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Veget Hist Archaeobot (2018) 27:535–549
DOI 10.1007/s00334-017-0651-x
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
An 800 year record of mangrove dynamics and human activities
in the upper Gulf of Thailand
Paramita Punwong
1,3
· Sanpisa Sritrairat
1
· Katherine Selby
2
· Rob Marchant
3
·
Nathsuda Pumijumnong
1
· Paweena Traiperm
4
Received: 24 April 2017 / Accepted: 29 October 2017 / Published online: 11 November 2017
© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017
probably due to recent sea-level rise. Intensive human
activity is recorded during the 20th century, as indicated
by increased particle size, charcoal and carbonate content.
At present, human activity in the area includes dams and
construction as well as aquaculture.
Keywords Sea-level change · Pollen · Charcoal · Klong
Kone · Dvaravati
Introduction
Mangroves form a coastal ecosystem that provides important
ecological and socio-economic services for people who live
close to tropical coastal habitats. Mangroves are physiologi-
cally adapted evergreen trees and shrubs that grow in the
intertidal zone (Duke 1992; Hogart 1999). They can tolerate
a wide range of salinities that vary between fully marine sea
water in the lowest intertidal area to fresh water in upstream
rivers, depending on the gradient of the flood tide and fresh
water runoff (Ball 1988; Hogart 1999; Krauss et al. 2008).
In response to sea level fluctuations, mangrove communi-
ties will shift landward or seaward as sea levels rise or fall,
respectively (Punwong et al. 2013a, b, c). Mangrove eco-
systems are sensitive to climate change; changing regional
rainfall patterns can influence fresh water runoff, sediment
and nutrient discharges, leading to changes in salinity and
resulting mangrove composition (Alongi 2008; Gilman
et al. 2008; Mikhailov and Isupova 2008; Eslami-Andargoli
et al. 2009). Mangrove ecosystems are also very sensitive to
human influence (Gilman et al. 2008; Punwong et al. 2013a,
c) and record human activities (Hogart 1999; Gilman et al.
2008).
In Thailand, mangroves currently cover approximately
1,900 km
2
and have relatively high species diversity
Abstract A multiproxy record comprising pollen, char-
coal, loss on ignition and particle size analyses from two
radiocarbon dated sediment cores from Klong Kone subdis-
trict on the western coast of the Gulf of Thailand provides
insights on mangrove dynamics, environmental changes and
human activities during the last 800 years. The mangroves
were dominated by Rhizophora which indicates that the area
has been influenced by the sea level from at least 820 cal
bp
until 720 cal
bp
. An intertidal area may have formed that
supported mangrove development as part of an old shore-
line during 820–720 cal
bp
. After 720 cal
bp
, mangroves
decreased and were replaced by grasses, suggesting that a
lower sea level caused the mangroves to grow closer to the
sea until around 140 cal
bp
. Cereal pollen increased from
720 cal
bp
suggesting probable use of the shoreline for
intensive cultivation. The mangroves were characterised by
Avicennia, which increased toward the top of the 2 cores,
suggesting that the mangroves then grew further inland,
Communicated by F. Bittmann.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of
this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-017-0651-x) contains
supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
* Paramita Punwong
paramita.pun@mahidol.edu
1
Faculty of Environment and Resource Studies, Mahidol
University, Salaya, Nakhon Pathom 73170, Thailand
2
Environment Department, University of York,
York YO10 5NG, UK
3
York Institute of Tropical Ecosystems, Environment
Department, University of York, York YO10 5NG, UK
4
Department of Plant Science, Faculty of Science, Mahidol
University, Ratchathewi, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
@Phil_Robichaud
@deepthiw
@JoseServera