Paleoecology Studies in Chesapeake Bay: A Model System for Understanding Interactions Between Climate, Anthropogenic Activities and the Environment

Sediments provide one of the best reservoirs of information of how aquatic ecosystems have been altered by natural (climate change) and human agents over time. This information is preserved in a variety of biogenic materials including macro- and microfossils, pollen and chemical proxies, which record ecological responses to past perturbations. Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States, is particularly well-suited to paleoenvironmental studies due to high rates of sediment accumulation, good preservation potential and historical records that can be used to corroborate evidence of change over the past several centuries. Previous paleoecological studies in Chesapeake Bay have examined how climate change and human activities have modified vegetation, species composition, sediment supply and carbon delivery over time. In this chapter, we review a variety of paleoecological approaches that have been employed to understand how the Bay ecosystem has changed over time. These proxies include microfossils (benthic foraminifera and ostracods), pollen and seeds, chemical fingerprints (stable isotopes, lipid biomarker compounds and black carbon), and mollusk shells preserved in sediment core records.