Holocene hydroclimate in highland Costa Rica: new evidence from hydrogen and carbon isotopes in n‐alkanes of terrestrial leaf waxes in a 10 000‐year sediment profile

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe conducted compound‐specific stable hydrogen (δD) and carbon (δ13C) isotope analysis on n‐alkanes from terrestrial leaf waxes preserved in a 10 000‐year sediment profile from Lago de las Morrenas 1 (9.4925° N, 83.4848° W, 3480 m), a glacial lake on the Chirripó massif of the Cordillera de Talamanca in Costa Rica. Our results demonstrate millennial‐scale variations in hydroclimate across the Holocene, with drier than average conditions in the highlands during the early Holocene, but with gradually increasing precipitation; mesic conditions during the middle Holocene with a gradual drying trend; and highly variable conditions during the late Holocene. This general pattern is punctuated by several centennial‐scale manifestations of global climate events, including dry conditions during the 8200, 5200 and 4200 cal a  bp events and the Terminal Classic Drought (1200–850 cal a  bp). Our δ13C analyses demonstrate that carbon isotope signals are responding to changes in hydroclimate at the site and reinforce prior interpretations of a stable páramo plant community that established following deglaciation and persisted throughout the Holocene. The shifts in hydroclimate inferred from analyses of n‐alkanes in Lago de las Morrenas 1 sediments show correspondence with charcoal records in multiple lakes, with fires most common during drier intervals.