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Recently induced anoxia leading to the preservation of seasonal laminae in two NE-German lakes

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Abstract

The recent sediments of two lakes in the NE German lowland became seasonally laminated at different times. Anoxic bottom conditions resulted from a surplus of organic matter (OM), in the early stage indicated by irregularly laminated sediments comprising abundant iron-sulfide framboids. Their diagenetic formation predates the preservation of biochemical calcite varves. In the larger, deeper Lake Tiefer See near Klocksin, anoxia developed stepwise. A first anoxic pulse was contemporary with inflow narrowing by railway-dam construction and accumulation of OM. It was favored by a decrease of the intensity of lake circulation (turnover). Nutrients introduced from artificial fertilizer then increased the primary production (diatoms) to the point of OM surplus and seasonal laminae formation started 40 years later in 1924. In the smaller, shallower Lake Tiefer See in the Uckermark, a massive pulse of iron sulfide was centered around 1960, seven years after installation of piped field drainage into the lake. Anoxia developed rapidly with the nutrients drained from a fertilized groundwater catchment that is 10 times larger than the surface catchment, while surface erosion was reduced. Reducing bottom conditions became regular and the seasonal lamination was preserved after 1967. Morphological criteria to screen lakes for varved sediments should include reductions of natural lake inflow and catchment increase, such as by inflow of field drainage. Similar developments of increased nutrient input or intensity decrease of lake circulation may result from historical human activities but also from natural processes.

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Acknowledgments

The study is a contribution to the Helmholtz Virtual Institute of Integrated Climate and Landscape Evolution Analysis (ICLEA) and is supported by infrastructure of the Terrestrial Environmental Observatory (TERENO) of the Helmholtz Association. We thank Sylvia Pinkerneil and Petra Meier for help with field work and laboratory analyses. Gabriele Arnold and Brian Brademann prepared excellent thin sections. Thanks to the helpful comments of the associate editor Oliver Heiri and two anonymous reviewers the manuscript could be strongly improved.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section 5.2 Climate and Landscape Evolution, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum, GFZ, Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam, Telegrafenberg, 14473, Potsdam, Germany

    Ulrike Kienel, Peter Dulski, Florian Ott & Achim Brauer

  2. Institute for Geography and Geology, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität Greifswald, Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Str. 16A, 17487, Greifswald, Germany

    Sebastian Lorenz

Authors
  1. Ulrike Kienel
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  2. Peter Dulski
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  3. Florian Ott
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  4. Sebastian Lorenz
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  5. Achim Brauer
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Correspondence to Ulrike Kienel.

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Kienel, U., Dulski, P., Ott, F. et al. Recently induced anoxia leading to the preservation of seasonal laminae in two NE-German lakes. J Paleolimnol 50, 535–544 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-013-9745-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-013-9745-3

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