Abstract
Continuous sediment cores H1 (11.0 m long) and H2 (8.5 m long), collected from Swan Lake, in the Nebraska Sandhills (USA), contain a sandy silt interval between overlying lake gyttja and underlying marsh peat. The marsh peat is a 3-m-thick layer in core H1 and a 1.5-m-thick layer in core H2, with basal ages of ca. 4790 and 4710 cal yr BP, respectively. Peat samples contain up to ~ 61% organic matter (OM) and lack CaCO3 and opal phases. Gyttja extends from 7.6 to 0 m in core H1 and from 6.6 to 0 m in core H2, with estimated basal ages of 3480 and 3530 cal yr BP, respectively. Gyttja samples contained stratigraphically fluctuating relative amounts of OM, precipitated CaCO3, biogenic (ostracod) CaCO3, and diagenetic mineralogical aggregates with CaCO3-opal-A-opal-CT-quartz or opal-A-quartz. OM content in the gyttja ranged from 15.1 to 32.1% and bulk CaCO3 content ranged from 13.5 to 34.6%. Mineralogical aggregates appeared after ~ 2630 cal yr BP in core H1 and after ~ 2590 cal yr BP in core H2, whereas ostracods were found only after ~ 1250 and ~ 1840 cal yr BP in the two cores, respectively. The discrepancy in the timing of ostracod occurrence may be related to environmental differences at the two locations, which are ~ 100 m apart. The sandy silt interval (0.4 m thick) between the peat and overlying gyttja accumulated between ~ 3700 and 3500 cal yr BP. It has relatively low OM (10.3–15.1%) and calcite content (0–6.1%) and no ostracods or mineralogical aggregates. The sandy silt interval possessed a high clastic content (~ 88%), with up to 3.2% Fe, 0.25% Ti, 108 ppm Rb, 105 ppm Zr, 65.5 ppm Cr, 36.6 ppm La, 10 ppm Th, and 2.6 ppm U. The clastic particles and associated metals were deposited by eolian processes during a dry and windy climate episode at the onset of the late Holocene in the Sandhills region.
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02 August 2022
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-022-00258-5
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Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Nebraska Research Initiative and the Water Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I acknowledge my former graduate committee members: R Spalding and J Swinehart helped with sample collecting, and D Harwood provided access to his laboratory. I thank MA Holmes for the XRD analysis and R Goble for the ICP-MS analysis. Both are at the UNL-Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Special thanks to Co-Editor-in-Chief M Brenner and thee anonymous reviewers who helped improve the manuscript.
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10933_2022_250_MOESM1_ESM.pdf
Table S1 Average Āδ-values and C/Norganic ratios of Swan Lake sediments (± 1s). Data were compiled from Hassan et al. (1997), Hassan (1998), Hassan and Spalding (2001), and Hassan (2014) (PDF 94 KB)
10933_2022_250_MOESM2_ESM.pdf
Table S2 Composition of Swan Lake sediment cores H1 and H2, along with the upper continental crust (UCC) values of some elements from Rudnick and Gao (2003) (PDF 137 KB)
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Plot of % OM and % organic carbon (OC) in Swan Lake sediments (n, number of samples; r, correlation coefficient). The OC data are from Hassan (1998) (PDF 27 KB)
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Hassan, K.M. Late Holocene climate change inferred from the lithology and chemical stratigraphy of sediment cores from Swan Lake, Nebraska Sandhills, USA. J Paleolimnol 68, 315–328 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-022-00250-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-022-00250-z