Palaeolimnology of Lake Piene-Kuuppalanlampi (Kurkijoki, Karelian Republic, Russia): isolation history, lake ecosystem development and long-term agricultural impact

The post-glacial history of Lake Pieni-Kuuppalanlampi, western Lake Ladoga region, was studied by means of stratigraphic pollen and diatom analyses. Diatoms were analysed to track the isolation history of the basin and the limnological effects of the early land-use phases indicated by pollen analysis. Chrysophycean stomatocysts and Isoëtes spores were also employed in the limnological reconstructions. Sediment dating was provided by six conventional radiocarbon dates.The lower part of the 370-cm long sediment sequence represents early Holocene, large lake conditions: the (freshwater) Yoldia and Ancylus stages of the Baltic basin, with a short-term lagoonal or isolation phase at the end of Yoldia. The basin was isolated due to Ancylus lake regression at 9785 cal B.P. For the small-lake sequence (0–250 cm) we used diatom inferences (WA-method) for hindcasting water chemistry. The post-isolation limnology of Pieni-Kuuppalanlampi reflects the development of vegetation on its small hill-top catchment. In its early development, the lake was mesotrophic, but became more acidic (pH about 6) and oligotrophic after the decline of temperate hardwood trees and the spread of spruce to the area after around 5000 B.P. The lake ecosystem appears to have reacted sensitively to agricultural land-use in the catchment from AD 400–800 onwards: inferred total phosphorus levels and pH both rise during these periods.     

Overview of groundwater sources and water-supply systems,and associated microbial pollution,in Finland,Norway and Iceland

The characteristics of groundwater systems and groundwater contamination in Finland, Norway and Iceland are presented, as they relate to outbreaks of disease. Disparities among the Nordic countries in the approach to providing safe drinking water from groundwater are discussed, and recommendations are given for the future. Groundwater recharge is typically high in autumn or winter months or after snowmelt in the coldest regions. Most inland aquifers are unconfined and therefore vulnerable to pollution, but they are often without much anthropogenic influence and the water quality is good. In coastal zones, previously emplaced marine sediments may confine and protect aquifers to some extent. However, the water quality in these aquifers is highly variable, as the coastal regions are also most influenced by agriculture, sea-water intrusion and urban settlements resulting in challenging conditions for water abstraction and supply. Groundwater is typically extracted from Quaternary deposits for small and medium municipalities, from bedrock for single households, and from surface water for the largest cities, except for Iceland, which relies almost entirely on groundwater for public supply. Managed aquifer recharge, with or without prior water treatment, is widely used in Finland to extend present groundwater resources. Especially at small utilities, groundwater is often supplied without treatment. Despite generally good water quality, microbial contamination has occurred, principally by norovirus and Campylobacter, with larger outbreaks resulting from sewage contamination, cross-connections into drinking water supplies, heavy rainfall events, and ingress of polluted surface water to groundwater.     

8000-year history of palaeoproductivity in a large boreal lake

An 8000-year record of palaeoproductivity, based on the chemical and chironomid stratigraphies from Lake Päijänne, S. Finland, was assessed with respect to known morphometric, climatic and anthropogenic events. A gradual trend of dystrophication and an associated decrease in aquatic production was detected during the Holocene, with the following exceptions: (1) high diatom and chironomid production around 8000-6000 cal yr BP, (2) eutrophication around 2000 cal yr BP, and (3) an anthropogenic signal during the last few decades.The changes in chironomid assemblages, before the past few decades, have mainly been shifts in concentration, but not in species composition. Variation in chironomid production was mainly explained by the accumulations of biogenic silicon, carbon and organic matter. Nutrient availability seems to be important in controlling biogenic silicon, which we use to infer past diatom production. The high production ca. 8000-6000 cal yr BP and the fluctuation in chironomid influx after ca. 2000 cal yr BP, however, were probably caused by the proposed warm/dry and cold/wet conditions during these times, respectively. These results highlight the sensitivity of boreal shield lake ecosystems to climatic forcing. In contrast, the pronounced change in the morphometry of the basin around 7000 cal yr BP had little effect on the trophic state of the lake. The human-induced trophic change during the past few decades has affected the Lake Päijänne ecosystem to an extent never experienced before during the last 8000-years.     

Geomorphological evidence of paleoseismicity: Surficial and underground structures of Pasmajärvi postglacial fault

The cyclic nature of glaciations and related postglacial faulting represents a risk for the deep geological disposal of spent nuclear fuel in areas likely to be affected by future glaciations. Seismic history was therefore studied by means of detecting geomorphological structures on airborne laser scanning digital elevation models and underground by excavating in an esker and trenching across a postglacial fault located in northern Fennoscandia. OLS dating and assessing the geomorphological structures was used for timing of the seismic history. The results suggest that the faulting of different segments in the Pasmajärvi complex is due to at least two late Weichselian events, which probably occurred both subglacially and postglacially. The most reliable input for the moment magnitude estimates was vertical slip profiles, and therefore these estimates (M_W ≈ 6.4–6.9) are suggested. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The response of sedimentation in three varved lacustrine sequences to air temperature,precipitation and human impact

Human activity and climatic forcing have influenced sedimentation in three of Finland's deepest lakes during the last centuries. High-resolution sediment sequences of Lake Päijänne, Lake Pääjärvi and Lake Pyhäjärvi represent records of the last 440 years, 839 years and 633 years, respectively. The accumulation rates of dry matter, organic carbon and biogenic silica refer to changes in human activity in the catchments. However, they also reveal the importance of climatic forcing on lake sediment deposition. A significant correlation was found between instrumentally measured records of temperature (163 years) and precipitation (148 years), and varve thickness. Warm winter months indicating a short ice-cover period have the strongest control on varve thickness. This shows that wind-driven resuspension of littoral material is the forcing mechanism of climate on lake sediments. The long-term human-induced erosion pulses observed may even have magnified the climatic signals in some cases. Nevertheless, increased anthropogenic field erosion in the catchment, and the associated leaching of bioavailable nutrients, hampers the observation of climate signals, especially during the last 50 years, in the lakes studied.This is the second paper a series of papers published in this issue on high-resolution paleolimnology. These papers were presented at the Sixth International Palaeolimnology Symposium held 19-April, 1993 at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. Dr A. F. Lotter and Dr. M. Sturm served as guest editors for these papers.     

Protostellar classification using supervised machine learning algorithms

Classification of young stellar objects (YSOs) into different evolutionary stages helps us to understand the formation process of new stars and planetary systems. Such classification has traditionally been based on spectral energy distribution (SED) analysis. An alternative approach is provided by supervised machine learning algorithms, which can be trained to classify large samples of YSOs much faster than via SED analysis. We attempt to classify a sample of Orion YSOs (the parent sample size is 330) into different classes, where each source has already been classified using multiwavelength SED analysis. We used eight different learning algorithms to classify the target YSOs, namely a decision tree, random forest, gradient boosting machine (GBM), logistic regression, naïve Bayes classifier, \(k\)-nearest neighbour classifier, support vector machine, and neural network. The classifiers were trained and tested by using a 10-fold cross-validation procedure. As the learning features, we employed ten different continuum flux densities spanning from the near-infrared to submillimetre wavebands (\(\lambda= 3.6\mbox{--}870~\upmu\mbox{m}\)). With a classification accuracy of 82% (with respect to the SED-based classes), a GBM algorithm was found to exhibit the best performance. The lowest accuracy of 47% was obtained with a naïve Bayes classifier. Our analysis suggests that the inclusion of the \(3.6~\upmu\mbox{m}\) and \(24~\upmu\mbox{m}\) flux densities is useful to maximise the YSO classification accuracy. Although machine learning has the potential to provide a rapid and fairly reliable way to classify YSOs, an SED analysis is still needed to derive the physical properties of the sources (e.g. dust temperature and mass), and to create the labelled training data. The machine learning classification accuracies can be improved with respect to the present results by using larger data sets, more detailed missing value imputation, and advanced ensemble methods (e.g. extreme gradient boosting). Overall, the application of machine learning is expected to be very useful in the era of big astronomical data, for example to quickly assemble interesting target source samples for follow-up studies.     

North Atlantic sea surface temperatures and their relation to the North Atlantic Oscillation during the last 230?years

August Sea Surface Temperatures (aSSTs) based on fossil diatom assemblages are generated with 2?year average resolution from a 230-year-long sediment core (Rapid 21-12B), from the Reykjanes Ridge in the subpolar North Atlantic. The results indicate a warming trend of ~0.5°C of the surface waters at the Reykjanes Ridge for the last 230?years. Superimposed on this warming trend there is a multidecadal to decadal aSST variability of up to 1°C. The interval from the 1770s to the 1830s represents the coldest period, whereas ~1860?C1880 represents the warmest period during the last 230?years. The last 25?years is characterized by a warming trend showing strong decadal aSST variability with several warm years, but also the coldest years since the 1820s. The time of these cold years in the mid-1970s, -1980s and -1990s correspond with the documented great salinity anomalies (GSA) in the North Atlantic suggesting increased fluxes of cold, low-salinity waters from the Arctic during the last decades. The aSST record and the August North Atlantic Oscillation (aNAO) index show similar multidecadal-scale variability indicating a close coupling between the oceanic and atmospheric patterns. The aSST record shows a negative correlation with the aNAO indicating cold aSST during the positive aNAO trend and vice versa. Results suggest that the wind driven variation in volume fluxes of the North Atlantic surface waters could be the major mechanism behind the observed relationship.     

Mineral chemical evidence for extremely magnesian subalkaline melts from the Antarctic extension of the Karoo large igneous province

We present a comprehensive mineral chemical dataset (～400 analyses) on subalkaline meimechitic (Mg-number?=?74–80) and ferropicritic (Mg-number?=?67–69) dike samples from the Antarctic extension of the Karoo large igneous province (LIP) in Vestfjella, western Dronning Maud Land. Some of the meimechites, previously considered to be cumulates from ferropicritic magmas, are characterized by forsteritic olivine (with core composition up to Fo₉₂) that is in, or close to Fe-Mg equilibrium with the host rock. The olivines are subhedral to euhedral, contain Ti-rich (volcanic) spinel inclusions, have a high CaO content (≥0.19 wt. %), and are thus unlikely to represent xenocrysts from mantle peridotite. Igneous amphibole is found in olivine-hosted, crystallized melt inclusions, indicating that the parental magmas had a H₂O content of 1–2 wt. %. The olivine data suggests generation of extremely MgO-rich (up to 25 wt. %) melts during the Karoo magmatism. Based on our petrogenetic modeling, such melts are likely to have originated from the partial melting of garnet peridotite at high pressures (5–6 GPa) and mantle potential temperatures (>1,600°C) that are compatible with the involvement of a mantle plume in the generation of the Karoo LIP. A geochemical comparison of the Vestfjella meimechites with meimechites from the Siberian Traps LIP and the assumed komatiitic parental melts of the Horingbai picrites (Paraná-Etendeka LIP) reveals key similarities, suggesting that all these suites were generated from broadly similar sources and/or by similar melting processes in anomalously hot subcontinental mantle.     

Holocene sea-level changes and glacio-isostasy in the Gulf of Finland, Baltic Sea

Shoreline displacement in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland during the past 9000 radiocarbon years was reconstructed by studying a total of 10 isolated lake and mire basins located in Virolahti in southeastern Finland and on the Karelian Isthmus, and in Ingermanland in Russia. Study methods were diatom analyses, sediment lithostratigraphical interpretation and radiocarbon dating. In southeastern Finland, the marine (Litorina) transgression maximum occurred ca. 6500–6200 ¹⁴C yr BP (7400–7100 cal. yr BP). In areas of the slower land uplift rate on the Karelian Isthmus and in Ingermanland, the transgression maximum occurred ca. 6400–6000 ¹⁴C yr BP (7300–6800 cal. yr BP). The highest Litorina shoreline is located at ca. 23 m above present sea-level in southeastern Finland, whereas in the eastern part of the Karelian Isthmus, near St. Petersburg, it is located at ca. 8 m above present sea-level. The amplitude of the Litorina transgression in Virolahti area is ca. 4 m, whereas on the Karelian Isthmus and in Ingermanland the amplitude has varied between 5 and 7 m. The regional differences between areas are solely due to different glacio-isostatic land uplift rates. The seven basins studied in this research were connected to the Baltic Sea basin during the Litorina Sea stage and their diatom and lithostratigraphical records indicate a single, smooth Litorina transgression.