Paleolimnological archives of environmental change in aquatic, terrestrial, and atmospheric systems

Conference · Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1993 · Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America; (United States)

OSTI ID:6206350

Fritz, S C; Engstrom, D R ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis (United States)

Lake sediments accumulate material derived from the atmosphere, the lake catchment, and the lake itself, and these materials can be used to infer the history of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, the climate system, and global biogeochemical cycling. Several case-studies will be presented to discuss the reconstruction of environmental variability from the paleolimnological record including studies of (1) Climate history: Closed-basin lakes are sensitive recorders of changes in the hydrologic budget and are used in and semi-arid regions to assess patterns of long- and short-term variability in moisture availability; (2) Biogeochemical cycling/pollution history: Basin-wide measurement of mercury accumulation in lake sediments is used to estimate modem and pre-industrial rates of mercury deposition and the contribution of global vs regional sources; and (3) Acidification history: Lake-pH is reconstructed from aquatic microfossils and correlated with changes in pollutant deposition and terrestrial vegetation to evaluate the extent, timing, and causes of acidification.

• OSTI ID: 6206350
• Report Number(s): CONF-930798-; CODEN: BECLAG
• Journal Information: Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America; (United States), Vol. 74:2; Conference: 78. annual Ecological Society of America (ESA) meeting, Madison, WI (United States), 31 Jul - 4 Aug 1993; ISSN 0012-9623
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CLIMATIC CHANGE
GLOBAL ASPECTS
PALEOCLIMATOLOGY
LAKES
SEDIMENTS
ACIDIFICATION
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY
BIOGEOCHEMISTRY
LIMNOLOGY
MERCURY
POLLUTION
TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS
CHEMISTRY
ECOSYSTEMS
ELEMENTS
GEOCHEMISTRY
METALS
PALEONTOLOGY
SURFACE WATERS
540320* - Environment
Aquatic- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)
540300 - Environment
Aquatic- (1990-)
540120 - Environment
Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)
540200 - Environment
Terrestrial- (1990-)