Basin-Scale 3D Sedimentary Modelling: An Approach to Subdivide Baltic Sea Onshore Sediments for Land use and Construction

Geotechnical and Geological Engineering - Understanding the local stratigraphy and geometry of sediment units is necessary for successful 3D modelling and the prediction of ground behaviour and...     

Toward a standard stratigraphical classification practice for the Baltic Sea sediments: the CUAL approach

The Late Pleistocene and Holocene glacial and postglacial sediments of the Baltic Sea basin are conventionally classified into units according to the so‐called Baltic Sea stages: Baltic Ice Lake, Yoldia Sea, Ancylus Lake and Litorina Sea. The Baltic Sea stages have been identified in offshore sediment cores by fundamentally different criteria, precluding detailed comparisons of the sediment units amongst different sea areas and studies. Here, long sediment cores and reflection seismic and pinger sub‐bottom profiles were studied from an offshore area in the Gulf of Finland, northern Baltic Sea. The strata are divided on the basis of sedimentological criteria into three allostratigraphical formations with subordinate allostratigraphical members and lithostratigraphical formations, following the combined allostratigraphical and lithostratigraphical (CUAL) approach. Sedimentological features are recommended as the primary stratigraphical classification criteria because they do not require the palaeoenvironmental inferences of salinity and water level that are inherent in the conventional classification practice. The presented stratigraphical division is proposed as a flexible template for future stratigraphical work on the Baltic Sea basin, whereby lower‐rank allounits and lithounits can be included and removed locally, while the alloformations will remain at the highest hierarchical level and guarantee regional correlatability. The stratigraphical division is compatible with international guidelines, facilitating communication to the wider scientific community and comparison with other similar basins.     

Particulate organic carbon (POC) in surface sediments of the Baltic Sea

In this study, particulate organic carbon (POC) contents and their distribution pattern in surficial sediments of the Baltic Sea are presented for 1,471 sampling stations. POC contents range from approx. 0.1% in shallow sandy areas up to 16% in deep muddy basins (e.g. Gotland Basin). Some novel relationships were identified between sediment mass physical properties (dry bulk density (DBD), grain size) and POC levels. Notably, the highest POC concentrations (about 10–17 mg cm^–3) occur in sandy mud to mud (60–100% mud content) with intermediate POC contents of about 3–7% and DBDs of 0.1–0.4 g cm^–3. Areas with this range in values seem to represent the optimum conditions for POC accumulation in the Baltic Sea. The maximum POC contents (8–16%) are found in fluid mud of the central Baltic Sea characterized by extremely low DBDs (<0.1 g cm^–3) and moderate POC concentrations (4–7 mg cm^–3). Furthermore, sediment mass accumulation rates (MAR), based on ²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs measurements and available for 303 sites of the Baltic Sea, were used for assessing the spatial distribution of POC burial rates. Overall, these vary between 14 and 35 g m^–2 year^–1 in the mud depositional areas and, in total, at least 3.5 (±2.9) Mt POC are buried annually. Distribution patterns of POC contents and burial rates are not identical for the central Baltic Sea because of the low MAR in this area. The presented data characterize Baltic Sea sediments as an important sink for organic carbon. Regional differences in organic carbon deposition can be explained by the origin and transport pathways of POC, as well as the environmental conditions prevailing at the seafloor (morphology, currents, redox conditions). These findings can serve to improve budget calculations and modelling of the carbon cycle in this large brackish-water marginal sea.     

Intra-City Variation in Urban Morphology and Turbulence Structure in Helsinki, Finland

Most atmospheric boundary-layer theories are developed over vegetative surfaces and their applicability at urban sites is questionable. Here, we study the intra-city variation of turbulence characteristics and the applicability of boundary-layer theory using building-morphology data across Helsinki, and eddy-covariance data from three sites: two in central Helsinki (400 m apart) and one 4 km away from the city centre. The multi-site measurements enable the analysis of the horizontal scales at which quantities that characterize turbulent transport vary: (i) Roughness characteristics vary at a 10-m scale, and morphometric estimation of surface-roughness characteristics is shown to perform better than the often used rule-of-thumb estimates (average departures from the logarithmic wind profile are 14 and 44 %, respectively). (ii) The drag coefficient varies at a 100-m scale, and we provide an updated parametrization of the drag coefficient as a function of z/z _H (the ratio of the measurement height to the mean building height). (iii) The transport efficiency of heat, water vapour and CO₂ is shown to be weaker the more heterogeneous the site is, in terms of sources and sinks, and strong scalar dissimilarity is observed at all sites. (iv) Atmospheric stability varies markedly even within 4 km across the city: the median difference in nocturnal sensible heat fluxes between the three sites was over 50W m^?2. Furthermore, (v) normalized power spectra and cospectra do not vary between sites, and they follow roughly the canonical theory as developed over vegetated terrain.     

Assessment of recent eutrophication and climate influence in the Archipelago Sea based on the subfossil diatom record

Two short sediment cores from the Archipelago Sea in the northern Baltic Sea were examined for their siliceous microfossils in order to study recent eutrophication in the area. The diatom record was divided into diatom assemblage zones. Locally weighted weighted averaging regression and calibration was applied for the quantitative reconstruction of past TN concentrations. The cores were dated using radiometric (²¹⁰Pb, ²²⁶Ra and ¹³⁷Cs) methods. The diatom assemblages in the topmost zones in both cores indicate eutrophication during the last decade. TN reconstructions partially fail to trace the actual measured TN concentrations. Especially from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s, the dominating diatom species are more influenced by other factors, such as the length of the ice season, than by nutrient concentrations. It seems that in the Archipelago Sea, diatom assemblages are principally governed by climatic fluctuations with a moderate influence of eutrophication in recent years. The peak in sedimentation in the early 1990s coincides with the short ice seasons indicating that sedimentation may increase with decreasing ice-cover extent due to warming climate.     

Depositional history of peatland pines (Pinus sylvestris L.) in NW Enontekiö, Finnish Lapland: implications for Middle Holocene drought and temperature fluctuations

High altitude and latitude findings of subfossil peatland pine trees were unearthed from the region of NW Finnish Lapland and dated by ¹⁴C and tree-ring methods. The depositional history of the trees illustrated two distinct peatland pine phases dated to Middle Holocene intervals 4900–4400 and 4100–3400 cal. a BC. It seems evident that both thermal and hydroclimatic fluctuations have played roles of varying importance in the establishment of this pine population and its demise. The presence of these pines, from a site ~60 km north of the coniferous timberline and conditions ~1 °C and 100 degree-days colder than those at the present-day timberline, concurs with previous studies demonstrating the association between the high-latitude summer-temperature cooling and circumpolar timberline retreat since the Middle Holocene due to Milankovitch forcing. On the other hand, the peatland pine recruitment was made possible by drier than present surface conditions during the previously reconstructed Middle Holocene drought anomaly (Hyvärinen-Alhonen event). Our data suggest this event was not continuous but reached its two-phase climax during the peatland pine phases, with an interruption of several centuries with moister surface conditions between 4400 and 4100 cal. a BC. The findings highlight the sensitivity of well-dated peatland tree assemblages in terms of recording past climatic evolution and events and the need for new collections from north and south Fennoscandia and the Baltic region, for more detailed analyses over extended time intervals and regions.     

Holocene diatom stratigraphy in the Archipelago Sea,northern Baltic Sea

Two sediment cores from the Archipelago Sea in the northern Baltic Sea were examined for their siliceous microfossils in order to study the Holocene palaeoenvironmental history of the area. The diatom record was divided into local diatom assemblage zones (LDAZ). An age model was constructed using independent palaeomagnetic and AMS-¹⁴C methods. The early history of the Archipelago Sea was freshwater. Initial brackish-water influence is observed at 7,950 ± 80 cal. BP (LDAZ4), but fully brackish conditions were established at 7,700 ± 80 cal. BP (LDAZ5). Diatom assemblages indicate increasing salinity, warming climate, and possible increasing trophic state during the transition from lacustrine to brackish-water conditions. The decreasing abundance of Pseudosolenia calcar-avis (Schultze) Sundström and the increasing abundance of the ice-cover indicator species Pauliella taeniata (Grunow) Round and Basson indicate reduced salinity and climatic cooling after ～5,000 cal. BP. LDAZ boundaries do not always correlate with changes in the sediment appearance, which underlines the importance of defining biostratigraphic boundaries independently to the sediment visual character, in contrast with the conventional practice for classifying the Baltic Sea sediments.     

Geochemistry of surface sediments in the Archipelago Sea,SW Finland: a multiparameter and multivariate study

This study investigates the geochemistry of soft, organic-rich brackish-water surface sediments in the Archipelago Sea (SW Finland). The area is one of the world’s largest archipelagos, and, although it is scarcely populated, frequent ship and boat traffic along with fish farming occurs. From 76 sites, 47 chemical elements were determined after aqua regia digestion. Other parameters determined were grain size, water, organic and nitrogen contents. At sampling, the sediments were visually classified into groups representing oxic, anoxic and fluctuating (intermediate) oxic seafloor conditions. The results show that the element concentrations are quite similar to other studies in the region but with clear signs of lower anthropogenic loading. Point source pollution was identified in one sample taken nearby a fish farm and a cable ferry. This site was strongly enriched in Cu, Zn and Sn derived from chemicals used in either, or both, activities at the site. Overall, the sediments can be divided into two groups that separate chemically and geographically. One group contains more fine-grained sediments that occur near shore, while the other group contains more anoxic, organic and sulfur-rich sediments occurring more offshore. The second group is interpreted to reflect material reworked from previous deposits as a result of shoaling of the area due to glacio-isostatic land uplift. The visual classes were included in both partial least squares regression (PLSR) and PLS discriminant analysis. These analyses showed that the oxic and anoxic seafloor sediments can be predicted from the chemical variables and grain-size distribution.     

Comparison of Monte Carlo simulation methods for the calculation of the nucleation barrier of argon

We compare two molecular Monte Carlo simulation methods, the discrete summation method and the growth/decay method, which calculate the vapor-liquid nucleation free energy barrier by simulating isolated clusters of fixed size without the surrounding vapor. The methods are applied to calculations of nucleation barriers of Lennard–Jones argon at 60 K and 80 K. Both of these methods are computationally efficient, as only isolated clusters without the surrounding vapor are simulated, and the methods can be applied with any given cluster definition. They give equivalent results to other methods where the vapor phase is also included. The discrete summation method is based on the calculation of the difference in free energies between two systems containing an n-cluster and an (n − 1)-cluster plus one non-interacting (free) molecule. We show that the configurational space is not equivalent in the two systems. Hence, there has to be an additional term in the free energy calculation that accounts for several kT in magnitude. In contrast to previous studies we also show that it is not correct to prevent the overlap of the non-interacting molecule and another molecule by a zero or an arbitrarily small repulsive potential, but with a small excluded space around the free molecule.