The eutrophication of lowland lakes in Europe by excess nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) is severe because of the long history of land‐cover change and agricultural intensification. The ecological and ...socio‐economic effects of eutrophication are well understood but its effect on organic carbon (OC) sequestration by lakes and its change overtime has not been determined. Here, we compile data from ~90 culturally impacted European lakes ~60% are eutrophic, Total P (TP) >30 μg P l−1 and determine the extent to which OC burial rates have increased over the past 100–150 years. The average focussing corrected, OC accumulation rate (C ARFC) for the period 1950–1990 was ~60 g C m−2 yr−1, and for lakes with >100 μg TP l−1 the average was ~100 g C m−2 yr−1. The ratio of post‐1950 to 1900–1950 C AR is low (~1.5) indicating that C accumulation rates have been high throughout the 20th century. Compared to background estimates of OC burial (~5–10 g C m−2 yr−1), contemporary rates have increased by at least four to fivefold. The statistical relationship between C ARFC and TP derived from this study (r2 = 0.5) can be used to estimate OC burial at sites lacking estimates of sediment C‐burial. The implications of eutrophication, diagenesis, lake morphometry and sediment focussing as controls of OC burial rates are considered. A conservative interpretation of the results of the this study suggests that lowland European meso‐ to eutrophic lakes with >30 μg TP l−1 had OC burial rates in excess of 50 g C m−2 yr−1 over the past century, indicating that previous estimates of regional lake OC burial have seriously underestimated their contribution to European carbon sequestration. Enhanced OC burial by lakes is one positive side‐effect of the otherwise negative impact of the anthropogenic disruption of nutrient cycles.
Five test runs were performed to assess possible bias when performing the loss on ignition (LOI) method to estimate organic matter and carbonate content of lake sediments. An accurate and stable ...weight loss was achieved after 2 h of burning pure CaCO^sub 3^ at 950 °C, whereas LOI of pure graphite at 530 °C showed a direct relation to sample size and exposure time, with only 40-70% of the possible weight loss reached after 2 h of exposure and smaller samples losing weight faster than larger ones. Experiments with a standardised lake sediment revealed a strong initial weight loss at 550 °C, but samples continued to lose weight at a slow rate at exposure of up to 64 h, which was likely the effect of loss of volatile salts, structural water of clay minerals or metal oxides, or of inorganic carbon after the initial burning of organic matter. A further test-run revealed that at 550 °C samples in the centre of the furnace lost more weight than marginal samples. At 950 °C this pattern was still apparent but the differences became negligible. Again, LOI was dependent on sample size. An analytical LOI quality control experiment including ten different laboratories was carried out using each laboratory's own LOI procedure as well as a standardised LOI procedure to analyse three different sediments. The range of LOI values between laboratories measured at 550 °C was generally larger when each laboratory used its own method than when using the standard method. This was similar for 950 °C, although the range of values tended to be smaller. The within-laboratory range of LOI measurements for a given sediment was generally small. Comparisons of the results of the individual and the standardised method suggest that there is a laboratory-specific pattern in the results, probably due to differences in laboratory equipment and/or handling that could not be eliminated by standardising the LOI procedure. Factors such as sample size, exposure time, position of samples in the furnace and the laboratory measuring affected LOI results, with LOI at 550 °C being more susceptible to these factors than LOI at 950 °C. We, therefore, recommend analysts to be consistent in the LOI method used in relation to the ignition temperatures, exposure times, and the sample size and to include information on these three parameters when referring to the method.PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
We developed a quantitative chironomid-July air temperature inference model based on surface sediments from 81 Swiss lakes and applied it to the Holocene subfossil chironomid record of Hinterburgsee, ...a small subalpine lake in the northern Swiss Alps (present-day mean July air temperature of 11.3°C). After smoothing to reduce the high between-sample variability of inferred temperatures, the reconstruction indicates July air temperatures of 10.4– 10.9°C at the end of the Younger Dryas, of 11.9–12.8°C during the early and mid-Holocene (11500–4000 cal. BP), and slightly lower temperatures of 11.5–12.0°C during the late Holocene (3500–1000 cal. BP). A warming trend inferred for the past millennium is most likely an artifact of human impact on Hinterburgsee's chironomid fauna, rather than a genuine temperature signal. The most prominent climatological events during the Holocene were two periods of lower temperatures at c. 10700–10500 cal. BP and 8200–7700 cal. BP and an abrupt shift to a cooler late-Holocene climate around 4000–3700 cal. BP. Although the chironomid-inferred climate signals were within the prediction error of the model (1.51°C), major inferred temperature changes agree well with other northern and central European climate reconstructions and underline the potential of subfossil chironomid analysis to reconstruct even the moderate climatic changes within the Holocene.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The concentrations of chironomid remains in lake sediments are very variable and, therefore, chironomid stratigraphies often include samples with a low number of counts. Thus, the effect of low count ...sums on reconstructed temperatures is an important issue when applying chironomid-temperature inference models. Using an existing data set, we simulated low count sums by randomly picking subsets of head capsules from surface-sediment samples with a high number of specimens. Subsequently, a chironomid-temperature inference model was used to assess how the inferred temperatures are affected by low counts. The simulations indicate that the variability of inferred temperatures increases progressively with decreasing count sums. At counts below 50 specimens, a further reduction in count sum can cause a disproportionate increase in the variation of inferred temperatures, whereas at higher count sums the inferences are more stable. Furthermore, low count samples may consistently infer too low or too high temperatures and, therefore, produce a systematic error in a reconstruction. Smoothing reconstructed temperatures downcore is proposed as a possible way to compensate for the high variability due to low count sums. By combining adjacent samples in a stratigraphy, to produce samples of a more reliable size, it is possible to assess if low counts cause a systematic error in inferred temperatures.PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
A 9000cal. year record of geochemistry was analysed in a sediment core obtained from a Swiss alpine hard-water lake (1937 ma.s.l.) that is located at the present-day tree-line. Geochemical ...stratigraphies are compared to changes in mineralogy, grain-size, pollen, and macrofossil records. This allows the reconstruction of the effects of changes in vegetation and of 3500 years of land-use in the catchment area on sediment geochemistry. Using principal component analysis, two major geochemical groups are distinguished: (i) Changes in concentrations of Rb, Ti, Zr, Fe, As, and Pb are closely related to corresponding changes in the concentrations of quartz and clay. They are thus considered to represent the silicate fraction which shows an increase from the oldest to the youngest core section. (ii) In contrast, Ca and Sr concentrations are positively correlated with changes in silt, sand, and calcite. They are therefore considered to represent the carbonate fraction which gradually decreased. Based on constrained cluster analysis, the core is divided into two major zones. The oldest zone (A; 9000-6400 cal.BP) is characterised by high concentrations of detrital carbonates. The more open catchment vegetation at that time promoted the physical weathering of these carbonates. The second major zone (B, 6400 cal.BP-1996 AD) is divided into four subsections with boundaries at ca. 3500, 2400, and 160cal. BP. The lower part of this zone, B1, is characterized by a gradual decrease in the carbonate-silt fraction and a pronounced increase in the silicate-clay fraction. This is concurrent with the expansion of Picea in the catchment area, which probably stabilized the soil. The middle part, B2 and B3 (3500-160cal. BP), comprises pronounced fluctuations in all elements, especially Ca, Sr, Mn, and Rb, but also in clay and silt. These changes are related to varying intensities of alpine farming. In the same section, Mn/Fe ratios are highly variable, suggesting changes in the mixing regime of the lake with phases of anoxic bottom water. The uppermost section, B4 (since 160cal. BP), is characterized by a steep decline in the silicate fraction and an increase in Ca and Sr. Despite the decrease in the silicate fraction, Pb increases, due to elevated atmospheric input resulting from early metal pollution, are masked by the high natural variability. Generally, changes in vegetation, which correspond to climate changes in the early Holocene and to human activities since ca. 3700cal. BP, are the controlling factor for variations in the geochemical composition of the sediment of Sägistalsee.PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Chironomids preserved in a sediment core from Lago di Origlio (416 m a.s.l.), a lake in the foreland of the Southern Swiss Alps, allowed quantitative reconstruction of Late Glacial and Early Holocene ...summer temperatures using a combined Swiss-Norwegian temperature inference model based on chironomid assemblages from 274 lakes. We reconstruct July air temperatures of ca. 10 °C between 17 300 and 16 000 cal yr BP, a rather abrupt warming to ca. 12.0 °C at ca. 16 500-16 000 cal yr BP, and a strong temperature increase at the transition to the Bølling/Allerød interstadial with average temperatures of about 14 °C. During the Younger Dryas and earliest Holocene similar temperatures are reconstructed as for the interstadial. The rather abrupt warming at 16 500-16 000 cal yr BP is consistent with sea-surface temperature as well as speleothem records, which indicate a warming after the end of Heinrich event 1 (sensu stricto) and before the Bølling/Allerød interstadial in southern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. Pollen records from Origlio and other sites in southern Switzerland and northern Italy indicate an early reforestation of the lowlands 2000-1500 yr prior to the large-scale afforestation of Central Europe at the onset of the Bølling/Allerød period at ca. 14 700-14 600 cal yr BP. Our results suggest that these early afforestation processes in the formerly glaciated areas of northern Italy and southern Switzerland have been promoted by increasing temperatures.
During the past eight decades contrasting hypotheses have been put forward to explain the Holocene expansions of
Fagus silvatica (beech) and
Abies alba (fir) in Central Europe. The hypotheses can be ...referred to as: (1) climatic change; (2) migrational lag; (3) delay in population increase; (4) human disturbance; and (5) fire disturbance. High-resolution pollen and charcoal records from three sites in lowland Switzerland and southern Germany allow testing the human vs. fire-disturbance hypotheses by means of time-series analysis. Cross-correlations between pairs of pollen as well as between microscopic charcoal and pollen suggest that neither human nor fire disturbance substantially promoted the expansion of
Fagus and
Abies. We address the remaining hypotheses (climatic change, migrational lag, delay of population increase) by a combined interpretation of our data with independent climatic records and other evidence of past environmental dynamics (e.g. dynamic vegetation modelling) for southern Central Europe. Rapid population expansions in response to cooling and precipitation increase suggest that climatic change was the main forcing factor and that migrational lags were not effective since at least 8200
cal.
yr ago. On the basis of this conclusion we propose an explanatory model for the Holocene expansion of
Fagus and
Abies in Central Europe: Both trees expanded stepwise across the continent during favourable 8200-type events, which were characterized by changes towards wetter and cooler conditions and corresponded to previously recognized Holocene cold phases in Central Europe as well as in the North Atlantic realm. Asynchronous expansions across continental Europe are explained by analogy to today's precipitation gradients resulting from orographic effects. Response lags of
Fagus and
Abies to climatic change reached a few decades at most, whereas population expansion in response to climatic change lasted for several centuries, probably as a consequence of intrinsic rates of population increase as well as competition with previously established forest communities. This model is in agreement with recent data from northern Central Europe, where large-scale expansion pulses of
Fagus coincided with 8200-type events (e.g. 3800–3400 and 2750–2350
cal. BP). In addition to climatic change, human impact influenced the expansions of
Fagus in northern Central Europe. We suggest that
Abies expansions across Europe after 5000
cal. BP were inhibited by human and/or fire disturbance.
Since multi-site reconstructions are less affected by site-specific climatic effects and artefacts, regional palaeotemperature reconstructions based on a number of sites can provide more robust ...estimates of centennial- to millennial-scale temperature trends than individual, site-specific records. Furthermore, reconstructions based on multiple records are necessary for developing continuous climate records over time scales longer than covered by individual sequences. Here, we present a procedure for developing such reconstructions based on relatively short (centuries to millennia), discontinuously sampled records as are typically developed when using biotic proxies in lake sediments for temperature reconstruction. The approach includes an altitudinal correction of temperatures, an interpolation of individual records to equal time intervals, a stacking procedure for sections of the interval of interest that have the same records available, as well as a splicing procedure to link the individual stacked records into a continuous reconstruction. Variations in the final, stacked and spliced reconstruction are driven by variations in the individual records, whereas the absolute temperature values are determined by the stacked segment based on the largest number of records. With numerical simulations based on the NGRIP δ18O record, we demonstrate that the interpolation and stacking procedure provides an approximation of a smoothed palaeoclimate record if based on a sufficient number of discontinuously sampled records. Finally, we provide an example of a stacked and spliced palaeotemperature reconstruction 15000–90 calibrated 14C yr BP based on six chironomid records from the northern and central Swiss Alps and eastern France to discuss the potential and limitations of this approach.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This paper summarises the results of tephrochronological investigations into a suite of central and southern European records, which include: Rotmeer, southern Germany; Soppensee and Rotsee, central ...Swiss Plateau; Lago di Lavarone and Lago Piccolo di Avigliana, Italian southern Alpine foreland. These sites provide records of palaeoenvironmental changes for the Last Glacial to Interglacial Transition (LGIT) at the boundary between North Atlantic and Mediterranean climatic influences. Chemical characterisation of glass shards in volcanic ash layers indicates that multiple volcanic sources have contributed to the central European tephra record. Amongst other volcanic markers, the Laacher See Tephra, originating from the Eifel region of Germany c. 12.9 ± 0.1 ka, and the Vedde Ash from Iceland c. 12.1 ± 0.1 ka, are found co-located within the sediments of Rotmeer, Soppensee, Rotsee and Lago Piccolo di Avigliana. These key horizons, which bracket the onset of the Younger Dryas stadial, provide precise calendrically-dated tie points around which a detailed picture of the timing of local and regional environmental transitions can be constructed. Using the co-located tephra layers the re-colonisation of Northern Italian catchment areas by Quercus is shown to occur just prior to the deposition of the Laacher See Tephra layer, whereas to the North of the Alps Quercus and other thermophilous trees do not reappear until several centuries after the deposition of the Vedde Ash. Furthermore, the discovery of the Vedde Ash in Lago Piccolo di Avigliana and Lago di Lavarone is indicative of atmospheric transport of polar air into southern Europe during the Younger Dryas stadial, matching evidence proposed for such transport of polar air during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM).
Diatom analyses in the water column, sediment traps, surficial sediments as well as in a short sediment core from Hagelseewli (2339 m asl, Swiss Alps) give information about the present-day seasonal ...cycle of diatom blooms, taphonomic processes in the lake basin and the lake's history. Analyses of surficial sediments show that water depth and thus light and nutrient availability is the most important factor influencing the production and distribution of diatom assemblages in Hagelseewli, and that periphytic diatom valves deposited in the deeper part of the basin originate from the shallow, littoral parts and are transported to the central part by processes such as lateral currents or sediment focussing. The lake is characterised by a very short period (2-3 months) of open water. Water-column and sediment-trap data revealed that planktonic diatoms bloom during and after the ice break-up, whereas mainly periphytic Fragilaria species entered the traps during the ice-covered period. These results suggest that plankton development is strongly inhibited by the ice-cover, with longer periods of ice-cover favouring Fragilaria species in Hagelseewli. The diatom analysis of a short sediment core that includes the last five centuries revealed several changes in the proportion of planktonic diatoms to Fragilaria species. The colder phases of the Little Ice-Age correspond to phases of lower concentration of planktonic diatoms. The highest, statistically significant amount of variance in the downcore diatom data is explained by winter precipitation, which directly influences the length of the ice-cover but inversely influences the light regime.PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
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