Midge- and diatom-based palaeosalinity reconstructions for Mahoney Lake, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada

Salinity fluctuations in lakes of semi-arid regions have long been recognised as indicators of palaeoclimatic change, and have provided a valuable line of evidence in palaeo-climatic reconstruction. In the present study, fossil remains of diatoms and midges were used to reconstruct salinity changes at Mahoney Lake from the early postglacial, through the early, mid and late Holocene. A transition from midges typical of a freshwater community (Protanypus, Sergentia, Heterotrissocladius, Cladopelma, Dicrotendipes) during the early postglacial, to those indicative of saline environments (Cricotopus/Orthocladius, Tanypus) occurred in the early Holocene. The midge-inferred salinity values reflected the shift from freshwater (0.031 g/L) immediately after deglaciation, to saline water (2.4 to 55.2 g/L) in subsequent periods. A less saline period was found to have occurred after 1000 yr BP, suggesting a cooler or wetter period. The diatom record indicates similar trends, with freshwater taxa (e.g.,Cyclotella bodanica var. aff.lemanica) dominating near the bottom of the core. Diatom-inferred salinities indicate that saline conditions (about 30 g/L) prevailed throughout subsequent Holocene time, although relatively fresh conditions are indicated following deposition of the Mazama Ash, and from about 1500 yr BP until the present day. Midge and diatom-inferred salinity reconstructions for Mahoney Lake compare favorably with each other, and with climate trends inferred from earlier palynological evidence. The palaeosalinity record thus contributes new data relevant to past climatic conditions, in a region where little data have previously been collected.     

Comparing palaeolimnological and instrumental evidence of climate change for remote mountain lakes over the last 200 years

This paper compares the palaeolimnological evidence for climate change over the last 200 years with instrumental climate data for the same period at seven European remote mountain lakes. The sites are Øvre Neådalsvatn (Norway), Saanajärvi (Finland), Gossenköllesee (Austria), Hagelseewli (Switzerland), Jezero v Ledvici (Slovenia), Estany Redó (Spain, Pyrenees), and Niné Terianske Pleso (Slovakia). We used multiple regression analysis to transfer homogenised lowland air temperature records to each of the sites, and these reconstructions were validated using data from on-site automatic weather stations. These data showed that mean annual temperature has varied over the last 200 years at each site by between 1 and 2 °C, typical of the high frequency variability found throughout the Holocene, and appropriate, therefore, to test the sensitivity of the various proxy methods used. Sediment cores from each site were radiometrically dated using ²¹⁰Pb, ¹³⁷Cs and ²⁴¹Am and analysed for loss-on-ignition, C, N, S, pigments, diatoms, chrysophytes, Cladocera and chironomids. Comparisons between the proxy data and the instrumental data were based on linear regression analysis with the proxy data treated as response variables and the instrumental data (after smoothing using LOESS regressions) as predictor variables. The results showed few clear or consistent patterns with generally low or very low r² values. Highest values were found when the data were compared after smoothing using a broad span, indicating that some of the proxy data were capturing climate variability but only at a relatively coarse time resolution. Probable reasons for the weak performance of the methods used include inaccurate dating, especially for earlier time periods, the influence of confounding forcing factors at some sites e.g., air pollution, earthquakes, and the insensitivity of some methods to low amplitude climate forcing. Nevertheless, there were trends in some proxy records at a number of sites that had a relatively unambiguous correspondence with the instrumental climate records. These included organic matter and associated variables (C and N) and planktonic diatom assemblages at the majority of sites and chrysophytes and chironomids at a few sites. Overall for longer term studies of the Holocene, these results indicate the need to be cautious in the interpretation of proxy records, the importance of proxy method validation, the continuing need to use reinforcing multi-proxy approaches, and the need for careful site and method selection.     

A weighted-averaging regression and calibration model for inferring lakewater salinity from fossil diatom assemblages in saline lakes of the Vestfold Hills: a new tool for interpreting Holocene lake histories in Antarctica

The relationship between surface sediment diatom assemblages and measured limnological variables in thirty-three coastal Antarctic lakes from the Vestfold Hills was examined by constructing a diatom-water chemistry dataset. Previous analysis of this dataset by canonical correspondence analysis revealed that salinity accounted for a significant amount of the variation in the distribution of the diatom assemblages. Weighted-averaging regression and calibration of this diatom-salinity relationship was used to establish a transfer function for the reconstruction of past lakewater salinity from fossil diatom assemblages. Weighted-averaging regression and calibration with classical deshrinking provided the best model for salinity reconstructions and this was applied to the fossil diatom assemblages from one of the saline lakes in the Vestfold Hills in order to assess its potential for palaeosalinity and palaeoclimate reconstruction.     

Water quality changes in Lake McKenzie,Fraser Island,Australia: a Palaeolimnological approach

Surface water resources are highly valued for their ecological services and functions. However, their quality is under threat from anthropogenic activities and climate change. A detailed understanding of natural aquatic conditions and variability is rare. This is particularly the case in Australia where the variable climate produces significant ecological changes within natural thresholds and few long-term environmental data sets exist. Palaeoecology represents a means to identify natural fluctuations of aquatic ecosystems and provide long-term data for effective environmental management. This study uses a palaeoecological approach to identify biological and sediment changes in Lake McKenzie, Fraser Island, Australia. A sediment core was extracted from the lake and the fossil diatom assemblage and sediment particle size analysed. Inferred environmental changes were detected throughout the core that pre-date European impacts. The likely causes of these changes are climatic oscillations. Further dating is required to establish a detailed chronological record and identify the timing of detected environmental change at Lake McKenzie.     

A preliminary investigation of siliceous microfossil succession in late Quaternary sediments from Lake Baikal, Siberia

Siliceous microfossil assemblage succession was analyzed in a 100 m sediment core from Lake Baikal, Siberia. The core was recovered from the lake's central basin at a water depth of 365 m. Microfossil abundance varied greatly within the intervals sampled, ranging from samples devoid of siliceous microfossils to samples with up to 3.49 × 10¹¹ microfossils g^-1 sediment. Fluctuations in abundance appear to reflect trends in the marine ¹⁸O record, with peak microfossil levels generally representing climate optima. Microfossil taxa present in sampled intervals changed considerably with core depth. Within each sample a small number of endemic diatom species dominated the assemblage. Changes in dominant endemic taxa between sampled intervals ranged from extirpation of some taxa, to shifts in quantitative abundance. Differences in microfossil composition and the association of variations in abundance with climate fluctuations suggest rapid speciation in response to major climatic excursions.     

Conifer stomata analysis in paleoecological studies on the Loess Plateau: An example from Tianchi Lake, Liupan Mountains

The identification of fossil conifer stomata was conducted from a lake sedimentary sequence on the Liupan Mountains, southwestern Loess Plateau, in order to reconstruct detailed forest history and assess the potential of using stomata as a supplement to pollen analysis to determine the local presence of conifers over the last 3200 years. The pollen has already been analyzed in our previous study. Reference conifer stomata were prepared for the fossil stomata identification and demonstrate that the conifer stomata could be identified to at least genus level. Our stomata and pollen results reveal three clear stages of the forest recession during the late Holocene: mixed conifer-deciduous forest, steppe-forest and steppe. Combined stomata and pollen results confirm the local presence of conifer trees (Abies and Pinus) in the vicinity of the Tianchi Lake. Abundant Abies trees existed during 3200-2200 cal yr BP. Then it decreased and finally demised at ca.210 cal yr BP. Pinus trees have been continuously present with very low abundance throughout the late Holocene. Application of comprehensive studies comprising both stomata and pollen analyses allowed a detailed determination of the stages of conifer trees presence in the vicinity of the Tianchi Lake. Our study suggests that the analysis of fossil stomata is a valuable methodological tool for the provision of unambiguous evidence of the past local presence of the coniferous taxa in this region.     

A first estimate of organic carbon storage in Holocene lake sediments in Alberta, Canada

This paper reports a first estimate of the Holocene lake sediment carbon pool in Alberta, Canada. The organic matter content of lake sediment does not appear to depend strongly on lake size or other limnological parameters, allowing a simple first estimate in which we assume all Alberta lake sediment to have the same organic matter content. Alberta lake sediments sequester about 15 g C m^-2 yr^-1, for a provincial total of 0.23 Tg C yr^-1, or 2.3 Pg C over the Holocene. Alberta lakes may represent as much as 1/1700 of total global, annual permanent carbon sequestration.     

Sensitivity of tropical-African aquatic invertebrates to short-term trends in lake level and salinity: a paleolimnological test at Lake Oloidien,Kenya

Aquatic invertebrates are intrinsically capable of rapid and sensitive response to changes in their lacustrine habitat. Fossil invertebrate assemblages preserved in the sediments of a climate-sensitive lake can thus produce high-resolution proxy records of past climate. In shallow lakes, however, a potential conflict exists between the sensitivity of biota to frequent habitat change in their fluctuating environment and the increased probability of disturbance of selected proxy records by bioturbation and physical mixing of sediments. I investigated this problem with tropical-African aquatic invertebrate faunas in a paleolimnological sensitivity study that incorporates both the response of biota to short-term habitat change and the taphonomic integrity of fossil assemblages in a small, shallow, and hydrologically closed lacustrine basin. Analysis of chironomid, cladoceran, and ostracode remains in a²¹⁰Pb-dated short core from Lake Oloidien (Kenya) indicates that habitat changes accompanying the late 19th- and 20th-century fluctuations in lake level (Z _max range: 3 to 18 m) and salinity (conductivity range:c. 400 toc. 2000–4000 µS cm^–1) were sufficient to drastically alter the composition of local benthic and planktonic invertebrate faunas. This response remained relatively unaffected by taphonomic phenomena during its incorporation into the sediment record. Results indicate that tropical-African aquatic invertebrate faunas in suitable climate-sensitive lakes are a valuable tool to resolve paleoclimatic fluctuations on a timescale of decades.This paper was presented at the VI Palaeolimnology Symposium, held at Canberra in April 1993. Dr. Mark Brenner guest edited this contribution.     

A Holocene record of allochthonous, aeolian mineral grains in an Australian alpine lake; implications for the history of climate change in southeastern Australia

A radiocarbon-dated core, NC, taken in the alpine Blue Lake in the Snowy Mountains of southeastern Australia provides a Holocene record of sedimentation that consists mainly of organic clays. Two types of quartz grains are recovered from 81 samples from the core. One type consists of angular grains, with frequently shattered faces, which originates from granitic lithologies present within the small catchment area of the lake. The other type is characteristically rounded to subrounded, often textured with frequent silica coating and is considered to have been deposited within the lake and its catchment by aeolian processes. These aeolian grains are thought to have been transported along the main dust path that ferries aeolian dust from the Mallee region, west of the Snowy Mountains, as far as the southeastern Tasman Sea. Aeolian grains with the largest size occur over approximately the last 1.6 ka of the Holocene and this indicates an increase of climatic instability, with arid phases that commenced about 3.5 ka. At 2 ka, a wet period in southeastern Australia coincided with low aeolian input at Blue Lake. The period of consistent reduced aeolian activity spans the 7.6 to 5.5 ka interval at Blue Lake.     

Paleolimnological investigations of anthropogenic environmental change in Lake Tanganyika: V. Palynological evidence for deforestation and increased erosion

Pollen spectra from seven short cores taken from deltaic sites in the central and northern parts of Lake Tanganyika provide information about vegetation changes around the lake during the last 5000 years. Pollen analysis was undertaken to understand the history and timing of catchment deforestation and its causal linkage to excess sedimentation and ecosystem change in Lake Tanganyika. The spectra are dominated by grass pollen at all levels in every core. Grass pollen percentage values range between 40 and 80%. Low values of arboreal pollen taxa (1–20%) were documented from most cores except core LT-98-2M. Core LT-98-2M represents the longest duration vegetation record of this study (close to 5000 years BP), and records the onset of increasingly arid conditions in the Late Holocene, especially after 500 A.D., with the probable replacement of forest by open grassland in the Mahale Mountains region. The pollen/spore content for other cores showed a consistent trend of a decrease in grass pollen and an increase in pteridophyte and forest indicator pollen taxa during the last few centuries, contemporaneous with other indications of increased watershed disturbance from forest clearing (especially isotopes and lake faunal change). The timing or strength of this trend is not tied to specific levels of watershed disturbance. However, increasing fern spore abundance does occur progressively later towards the south, where modern human population densities are lower. Although increasing fern spore abundance is consistent with a land-clearing hypothesis, the rising arboreal pollen percentages are seemingly counterintuitive. One possible explanation is that increasing arboreal pollen proportions reflects the recycling of abundant pollen of this type from rapidly eroding soils. Another likely explanation for this finding is that land clearing involved the replacement of miombo woodland, with its mixture of trees producing little pollen and understory grasses producing large amounts of pollen, by the present day cassava, banana, and legume agricultural systems, all of which are poor pollen producers. This shift in catchment vegetation would increase the relative contribution of Afromontane pollen transported long distances from the surrounding highland regions. This hypothesis is consistent with both the lack of correlation of palynological history with specific watershed deforestation attributes, as well as the broader historical record of human habitation in the Lake Tanganyika region. This study also highlights the need for both modern pollen transect data from the region and comparative cores from low elevation swamps or ponds (wetlands) in the region with smaller catchment areas.