0000000000136738
AUTHOR
Antti E.k. Ojala
Long-term changes in pigmentation of arctic Daphnia provide potential for reconstructing aquatic UV exposure
Abstract Despite the biologically damaging impacts of solar ultraviolet radiation (UV) in nature, little is known about its natural variability, forcing mechanisms, and long-term effects on ecosystems and organisms. Arctic zooplankton, for example the aquatic keystone genus Daphnia (Crustacea, Cladocera) responds to biologically damaging UV by utilizing photoprotective strategies, including pigmentation. We examined the preservation and content of UV-screening pigments in fossil Daphnia remains (ephippia) in two arctic lake sediment cores from Cornwallis Island (Lake R1), Canada, and Spitsbergen (Lake Fugledammen), Svalbard. The aims were to document changes in the degree of UV-protective p…
Ultraviolet radiation exposure of a high arctic lake in Svalbard during the Holocene
Long-term fluctuations in lake-water optical properties were examined using a Holocene sediment sequence and multi-proxy palaeolimnological approach in Lake Einstaken, Nordaustlandet, Svalbard. UV-absorbance of sedimentary cladoceran remains provided information on underwater UV exposure and changes in lake-catchment coupling processes were inferred from sediment geochemistry. In addition, aquatic community succession was used as an indicator for lake-water bio-optical properties and a Holocene record of sun activity (sunspots) was utilized to evaluate long-term solar forcing. The results indicated that the UV-absorbance of cladoceran remains was highest (i.e. maximum UV-induced pigmentatio…
Invertebrate communities of the High Arctic ponds in Hornsund
How environmental conditions influence current distributions of organisms at the local scale in sensitive high Arctic freshwaters is essential to understand in order to better comprehend the cascading consequences of the ongoing climate change. This knowledge is also important background data for paleolimnological assessments of long-term limnoecological changes and in describing the range of environmental variability. We sampled five limnologically different freshwater sites from the Fuglebergsletta marine terrace in Hornsund, southern Svalbard, for aquatic invertebrates. The invertebrate communities were tested against non-climatic environmental drivers (limnological and catchment variabl…
A Holocene relative sea-level database for the Baltic Sea
Highlights: • A first standardized and publicly available Holocene relative sea-level database for the Baltic Sea is presented. • The database holds 1099 revised data points with an estimation of vertical and chronological uncertainties. • Negative RSL tendencies prevail over the positive and complex tendencies in the Baltic Sea Basin. • Mid-Holocene RSL highstand occurred around 7.5–6.5 ka BP being consistent with the end of the final melting of the LIS. • The contribution of ice loading in the eastern Baltic Sea Basin is likely overestimated in the ICE-5G and ICE-6G_C models. Abstract: We present a compilation and analysis of 1099 Holocene relative shore-level (RSL) indicators located aro…
A 5500-year oxygen isotope record of high arctic environmental change from southern Spitsbergen
The oxygen isotope composition of chironomid head capsules in a sediment core spanning the past 5500 years from Lake Svartvatnet in southern Spitsbergen was used to reconstruct the oxygen isotope composition of lake water (δ18Olw) and local precipitation. The δ18Olw values display shifts from the baseline variability consistent with the timing of recognized historical climatic episodes, such as the Roman Warm Period, the Dark Ages Cold Period and the ‘Little Ice Age’. The highest values of the record, ca. 3‰ above modern δ18Olw values, occur at ca. 1900–1800 cal. yr BP. Three negative excursions increasing in intensity toward the present, at 3400–3200, 1250–1100, and 350–50 cal. yr BP, are…
Meteorological validation of chironomids as a paleotemperature proxy using varved lake sediments
In order to improve the reliability of climate models in their projections for the future, spatially and temporally detailed paleoclimate proxy data are needed. In this study, we examined annually laminated sediments from Lake Nurmijärvi (Finland) for their fossil Chironomidae assemblages over a time period with available meteorological observational data (since 1830s). In doing so, we correlated chironomid-based inferences of summer air temperatures against instrumentally measured values using two different reconstruction approaches, namely, calibration-in-space (CiS, multilake training set) and calibration-in-time (CiT, calibration of time series data against meteorological data). The re…
Biogeochemical cycling and ecological thresholds in a High Arctic lake (Svalbard)
Lakes are a dominant feature of the Arctic landscape and a focal point of regional and global biogeochemical cycling. We collected a sediment core from a High Arctic Lake in southwestern Svalbard for multiproxy paleolimnological analysis. The aim was to find linkages between the terrestrial and aquatic environments in the context of climate change to understand centennial-long Arctic biogeochemical cycling and environmental dynamics. Two significant thresholds in elemental cycling were found based on sediment physical and biogeochemical proxies that were associated with the end of the cold Little Ice Age and the recent warming. We found major shifts in diatom, chironomid and cladoceran comm…
Sedimentary environment, lithostratigraphy and dating of sediment sequences from Arctic lakes Revvatnet and Svartvatnet in Hornsund, Svalbard
Abstract The sedimentary environment, sediment characteristics and age-depth models of sediment sequences from Arctic lakes Revvatnet and Svartvatnet, located near the Polish Polar Station in Hornsund, southern Svalbard (77°N), were studied with a view to establishing a basis for paleolimnological climate and environmental reconstructions. The results indicate that catchment-to-lake hydroclimatic processes probably affect the transportation, distribution and accumulation of sediments in different parts of lakes Revvatnet and Svartvatnet. Locations with continuous and essentially stable sedimentary environments were found in both lakes between water depths of 9 and 26 m. We used several diff…
Establishing a high-resolution surface sediment chronology with multiple dating methods – Testing 137Cs determination with Nurmijärvi clastic-biogenic varves
Abstract The uppermost 50 cm of sediments from the 23 m deep lacustrine basin of Nurmijarvi, a lake in south-central Finland, are composed of the clastic-biogenic type of varves. We use multiple dating methods to render a sediment chronology that is as precise and accurate as possible for future paleoenvironmental research on this high-fidelity sedimentary archive. The 250-year-long varve chronology contains a chronological error of ±2%, as estimated based on repeated varve counts. The varve-based chronology was verified with the vertical distribution of 137Cs by comparing variations in the paleomagnetic relative declination of the surface sediments with instrumental observations and a calc…