Environmental changes in man-made coastal dune pools since 1850 as indicated by sedimentary and epiphytic diatom assemblages (Belgium)

2003 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 191-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luc Denys
Author(s):  
Ksenya V. Poleshchuk ◽  
Zinaida V. Pushina ◽  
Sergey R. Verkulich

The diatom analysis results of sediment samples from Dunderbukta area (Wedel Jarlsberg Land, West Svalbard) are presented in this paper. The diatom flora consists of four ecological groups, which ratio indicates three ecological zones. These zones show environmental changes of the area in early–middle Holocene that is demonstrating periods of regression and temperature trends.


2008 ◽  
Vol 43 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 85-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua R. Thienpont ◽  
Brian K. Ginn ◽  
Brian F. Cumming ◽  
John P. Smol

Abstract Paleolimnological approaches using sedimentary diatom assemblages were used to assess water quality changes over the last approximately 200 years in three lakes from King's County, Nova Scotia. In particular, the role of recent shoreline development in accelerating eutrophication in these systems was assessed. Sediment cores collected from each lake were analyzed for their diatom assemblages at approximately 5-year intervals, as determined by 210Pb dating. Analyses showed that each system has changed, but tracked different ecosystem changes. Tupper and George lakes recorded shifts, which are likely primarily related to climatic warming, with diatom assemblages changing from a preindustrial dominance by Aulacoseira spp. to present-day dominance by Cyclotella stelligera. In addition to the recent climatic-related changes, further diatom changes in the Tupper Lake core between approximately 1820 and 1970 were coincident with watershed disturbances (farming, forestry, and construction of hydroelectric power infrastructure). Black River Lake has recorded an increase in diatom-inferred total phosphorus since about 1950, likely due to impoundment of the Black River system for hydroelectric generation and subsequent changes in land runoff. Before-and-after (i.e., top-bottom) sediment analyses of six other lakes from King's County provided further evidence that the region is being influenced by climatic change (decreases in Aulacoseira spp., increases in planktonic diatom taxa), as well as showing other environmental stressors (e.g., acidification). However, we recorded no marked increase in diatom-inferred nutrient levels coincident with shoreline cottage development in any of the nine study lakes. Paleolimnological studies such as these allow lake managers to place the current limnological conditions into a long-term context, and thereby provide important background data for effective lake management.


2007 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 121-130
Author(s):  
Jeffery R. Stone

Fossil diatom assemblages are useful for reconstructing past environmental changes in riverine systems. However, few studies have attempted to utilize paleolimnological techniques in these settings. Analysis of sediments from riverine environments can provide key information predating the impact of human development, which cannot be acquired by other means. Paleolimnological techniques can be used to determine the natural variability in these systems and to estimate the magnitude and rates of change that the environment may have undergone as a result of anthropogenic or climatic factors, and to provide realistic goals for management of negatively-impacted systems.Reconstructing past riverine settings requires an understanding of the factors that control the spatial distribution of diatoms in riverine settings; this paper discusses the impact of resources, stressors, and disturbance events, which are the primary controls on the distribution of benthic diatoms in modern riverine environments. A selection of case studies that utilize paleolimnological techniques to infer past stream hydrology are also discussed; these examples encompass the use of fossil diatom assemblages from sediments recovered from lowland floodplain and meandering river systems, estuarine environments, fluvial lakes, arctic deltaic environments, and terminal lakes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 1814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suo ◽  
McGovern ◽  
Gilmer

Vegetation mapping, identifying the type and distribution of plant species, is important for analysing vegetation dynamics, quantifying spatial patterns of vegetation evolution, analysing the effects of environmental changes and predicting spatial patterns of species diversity. Such analysis can contribute to the development of targeted land management actions that maintain biodiversity and ecological functions. This paper presents a methodology for 3D vegetation mapping of a coastal dune complex using a multispectral camera mounted on an unmanned aerial system with particular reference to the Buckroney dune complex in Co. Wicklow, Ireland. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS), also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or drones, have enabled high-resolution and high-accuracy ground-based data to be gathered quickly and easily on-site. The Sequoia multispectral sensor used in this study has green, red, red edge and near-infrared wavebands, and a regular camer with red, green and blue wavebands (RGB camera), to capture both visible and near-infrared (NIR) imagery of the land surface. The workflow of 3D vegetation mapping of the study site included establishing coordinated ground control points, planning the flight mission and camera parameters, acquiring the imagery, processing the image data and performing features classification. The data processing outcomes included an orthomosaic model, a 3D surface model and multispectral imagery of the study site, in the Irish Transverse Mercator (ITM) coordinate system. The planimetric resolution of the RGB sensor-based outcomes was 0.024 m while multispectral sensor-based outcomes had a planimetric resolution of 0.096 m. High-resolution vegetation mapping was successfully generated from these data processing outcomes. There were 235 sample areas (1 m × 1 m) used for the accuracy assessment of the classification of the vegetation mapping. Feature classification was conducted using nine different classification strategies to examine the efficiency of multispectral sensor data for vegetation and contiguous land cover mapping. The nine classification strategies included combinations of spectral bands and vegetation indices. Results show classification accuracies, based on the nine different classification strategies, ranging from 52% to 75%.


2000 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 384-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian L. Sherrod ◽  
Robert C. Bucknam ◽  
Estella B. Leopold

At a marsh on the hanging wall of the Seattle fault, fossil brackish water diatom and plant seed assemblages show that the marsh lay near sea level between ∼7500 and 1000 cal yr B.P. This marsh is uniquely situated for recording environmental changes associated with past earthquakes on the Seattle fault. Since 7500 cal yr B.P., changes in fossil diatoms and seeds record several rapid environmental changes. In the earliest of these, brackish conditions changed to freshwater ∼6900 cal yr B.P., possibly because of coseismic uplift or beach berm accretion. If coseismic uplift produced the freshening ∼6900 cal yr B.P., that uplift probably did not exceed 2 m. During another event about 1700 cal yr B.P., brackish plant and diatom assemblages changed rapidly to a tidal flat assemblage because of either tectonic subsidence or berm erosion. The site then remained a tideflat until the most recent event, when an abrupt shift from tideflat diatoms to freshwater taxa resulted from ∼7 m of uplift during an earthquake on the Seattle fault ∼1000 cal yr B.P. Regardless of the earlier events, no Seattle fault earthquake similar to the one ∼1000 cal yr B.P. occurred at any other time in the past 7500 years.


2019 ◽  
Vol 94 ◽  
pp. 61-79
Author(s):  
Takashi Chiba ◽  
Shigeo Sugihara ◽  
Yoshiaki Matsushima ◽  
Yusuke Arai ◽  
Kunihiko Endo

ABSTRACTTo help characterise the palaeogeographic and lacustrine environmental changes that resulted from the Holocene transgression and residual subsidence in the eastern Kanto Plain of central Japan, we analysed four drill cores and reviewed other core data from the southern part of the Lake Inba area. Fossil diatom assemblages yielded evidence of centennial-scale palaeogeographic and salinity responses to sea-level changes since the late Pleistocene. We determined that the seawater incursion into the Lake Inba area during the Holocene transgression occurred at approximately 9000 yr. We also recognised a late Holocene regression event corresponding to the Yayoi regression, considered to have occurred from ca. 3000 to ca. 2000 yr, and a subsequent transgression. Our data clarify some of the palaeogeographic changes that occurred in the Lake Inba area and document an overall trend toward lower salinity in the lake during the regression. In particular, the environment in Lake Inba changed from brackish to freshwater no later than 1000 yr. From the detailed palaeogeographic and palaeo-sea-level reconstruction, we recognised that residual subsidence occurred during the Holocene in this area. Thus, comparison of sea-level reconstructions based on modelling and fossil diatom assemblages is effective in interpreting Holocene long-term subsidence.


2008 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 287-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kotaro Hirose ◽  
Moriaki Yasuhara ◽  
Akira Tsujimoto ◽  
Hideo Yamazaki ◽  
Shusaku Yoshikawa

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document