Palaeolimnological evidence for recent climatic change in lakes from the northern Urals, arctic Russia

The recent sediments from two deep arctic lakes, Mitrofanovskoe and Vanuk-ty, situated in the permafrost belt within the Bolshezemelskaya Tundra in the northern Ural region, were studied for diatoms, chironomids, spheroidal carbonaceous particles and stable lead isotopes. The magnitudes and rates-of-change in diatom and chironomid assemblages were numerically estimated. Instrumental climate records were used to assess statistically the amount of variance in diatom and chironomid data explained by temperature. August and September air temperatures have a statistically significant effect on diatom composition at both lakes. At Mitrofanovskoe Lake, major compositional changes in diatom and chironomid assemblages occurred at the turn of the 20th century and might be related to the regional increase in temperature. Chironomid-inferred air temperature also increased by approximately 1 °C since the early 1900s. At both lakes diatom compositional changes, coincident with the increase in June and September temperatures, also occurred in the late 1960s. These compositional changes are correlated with the increase in diatom production, sediment organic content and diatom species richness, and are likely to be a diatom response to the lengthening of the growing season. These changes are also correlated with the circum-Arctic temperature increase from the 1960s. A chironomid response to the late 1960s temperature increase was less pronounced at both lakes. Pollution levels are relatively low and pollution history is unrelated to ecological changes. Both lead isotopes and spheroidal carbonaceous particles show a clear atmospheric pollution signal, peaking in the 1980s.     

A procedure for preparing large sets of diatom slides from sediment cores

A procedure is described for making diatom microscopy slides from large numbers of sediment samples, simultaneously. The method uses small sediment samples, small test tubes, small amounts of hydrogen peroxide, no decantings, no centrifuging, and it requires no washing-up of glassware. It is, therefore, fast, cheap, gentle to the diatoms and needs little fume cupboard space.     

Dormant bacteria in lake sediments as palaeoecological indicators

Lake sediments contain viable allochthonous bacteria that can be cultured and used for palaeoecological studies. To be a good palaeoindicator, a bacterium must be able to survive in sediments for long periods of time, but also be unable to reproduce in the lake bottom. Bacteria can survive the unfavourable environmental conditions in lake sediments as resting cells. The endospore is the most specialized form and gives the bacterium an extreme longevity. The oldest viable endospores isolated from lake sediments that we are aware of are about 9000 years old.Several species, mainly in the genera Thermoactinomyces, Bacillus and Clostridium, form endospores. Clostridium perfringens has been used as palaeoindicator for sewage pollution, while Thermoactinomyces vulgaris is an indicator for past agricultural activity in the boreal forest zone and a potential climatic indicator in other vegetation zones. Although isolation and enumeration of bacterial endospores from lake sediments is rather easy and has considerable potential as a powerful tool in palaeoecology, the number of studies using palaeoecological approaches is limited.     

Spatial variability in surface sediment composition characterised by near-infrared (NIR) reflectance spectroscopy

Near-infrared (NIR) spectral data were obtained from 165 surface sediment samples from a northern Swedish humic, mesotrophic lake (0.5 km2). The NIR spectra, together with data on water depth and loss-on-ignition (LOI), allow an evaluation of the source of spatial variance in sediment characteristics. The results show that water depth and organic matter (LOI) account for 20 and 16%, respectively, of the variance in the NIR-absorbance data. More importantly, the spatial variance in the spectral data suggest that NIR analysis of lake sediments mainly reflect sediment properties that cannot simply be explained by depth or amount of organic matter. The influence of inlets and land-use (e.g. clear-cutting) on sediment characteristics was more pronounced in the spectral data than would be expected from the LOI data. This is explained by differences in the chemical composition of the organic matter, as revealed by NIR spectroscopy, rather than in the amount of organic matter or depth-related sedimentation properties (e.g. particle size or density). This initial attempt to characterise sediment properties using NIR suggests that NIR analysis might become a valuable complementary tool to traditional sediment characterisation.     

Sweden and the Baltic Sea pipeline: Between ecology and economy

Building a submarine pipeline in the Baltic Sea to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany contradicts targets to reduce fossil fuel dependency and seems to ignore a long history of environmental challenges in the area. This article examines the tensions between the environmental, economic, and national security arguments framing the Swedish government decision to allow the pipeline to be laid on the Baltic seabed passing through the Swedish economic zone. At first sight, the decision seems to run contrary to Sweden's ambitious environmental policy. However, by framing the issue within a broader understanding of the country's tradition of consensual decision-making, and considering the tensions and contradictions inherent in policies for sustainable development, the permission fits well with the logic that, in case of conflict, economic growth is given priority even when the environment is at stake.     

Freeze corer No. 3 for lake sediments

Freezing of sediment in situ at the lake bottom using a freeze corer has become an important method for taking samples of soft sediments aimed for detailed stratigraphic analyses. Over the past decades a variety of freeze corers have been designed, from very simple metal tubes filled with dry ice that are dropped into the sediment to high-tech samplers using electric pumps, hydraulics and liquid nitrogen. The freeze corer described here is a compromise of getting good samples without a too complicated technique. It is designed for coring from lake ice, using a steel wire with a stopper on the ice to keep the corer in fixed position during freezing. It consists of a thermos connected to a thin freeze wedge (width 15 cm, length 100 cm, max thickness 6 cm). The dry ice is kept in the thermos until the freeze wedge has been lowered into the sediment to avoid water freezing on the wedge during descent through the water column; a wet steel-wedge surface disturbs the sediment stratigraphy less than a wedge on which rapid freezing occurs. The dry ice is kept in the thermos by a trapdoor that is opened by a messenger. When the trapdoor is opened the dry ice begins to drop into the wedge, which is filled with ethanol. This process continues concurrently with the consumption of ice in the wedge until the thermos is empty. Using 6–8 kg of dry ice and 4 l of ethanol (95%), a 3-cm-thick and up to 80-cm-long crust of frozen sediment is obtained in 20–25 min on each side of the wedge. The crust is easily detached intact from the wedge using a small volume of hot water, poured inside the wedge.