Paleolimnology of the Peten Lake district, Guatemala

II. Mayan population density and sediment and nutrient loading of Lake Quexil

Mark Brenner
Florida State Museum, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, U.S.A.

Keywords: paleolimnology, colluvium, soil chemistry, clay, phosphorus loading, tropical lakes

Abstract

The long-term impact of Maya culture on a lowland tropical watershed is assessed, using data from a 9.2 m
sediment core taken from deep water (28 m) in Lake Quexil. Human population growth, estimated by the
1980 archaeological survey, is associated with a shift in the composition of the sediment to a dominance by
inorganic material, the Maya clay formation, beginning ca. 3500 B.P. Increasing settlement densities are
correlated with accelerated influxes of phosphorus, carbonates, and siliceous sediment. However, chemical
data do not track short-term population fluctuations closely. Because much of the sediment is delivered as
colluvium, and not by running water, there is a lag between terrestrial disturbance and impact on the aquatic
system. As an indication of this lag, contemporary high sedimentation rates are a residual of Maya activity
that virtually ceased some 300-400 years B.P. Comparison of the deep-water core with a shallow-water (7 m)
section, based on palynological correlation, reveals only minor differences in proximate chemical compo-
sition. Chemical influxes are much higher at the deep-water site, however, as a consequence of sediment
focusing in this hyperconical basin. Chemical analyses of soil samples from 21 test pits in the Quexil basin
support the principal conclusion that bulk soil movement was the mode of nutrient transfer to the lake,
following forest clearance by the Maya.

Introduction supported 200 persons . km - 2, with levels of

Northern Guatemala's Peten lake district (Fig. 1)
provides ideal study sites for a paleolimnological
investigation of the long-term interactions between
human populations and aquatic systems of the
tropical lowlands. The karsted, central Peten re-
gion covers some 20 000 km 2 and archaeological in-
vestigations there reveal that the area was once
densely settled by the Maya. Ceramic evidence
from the sites of Altar de Sacrificios and Ceibal
dates the earliest human presence in Peten at 3000
B.P. (Rice 1976), although earlier occupation is
known in Belize (Hammond et al. 1977). By classic
times (A.D. 250-850), regional Maya population
density exceeded 20 persons · km -2 (Sanders 1973),
and Late Classic (A.D. 550-850) urban centres
600-700 persons · km- 2 plausible at some sites like
Tikal (Culbert 1973).
Tsukada's (1966) study of Lake Petenxil sedi-
ments employed palynology to document a long
history of human disturbance. Subsequent studies
at Lakes YaxhA, Sacnab and Quexil (Brenner 1978;
Deevey et al. 1979; Vaughan 1979) have used sedi-
ment chemistry, pollen, and microfossils to assess
Maya perturbations in the watersheds and conse-
quent effects on the lakes. Archaeological examina-
tion of the YaxhA and Sacnab watersheds revealed
that populations in the basins increased exponen-
tially from the Middle Preclassic (1000-250 B.C.)
until the Late Classic (A.D. 550-850) and one en-
vironmental response to the population growth was
an increase in the delivery rate of phosphorus to the

Hydrobiologia 103, 205-210 (1983).

@ Dr W. Junk Publishers, The Hague. Printed in the Netherlands.
206

L/
l

[ml

I -

0 20 km N TIKAL

7
~L.t YAXHA
L. PETEN ITZA -
%>
!'< R / L.SACNAB

FLR ES L. MACANCHE

L. PETENXIL| L. SALPETEN
L.PETENXL UEXL
L.QUEXIL

Fig. 1. Map of the Peten lake district and Lake Quexil showing locations of archaeological sampling transects, soil pits, and core sites.

lakes by colluviation (Deevey et al. 1979).
With the completion of the 1980 archaeological
field season in the Quexil watershed, it is now
possible to extend our research to a third lake,
exploring correlations between Maya population
fluctuations (Rice & Rice, unpublished) and the
paleolimnological record. Quexil is particularly in-
teresting because populations did not undergo the
slow steady growth revealed at Yaxhd and Sacnab,
but instead displayed a Terminal Preclassic-Early
Classic (100 B.C.-A.D. 550) population decline be-
fore rising once again in the Late Classic (A.D.
550-850) prior to the as yet unexplained regional
population collapse around A.D. 900.
This study employs both a shallow-water (7 m)
and a deep-water (28 m) core (the latter designated
Quexil H) to examine the sedimentary history of
Lake Quexil. Both cores contain nearly complete
Holocene profiles, document initial vegetation dis-
turbance at about 5000 B.P., and demonstrate the
profound effects of sediment focusing in this hyper-
conical basin (Lehman 1975; Deevey et al. 1977).
Chemical analyses of basin soils substantiate our
claim that bulk soil movement was the major mode
of nutrient transport from watershed to lake fol-
lowing Maya forest clearance.
Results and discussion
Because radiocarbon dating fails to provide reli-
able results as a consequence of the hard-water lake
effect (Deevey & Stuiver 1964) and colluviation, we
are compelled to zone our cores by identifying sec-
tions consisting of discrete pollen assemblages and
assigning archaeologically correlated dates to them
(Vaughan & Deevey, 1981). Thus, as at Yaxhi
and Sacnab, we rely on the changing regional
 207

pollen spectrum to date sections of the Quexil
cores, estimates proximate sediment composition
within zones, and calculate chemical influxes dur-
ing the various archaeological periods.
The percentage chemical composition of equi-
valent zones in the shallow and deep-water cores is
not dissimilar, though some differences are appar-
ent (Table 1). The deep-water section is dominated
by silica while the shallow core can be characterized
as more organic. However, proceeding from the
deepest, pre-Maya sediments to the modern muds,
both cores display similar zone-to-zone shifts in the
organic-inorganic ratio.
Human occupation of the watershed caused a
shift toward inorganic domination of the sediments
and depopulation has resulted in a partial return to
more organic muds like those of the deepest, pre-
Maya and low population zones. In view of this
interpretation, Early Classic sediments are anom-
alous as peak inorganic percentages are associated
with this low population period. However, modern
sediments of the now-forested watershed contain
less organic matter than pre-disturbance mud, and
it appears that material transfer has not achieved
equilibrium in the 400 years since the abandonment
of the catchment. Apparently, equilibrium was not
attained during the Terminal Preclassic-Early
Classic population hiatus either.
Influx rates
Chemical delivery rates to Quexil are now exam-
ined as they may have controlled the trophic state of
the lake. This chemical transfer implies removal of
nutrients from the drainage basin, a process that
perhaps reduced soil fertility.
Despite the problem of non-equivalent time
correlations, total phosphorus influxes can be
compared roughly to changing population densities
as expressed by mound occupations (Fig. 2). In
both cores it can be seen that human settlement of
the basin was accompanied by higher phosphorus
influxes. High Early Classic influxes (normal at
Yaxha and Sacnab) calculated for the Quexil cores
are unexpected considering the low population of
the period. With respect to this anomaly, it is note-
worthy that post-Maya influxes at the shallow and
deep sites are much higher than their respective
baseline rates, indicating once again that long peri-
ods of time (>400 years) are necessary for equilibri-
um to be achieved.
Comparing equivalent zonal influx rates between
the two cores (Fig. 2), it is apparent that more
phosphorus is deposited per unit time in deep wa-
ter. This stems from the fact that more bulk sedi-
ment is deposited in deep water and deep-site sedi-
ments contain more dry weight per unit volume.
While some delivery rates calculated for the deep-
water site exceed tolerable levels (Vollenweider
1968), it has been argued elsewhere (Brenner 1978;
Deevey et al. 1979) that little of the sedimented
phosphorus was available for eutrophication, thus
the deep-water data are biased indicators of past
trophic state and are simply presented as evidence
of the strong sediment focusing that occurs in the
hyperconical Quexil basin (Fig. 3).
Like phosphorus, other sediment components
(Corg, carbonates, silicates) were transferred to the
lake at higher rates as a consequence of human
activity in the watershed (Table 2), but augmenta-
tion of carbonate and silicate influx rates exceeded
changes in organic carbon deposition as expressed
by the inorganic nature of disturbance-zone sedi-
ments. Diatoms and other microfossils are extreme-

Table 1. Percent composition of Lake Quexil shallow-water and deep-water core sediments.

Zone Organic matter CaCO3 SiO2 Fe 2 03

Shallow Deep Shallow Deep Shallow Deep Shallow Deep

Post-Maya 42 36 26 5 30 54 2 5
Late & Postclassic 18 9 30 5 48 81 4 5
Early Classic 14 8 6 6 75 81 5 5
Late Preclassic 66 40 5 5 27 51 2 4
Middle Preclassic 69 3 25 3
Early Preclassic 59 3 36 2
Pre-Maya 69 48 3 6 24 41 4 5
208

PHOSPHORUS INFLUX (4g P cmZ.yr-')

SHALLOW DEEP
ARCHAEOLOGICAL WATER WATER
PERIODS OCCUPIED
CORE CORE
MOUNDS (- 4 0 I
8 I.
16. .
24. .
32
. .
40
.
1. . | I I I
.
\

POST- MAYA POST- MAYA

POSTC LASSIC 4 LATE AND

1' TERMINAL CLASSI 5 POSTCLASSIC
LATE CLASSIC 28
EARLY CLASSIC O EARLY CLASSIC
0o TERMINAL PRECLASSIC 0 LATE PRECLASSIC I
rci MIDDLE AND .r
0 15
LATE PRECLASSIC
------ -- - MIDDLE PRECLASSIC
co 3
V)

uJ
4- EARLY PRECLASSIC
----- ---EARLY PRECLASSIC

r; -

PRE- MAYA -------- - -- PRE- MAYA

II
9 1 .L

Fig. 2. Time correlation of Maya population levels and phosphorus influxes.

ly scarce in disturbance-level sediments and it is delivery mechanism may be shared by all three
suspected that the bulk of the organic matter, car- chemical constituents.
bonates and silicates deposited following vegeta-
tion removal was derived allochthonously. In fact, Soils
zone-to-zone phosphorus influx rates are positively
correlated with deposition rates of carbonates and Since Peten rainfall contributes only a small frac-
silicates in both cores, suggesting that a common tion of the annual phosphorus income to the lakes
-2
Table 2. Influxes to the Lake Quexil sediments at the shallow-water and deep-water sites (amount · cm · a-l).

Zone Corg (mg) CaCO3 (mg) SiO 2 (mg) Ptot (ig)

Shallow Deep Shallow Deep Shallow Deep Shallow Deep

Post-Maya 2.2 4.8 3.1 1.8 4 20 4.4 18.0

Late & Postclassic 1.3 1.6 5.0 2.9 8 47 5.9 16.6
Early Classic 1.7 4.0 1.6 7.8 20 II11 5.8 36.7
Late Preclassic 4.8 7.8 0.7 3.0 4 32 4.2 18.9
Middle Preclassic 1.8 0.2 0.4 1.7
Early Preclassic 3.3 0.3 4 2.7
Pre-Maya 1.3 1.4 0.2 0.4 1 3 0.7 2.6
 209

SHALLOW WATER DEEPWATER movement that were based on earlier soil sampling
CORE CORE
at Yaxha and Sacnab: bulk soil movement was the
0 - -- -- …-- principal means of nutrient transfer to the lake
POST-MAYA
following Maya deforestation.
2- POST-MAYA
LATE AND
POSTCLASSIC
Conclusions
EARLY CLASSIC

LATE Human-induced deforestation of the Quexil wa-

PRECLASSIC tershed resulted in accelerated deliveries of phos-
LATE AND
3-
E POSTCLASSIC phorus, carbonates, and silica to the lake, primarily
MIDDLE
v) PRECLA SSIC via soil translocation. The environmental impact
o was sustained not only during the more than 3
z
EARLY millennia of Maya occupation, but continues today
PRECLASSIC EARLY
CLASSIC in the form of high modern influxes. Clearly, we can
I 5-
identify changes in sedimentary phenomena that
Li
0 resulted from human disturbance. However, we feel
PRE- MAYA LATE
6- that using data from Quexil to refine our per capita
PRECLASSIC
phosphorus loading model developed at YaxhA and
Sacnab would be premature at this time. This is due
MIDDLE AND
7-
EARLYPRECLASSIC
to our inability to track short-term population fluc-
tuations in the Lake Quexil cores. This difficulty
results from several possible factors: 1) We are un-
PRE-MAYA
able to zone the cores with the same archaeological
time zone designations used by the social scientists.
9- Hence, we present a single Late and Postclassic
sediment zone that covers three identifiable ceramic
Fig. 3. Palynological zone correlation between the Lake Quexil periods possessing very different population levels,
shallow-water and deep-water cores. and in fact, includes the famous collapse. Likewise,
our Late Preclassic zone overlaps two archaeologi-
cal zones of very different population densities; 2)
(Deevey et al. 1979), it is likely that basin soils are Long periods necessary to establish equilibrium for
the principal reservoir from which this nutrient, as land-water nutrient transfers may in fact make it
well as carbonates and silicates were derived during impossible to see responses to short-term popula-
Maya times. Leaching of phosphorus is held to be tion changes; 3) It may be that the environmental
unlikely as surface soil (0-10 cm) concentrations response we measure paleolimnologically reflects
from the 21 pits (Fig. 1) are about 2.5 times deep- changes in land use rather than population num-
sample values. Aluminum, calcium and sodium al- bersperse; 4) Finally, using a regional pollen strati-
so display gradients in the profiles, but are richer in graphy to zone the Quexil core may produce ar-
deep soils. chaeologically correlated palynological zonation
Though perhaps coincidental, total phosphorus which does not accurately reflect deforestation
concentrations in surface soils (0-10 cm) are sur- events in the Quexil watershed proper. Attempts at
prisingly close to levels found in the lake sediments. using magnetic susceptibility to establish interbasin
In fact. Quexil surface soil concentrations (278 ± stratigraphic correlations proved futile due to the
156 g g- ) are not statistically different from val- lack of sedimented, magnetic particles. However,
ues measured in the shallowcore (289 ± 156Ag . g- 1) recent work with particle size analysis (Binford
and deep core (358 ± 122/gg · g 1) sediments. Like- 1983) indicates that granulometry may be an ap-
wise, surface soil iron concentrations are no differ- propriate technique for assessing basin-specific dis-
ent from sediment iron concentrations. These data turbance.
confirm our original conclusions about phosphorus
210
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by National Science
Foundation grants nos. BMS-72-01859, DEB-77-
06629, and EAR-79-26330 awarded to E. S. Dee-
vey. Grateful acknowledgment is made to E. S.
Deevey, M. S. Flannery, M. W. Binford, D. S. and
P. M. Rice.
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