Traces produced by chironomid larvae in sediments of an ice-contact proglacial lake

Scdimentological studies of a small ice-contact proglacial lake at Briksdal. southwest Norway, have led to the discovery of two types of tubular traces developed on the surfaces of material collected in sediment traps. The traces are described and attributed, with certainty, to the burrowing activities of chironomid midge larvae.     

Trace fossils from proglacial lake sediments

Trace fossils have been discovered in Middle Pleistocene proglacial lake sediments from St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England. They indicate that this environment was capable of supporting a variety of benthonic animals. The fossils are described and tentatively assigned to several invertebrate groups.     

Deglaciation chronology inferred from marine sediments in a proglacial lake basin, western Spitsbergen, Svalbard

Sub-bottom sediment profiles and sediment cores show that the lacustrine sediments in lake Linnevatnet are underlain by marine sediments and a basal till that mantles the bedrock. The till was probably deposited by the glacier that during the Late Weichselian glacial maximum removed all pre-existing sediments from the basin. The cores were collected in closed basins, where continuous deposition is expected. The marine sediment in the studied cores is up to 8 m thick and consists of bioturbated clay and silt. Radiocarbon dates on shells from the base of the marine sequence suggest that glacial retreat from the lake basin occurred around 12,500BP. This is more than a thousand years older than basal shell dates from raised marine sediments on the slopes above the lake. Typical ice proximal litbofacies were not identified in the cores. stratigraphic record indicates both a rapid glacial retreat and that no younger glacial re-advances occurred. During the Younger Dryas local glaciers on western Svalbard were smaller than during the Little Ice Age. This is in sharp contrast to western Europe, where Younger Dryas glaciers were much larger than those the Little Ice Age.     

Subglacial to proglacial sediment transition in a shallow ice-contact lake

A complete subglacial to glacial-lacustrine facies transition is described from a temporary exposure in the Lake Michigan bluffs of southeastern Wisconsin. This transition occurs where a Late Woodfordian terminal moraine intersects the bluff line and grades from basal meltout till to chaotic diamicton to rhythmites over an abrupt 90 m lateral distance. The boundary of the subglacial meltout deposits is marked by an abrupt increase in pebbles and cobbles, which cluster at specific horizons, producing an incipient stratification. Thereafter, the diamicton develops contorted flow structures with progressive segregation into coarse and fine-grained fractions, ultimately into well-stratified rhythmites.     

Estimating phytolith influx in lake sediments

So far, no phytolith extraction protocols have been tested for accuracy and repeatability. Here we aim to display a phytolith extraction method combining the strengths of two widely used protocols, supplemented with silica microspheres as exogenous markers for quantifying phytolith concentrations. Phytolith concentrations were estimated for samples from two sedimentary sequences in which numerical age–depth models make it possible to calculate phytolith influxes (phytolith numbers per cm²per yr). Analysis of replicates confirmed the statistical robustness, the repeatability and the very few biases of our extraction technique for small phytoliths, since the relationship between grass silica short cells and microspheres was kept stable. Furthermore, we demonstrated that silica microspheres are robust exogenous markers for estimating phytolith concentrations. The minimum number of items (i.e., phytoliths plus silica microspheres) that must be counted to estimate phytolith concentrations and thus influxes depends on the ratio of phytoliths to microspheres (R) and is minimized when R = 1. Nevertheless, we recommend using ratios R ≤ 1 in order to avoid having the counting process become excessively time-consuming, because microspheres are easier to identify and count than phytoliths.     

Cores of soft lake sediments

Short cores of soft sediment, used in studying the pollution history of lakes, can be obtained with a plastic tube fitted with a piston and piston wire. If the sediments of deep water are annually laminated (and thus difficult to sample without disturbance) or contain excess gas (which can disrupt the stratigraphy during its escape), a short 'core' can be acquired by producing a frozen crust on a tube filled with dry ice and butanol.
A continuous core of soft lake sediment at least 7 m long can be obtained in a single drive beneath deep water with a hand-driven piston corer. Such a core assures the complete continuity necessary for counting annual laminations or for making close-interval analyses without fear of gaps, and it provides the uniform orientation required for measurements of paleomagnetic directions.     

Controls on uranium distribution in lake sediments

Uranium geochemistry has been investigated in three acid lakes located on the Canadian Shield and one circumneutral lake in the Appalachian Region of Eastern Canada. In all Shield lakes, dissolved U concentrations were higher in the porewater than in the overlying water. In one of them, whose hypolimnion is perennially oxic, U released to porewater at depths of Fe remobilization was removed from the porewater at depths of Fe oxyhydroxides precipitation; these similarities in the U and Fe profiles indicate that part of the U becomes associated to Fe oxyhydroxides. The dissolved U and Fe profiles in the other two Shield lakes, whose hypolimnions were anoxic when sampled, did not show any significant recycling of these elements in the vicinity of the sediment-water interface and both elements diffused from the sediment to the overlying water. In contrast, in the Appalachian Lake, dissolved U concentrations were higher in the overlying water than in porewater, strongly decreased at the vicinity of the sediment-water interface and then remained relatively constant with sediment depth. Diagenetic modeling of the porewater U profiles, assuming steady-state, reveals that authigenic U always represented ?3% of the total U concentration in the sediments of all lakes. This observation indicates that diagenetic reactions involving U are not quantitatively important and that most of the U was delivered to the sediments at our study sites as particulate U and not through diffusion across the sediment-water interface, as is seen in continental margin sediments. Comparison of the U:C_org and U:Fe molar ratios in diagenetic material collected across the sediment-water interface with Teflon sheets and in surface sediments (0-0.5 cm) of the lake having a perennially oxic hypolimnion suggest that solid phase U was mainly bound to organic matter originating from the watershed; a strong statistical correlation between sediment non-lithogenic U and C_org in the Appalachian Lake supports this contention. Thermodynamic calculations of saturation states suggest that dissolved U was not removed from porewater through precipitation of UO_2(s), U₃O_7(s) and U₃O_8(s) as previously proposed in the literature.     

Interpretation of Si concentrations in lake sediments: three case studies

 The biogenic Si concentration in a sediment can be determined as the non-detrital Si concentration by normalization of the total Si concentration with Al. This procedure is based upon the assumptions that (1) that Al exists predominantly in detrital, i.e. minerogenic, particles and (2) that biogenic Si (mainly diatom frustules) is the dominating non-detrital Si phase. This paper focuses on the reasons for the variations of the non-detrital Si concentration in these lake sediments. Data from three lakes are presented, representing three principally different cases regarding the Si concentration. The processes controlling the concentrations of detrital and non-detrital Si are discussed. Received: 10 June 2000 · Accepted: 25 November 2000     

Holocene environmental change in South Georgia: Evidence from lake sediments

The Holocene environmental history of South Georgia is important because of the island's location in the Southern Westerlies in an oceanic zone of the world devoid of high resolution terrestrial records. This is the first attempt to interpret a palaeoenvironmental record from lake sediments in South Georgia. It is based on a wide variety of analyses undertaken on cores from two lakes. Both are in the same, unglaciated, drainage basin, but one is at 80 m above sea-level and near the altitudinal limit for vegetation growth, whereas the other is at 25 m and within the zone of continuous vegetation cover. Results from both lakes indicate shifts of vegetation boundaries, which, together with evidence for changing biotic productivity within the lakes themselves, are interpreted as indicating climatic changes. Radiocarbon dates on the main changes identify a climatic optimum, beginning before 5620 ± 290 ¹⁴C yr BP, and ending at around 4815 ± 330 ¹⁴C yr BP, when conditions in the upper part of the catchment were more conducive to plant growth than they are today. The record obtained from the lower lake was shorter, but indicates two periods of harsher climate relative to the present since 4000 yr BP. This interpretation of the lake evidence agrees with other dated evidence of environmental change from peat sections, glacial stratigraphy and geomorphology in South Georgia. Together the work allows an overall reconstruction of environmental change in the Holocene.     

Holocene climate changes in southern Greenland: evidence from lake sediments

A Holocene lake sediment record is presented from Lake N14 situated on Angissoq Island 15 km off the main coast of southern Greenland. The palaeoclimatic development has been interpreted on the basis of flux and percentage content of biogenic silica, clastic material, organic material and sulphur as well as sedimentation rate, moss content and magnetic susceptibility. A total of 43 radiocarbon dates has ensured a reliable chronology. It is argued that varying sediment composition mainly reflects changing precipitation. By analogy with the present meteorological conditions in southern Greenland, Holocene climate development is inferred. Between 11 550 and 9300 cal. yr BP temperature and precipitation increase markedly, but this period is climatically unstable. From 9300 yr BP conditions become more stable and a Holocene climatic optimum, characterised by warm and humid conditions, is observed from 8000 to 5000 cal. yr BP. From 4700 cal. yr BP the first signs of a climatic deterioration are observed, and from 3700 cal. yr BP the climate has become more dry and cold. Superimposed on the climatic long‐term trend is climate variability on a centennial time‐scale that increases in amplitude after 3700 cal. yr BP. A climatic scenario related to the strength and position of the Greenland high‐pressure cell and the Iceland low‐pressure cell is proposed to explain the Holocene centennial climate variability. A comparison of the Lake N14 record with a terrestrial as well as a marine record from the eastern North Atlantic Ocean suggests that the centennial climate variability was uniform over large areas at certain times. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Long chain alkenones preserved in Miocene lake sediments

Over the last few decades, the occurrence of long chain alkenones (LCAs) in Quaternary lacustrine settings has been reported, the distributions being remarkably different from those of open ocean settings. We report here the occurrence of LCAs with modern lake-type composition from Middle Miocene sedimentary strata in the Dahonggou Section, Qaidam Basin, northern Tibetan Plateau. This is the first report of LCAs with preserved lake compositions in pre-Quaternary lacustrine sediments. The discovery implies that the producers of modern lacustrine LCAs could originate from similar lake species living at least as far back as the Miocene epoch. It also sheds new light on the potential of “alkenones” as palaeotemperature indicators in lacustrine systems back to at least 10.5 Ma.     

Holocene (Neoglacial) moraine and proglacial lake chronology, Barnes Ice Cap, Canada

Lichen diameters and radiocarbon dates from the western and southern margins of the Barnes Ice Cap yield a growth curve similar to that from southeastern Baffin Island. As a consequence, the moraine chronology of the northern and western Barnes Ice Cap needs revision, as does the chronology of the large proglacial lakes that existed north of the present Barnes Ice Cap. The revised chronology indicates that moraines were formed along the western margin of the Barnes Ice Cap during the following intervals: (1) less than 100 years ago; (2) 400–500 B.P.; (3) ca. 750 B.P.; (4) ca. 1000 B.P.; (5) ca. 1600 B.P.; (6) ca. 2100 B.P.; and (7) 2800 to 3100 B.P. As the western margin of the Barnes Ice Cap retreated, punctuated by stillstands and readvances, the northern margin of the Barnes Ice Cap lay athwart a series of westerly draining valleys, and a complex of proglacial lakes were dammed between the ice margin and the height of land. This sequence is traced by means of well-developed shorelines, lacustrine deltas, and spillways; specific lake levels are dated by lichenometry.
The Barnes Ice Cap moraine sequence is more complex than other Neoglacial records fringing mountain glaciers in Colorado, Alaska and Lappland. However, the chronology for the western Barnes Ice Cap closely resembles independent moraine chronology of mountain glaciers in Cumberland Peninsula, Baffin Island, and thus indicates that the difference between the Baffin Island climatic record and the general Neoglacial/Holocene climatic record (Denton & Karlén, Quaternary Research 7 , 1977) is real. Comparison of specific data from Swedish Lappland and Baffin Island shows substantial agreement. Although Neoglacial records may be globally synchronous, the case for a 2500 year periodicity of glacial fluctuations is not proven: a 300 to 600 year return interval is suggested for the period between 0 and 3000 B.P.     

Early diagenesis in anaerobic lake sediments: chemical equilibria in interstitial waters

As part of a study of early diagenesis in anaerobic lake sediments the major ions and P, Fe, Mn, pS, p? and pH were measured in interstitial waters of cores from eutrophic Greifensee in north-central Switzerland. A guide for the interpretation of such data is thermodynamic equilibrium between the dissolved species and mineral phases. The results show that CaCO₃, which precipitates from the lake water, dissolves rapidly in the CO₂-rich interstitial waters resulting in equilibrium with calcite in the top few centimeters of sediment. Siderite, on the other hand, is nearly ten-fold supersaturated 20–30 cm below the surface. Iron monosulfides are metastable in the surface 10–20 cm of sediment and pS and p? results indicate equilibrium between polysulfides and orthorhombic sulfur. Vivianite appears to be limiting the solubility of phosphate below a few centimeters of sediment.The above processes are highly interactive, especially in the case of ferrous iron, with one result being a two order of magnitude decrease in dissolved phosphate in a depth interval of 20cm in the interstitial waters.     

Mobilization of gold into lake sediments from acid and alkaline mineralized environments in the southern Canadian Shield: Gold in lake sediments and natural waters

To be an effective indicator of mineralization in lake sediment surveys within the Canadian Shield, it is desirable that an element migrate in solution or adsorbed on suspensates. Given the low relief and disorganized drainage patterns of this region, dispersal in clastic form in drainage systems is limited and gives rise to erratic distributions. The purpose of this study was to discover whether Au shows significant hydromorphic mobility, which would justify the increasing use that is being made of this element in lake sediments as an indicator for gold mineralization.Waters and lake sediments were collected from Napier Lake, Ontario; PAP Lake, Saskatchewan; and Foster Lake, Manitoba, all of which contain Au-quartz vein mineralization and lie within the glaciated boreal forest zone of the Canadian Shield. In all three areas, profundal lake sediments down-drainage of mineralization contain Au concentrations higher than regional mean concentrations. Significant dissolution and transport of Au was found under oxidizing conditions associated with waters with pH that varied from acid to alkaline. Waters from drill holes penetrating mineralization contain up to 401 ng L⁻¹ Au (note; 1 ng L⁻¹ is equivalent to 1 part per trillion, 10⁻¹²). Surface waters overlying or near mineralization collected from bogs, seeps, ponds and streams contain up to 13 ng L⁻¹. The content of Au in lake waters is lower, with a maximum of 1.1 ng L⁻¹. There is also a detectable quantity of Au present in suspensates. Two samples of particulates (> 1 μm) filtered from lake water have Au equivalent to 0.17 ng L⁻¹ and 0.039 ng L⁻¹. While the contents of Au present in solution or as suspensates in lake and stream water are relatively small, they are sufficient, if precipitated, to generate anomalies in lake sediments. Thus for Reservoir Lake, in the Foster Lake area, water from the principal stream entering the lake carries 0.3 ng L⁻¹ Au. This provides an annual flux which far exceeds that required to generate the 7.3 ppb Au contained in profundal sediments of this lake; a content that is anomalous relative to the regional median content of < 1 ppb Au for lake sediments.Hydrogeochemical prospecting involving analysis for Au is one method for tracing the source of anomalous Au in lake sediments. Collection of 1 L samples without field treatment, followed by extraction of Au into MIBK, then analysis by graphite-furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry, permits detection levels for Au of 0.5 ng L⁻¹. This is below the contents of Au found in some waters from mineralized areas. A detection limit of 0.3 ng L⁻¹ was obtained using larger water samples.     

Trace metals in oxic lake sediments: possible adsorption onto iron oxyhydroxides

Apparent overall equilibrium constants for the adsorption of Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn onto natural iron oxyhydroxides have been calculated from the partitioning of these trace metals in oxic lake sediments and the in situ measurement of trace metal concentrations in the associated pore waters. Such values obtained from lakes of various pH located on the Precambrian Shield, in the area of Sudbury, Ontario, are compared with equilibrium constants obtained for the adsorption of the trace metals onto iron oxyhydroxides in well-defined media.The field data are consistent with laboratory experiments reported in the literature and with theory. Both the influence of pH upon adsorption and the binding strength sequence observed for the field data agree with theory. At high sediment pH values, the partitioning of Cd, Ni and Zn between the pore waters and the natural iron oxyhydroxides is similar to those reported in the literature for the adsorption of these metals at low surface coverage onto amorphous iron oxyhydroxides in a NaNO₃ medium; deviation from this simple model is however observed for Cu and Pb, presumably due to the competitive action of dissolved ligands. At low sediment pH values, the adsorption is much higher than predicted by the simple model and can be explained by the formation of ternary complexes with the iron oxyhydroxide surface.     

Chronological strategies and metal fluxes in semi-arid lake sediments

The largest flux of sediments to a semi-arid lake (Barrett Reservoir) was stream influx after the winter rains. During the times of no stream flow, resuspension of previously deposited material dominated. Direct atmospheric transport was minor but atmospheric particulates were evident in the sediments due to stream influx of particles containing a significant atmospherically derived component. Only an anthropogenic lead influx was measurable in the sedimentary record due to the high sedimentation rate. In semi-arid areas where intermittent stream flow occurs, more than one technique must be used to obtain an overall sedimentation rate.     

Late-glacial climatic oscillations as recorded in Swiss lake sediments

Regional pollen assemblage zones for the late-glacial period of the Swiss Plateau are introduced and defined. They include four major zones (Artemisia, Juniperus—Hippophaë, Betula, Pinus PAZ) with several subzones. Pollen and oxygen-isotope analyses on lacustrine sediments from several lakes in the area reveal four distinct phases of climatic oscillation in the time period of 13 000-9500 yr BP. The first oscillation, termed the Aegelsee fluctuation, occurs shortly before 12 000 yr BP and varve counts suggest its duration was ca. 100 yr. It is characterised by a short decrease in the oxygen isotopes as well as a short increase in NAP associated with a depression in birch pollen values. The second oscillation, which occurs in the δ¹⁸O record shortly before the deposition of the Laacher See Tephra (ca. 11 000 yr BP), is termed the Gerzensee fluctuation. It occurs during a pine-dominated phase and its vegetational effects cannot be determined palynologically. The most prominent regressive phase is the Younger Dryas biozone (ca. 10 700-10 000 yr BP) characterised by an increase in heliophilous NAP and low δ¹⁸O values. The Younger Dryas biozone can often be subdivided palynologically into two parts: a first part rich in grasses and juniper and a second part with higher Filipendula and birch values. During the Preboreal biozone another distinct oscillation is evidenced only in the oxygen isotope ratios. Comparison of the Swiss oxygen isotope profiles with the Greenland Dye 3 record suggests that not only the three major shifts in the δ¹⁸O curves but also the minor ones are closely comparable, suggesting some common climatic control.     

Arsenic, iron and sulfur co-diagenesis in lake sediments

Profiles of porewater pH and dissolved As, Fe, Mn, sulfate, total sulfide (ΣS^−II), total zero-valent sulfur (ΣS⁰), organic carbon and major ion concentrations, as well as those of solid As, acid-volatile sulfide (AVS), total S, Fe, Mn, Al, organic C, ²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs were determined in the sediment of four lakes spanning a range of redox and geochemical conditions. An inverse modeling approach, based on a one-dimensional transport-reaction equation assuming steady-state, was applied to the porewater As profiles and used to constrain the net rates of reactions involving As (). The model defines depth intervals where As is either released to (positive ) or removed from (negative ) the porewaters.At two of the sites, whose bottom water were oxygenated at sampling time, a production zone ( = 12 × 10⁻¹⁸ mol cm⁻³ s⁻¹-71 × 10⁻¹⁸ mol cm⁻³ s⁻¹) is inferred a few cm below the sediment-water interface, coincident with sharp porewater As and Fe peaks that indicate an intense coupled recycling of As and Fe. This process is confirmed by solid As and Fe maxima just below the sediment surface. In these two lakes a zone of As consumption ( = −5 × 10⁻¹⁸ mol cm⁻³ s⁻¹ to −53 × 10⁻¹⁸ mol cm⁻³ s⁻¹), attributed to the slow adsorption of As to authigenic Fe oxyhydroxides, occurs just above the production zone. A second-order rate constant of 0.12 ± 0.03 cm³ mol⁻¹ s⁻¹ is estimated for this adsorption reaction.Such features in the porewater and solid profiles were absent from the two other lakes that develop a seasonally anoxic hypolimnion. Thermodynamic calculations indicate that the porewaters of the four lakes, when sulfidic (i.e., ΣS^−II ? 0.1 μM), were undersaturated with respect to all known solid As sulfides; the calculation also predicts the presence of As^V oxythioanions in the sulfidic waters, as suggested by a recent study. In the sulfidic waters, the removal of As ( = −1 × 10⁻¹⁸ mol cm⁻³ s⁻¹ to −23 × 10⁻¹⁸ mol cm⁻³ s⁻¹) consistently occurred when saturation, with respect to FeS_(s), was reached and when As^V oxythioanions were predicted to be significant components of total dissolved As. This finding has potential implications for As transport in other anoxic waters and should be tested in a wider variety of natural environments.     

An Early or Middle Weichselian sequence of proglacial, shallow marine sediments on western Svalbard

A 20 m thick shallow marine sequence, capped by a Late Weichselian lodgement till, is exposed for 200111 along the river in Linnedalen on the west coast of Svalbard. Five formations are recognized: Formation A, the oldest, consists of a shallow marine, proglacial fan, of channelized sandy turbidites, possibly fed from an ice-contact deposit. Formation B, a sequence of proglacial channels and ice-rafted debris, was formed during a small oscillation of the glacier. Formation C, a prograding, storm-dominated shoreline sequence, was formed during a sea level fall, assumed to be a result of glacio-isostatic uplift.
Formation D, a lodgement till formed during the last glacier advance in Linnedalen and formation E, a coarsening upwards sequence, were formed during the post-glacial sea level fall. The subtill sequence (fm. A, B and C) is dated to between 40,000BP (radiocarbon dates) and 120,000BP (thermoluminescence and amino acid D/L ratios). The glacier front was 10 km downvalley during deposition of formations A and B, relative to the present glacier terminus, and more than 12km during the late Weichselian maximum.