± 0.03 to 0.51 ± 0.06 g cm−2 yr−1). The contents of terrigenous and marine (salinity) indicator elements, as well as fine-grained sediments, also increased considerably, although no anthropization evidences were observed; indeed, the enrichment factor of trace elements indicated that the ecosystem is still a pristine environment. By using multivariate statistical techniques, we inferred that the larger input of fine-grained terrigenous sediments could be related to the enhancement of soil erosion from the catchment, under the influence of higher rainfall rates, especially during the last 20 years. In addition, the higher concentrations of salinity indicator elements most likely resulted from higher evaporation rates in the lagoon, caused by higher minimum atmospheric temperatures. We concluded that recent climate variability has become the main driver for sedimentary geochemical changes in San Jose Island Lagoon. These observations confirmed the usefulness of 210Pb-dated geochemical sediment records to study the impacts of recent climate variability where long-term environmental data is scarce or non-existent.