scholarly journals Radiocarbon Dating, Chronologic Framework, and Changes in Accumulation Rates of Holocene Estuarine Sediments from Chesapeake Bay

2002 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven M. Colman ◽  
Pattie C. Baucom ◽  
John F. Bratton ◽  
Thomas M. Cronin ◽  
John P. McGeehin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chesapeake Bay ◽  
Deep Water ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Sediment Accumulation ◽  
Complex Mixture ◽  
Estuarine Sediments ◽  
Accumulation Rates ◽  
Pollen Stratigraphy ◽  
Mass Accumulation Rates ◽  
Mass Accumulation

AbstractRapidly accumulating Holocene sediments in estuaries commonly are difficult to sample and date. In Chesapeake Bay, we obtained sediment cores as much as 20 m in length and used numerous radiocarbon ages measured by accelerator mass spectrometry methods to provide the first detailed chronologies of Holocene sediment accumulation in the bay. Carbon in these sediments is a complex mixture of materials from a variety of sources. Analyses of different components of the sediments show that total organic carbon ages are largely unreliable, because much of the carbon (including coal) has been transported to the bay from upstream sources and is older than sediments in which it was deposited. Mollusk shells (clams, oysters) and foraminifera appear to give reliable results, although reworking and burrowing are potential problems. Analyses of museum specimens collected alive before atmospheric nuclear testing suggest that the standard reservoir correction for marine samples is appropriate for middle to lower Chesapeake Bay. The biogenic carbonate radiocarbon ages are compatible with 210Pb and 137Cs data and pollen stratigraphy from the same sites.Post-settlement changes in sediment transport and accumulation is an important environmental issue in many estuaries, including the Chesapeake. Our data show that large variations in sediment mass accumulation rates occur among sites. At shallow water sites, local factors seem to control changes in accumulation rates with time. Our two relatively deep-water sites in the axial channel of the bay have different long-term average accumulation rates, but the history of sediment accumulation at these sites appears to reflect overall conditions in the bay. Mass accumulation rates at the two deep-water sites rapidly increased by about fourfold coincident with widespread land clearance for agriculture in the Chesapeake watershed.

Deglacial records of terrigenous organic matter accumulation off the Yukon and Amur rivers using lignin phenols and long-chain n-alkanes as biomarkers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mengli Cao ◽  
Jens Hefter ◽  
Ralf Tiedemann ◽  
Lester Lembke-Jene ◽  
Gesine Mollenhauer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Organic Matter ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Okhotsk Sea ◽  
Accumulation Rates ◽  
Amur Basin ◽  
Lignin Phenols ◽  
Wetland Extent ◽  
Mass Accumulation Rates ◽  
Mass Accumulation

<p>Anthropogenic climate change has profound impacts on Arctic temperatures, with consequences for Arctic ecosystems and landscapes, and the stability of organic-rich permafrost deposits. When mobilized, these permafrost deposits might release vast amounts of greenhouse gases. We use periods of past rapid warming in the high latitudes as analogues to study the ecological changes and effects on permafrost stability under climate change. We used marine sediment cores from the Bering and Okhotsk Sea continental margins, off the mouths of the Yukon and Amur rivers, to study two types of terrigenous biomarkers, which trace different terrestrial organic carbon (OC) components and transport pathways, and cover the early deglaciation to the early Holocene. The Yukon basin remains within the permafrost-affected region today, whereas the Amur basin changed from being subject to complete permafrost cover during the last glacial to permafrost-free conditions today. </p><p>Vascular plant-derived lignin phenols were analyzed and compared to published n-alkane content data. The carbon- and sediment-normalized contents of the vanillyl phenols (V), syringyl phenols (S), and cinnamyl phenols (C) phenols (Λ8 and Σ8) reflect the content of lignin dominantly transported by river runoff. The C/V and S/V ratios serve to distinguish between woody and non-woody tissues of angiosperms and gymnosperms. The acid to aldehyde ratios of V and S phenols ((Ad/Al)<sub>V</sub> and (Ad/Al)<sub>S</sub>) indicate the degree of lignin degradation. In addition, the ratio of 3,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid to V (3,5Bd/V) likely reflects the wetland extent, while lignin reflects primarily transportation into the marine sediment via surface runoff. In contrast, the n-alkane contents represent primarily terrigenous organic matter eroded from deeper deposits and a second marker for wetland extent via the Paq index. Lignin and n-alkane mass accumulation rates (MAR) can thus be used to reconstruct the mobilization of different carbon pools and the relative timing of the processes leading to their export to the ocean.</p><p>The MAR of biomarkers and the wetland indicators 3,5 Bd/V and Paq start to increase in the Bering Sea sediment during the early deglaciation (19-14.6 ka BP), while no obvious change in lignin MAR in the Okhotsk Sea occurred during this time. We observe distinct peaks of mass accumulation rates, wetland indices and indicators for degradation of lignin (Ad/Al) in both sediment cores during the warm Bølling-Allerød (12.9-14.6 ka BP) and Pre-Boreal (9-11.5 ka BP) intervals, and during the Younger Dryas cold spell (11.5-12.9 ka BP). In contrast, in the Okhotsk Sea, the ratios of S/V and C/V did not change before the Preboreal. </p><p>Our biomarker data suggest that the permafrost in the Yukon basin may have started to be remobilized by inland warming leading to wetland development in the early deglaciation, while the onset of permafrost degradation in the Amur basin occurred during the Preboreal.</p>

scholarly journals 240+239Pu depositional signatures as a viable geochronological tool in the Amazon Basin

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luciana M Sanders ◽  
Kathryn H Taffs ◽  
Debra Stokes ◽  
Alex Enrich-Prast ◽  
Christian J Sanders
Keyword(s):  
Amazon Basin ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Sediment Accumulation ◽  
Recent Sediment ◽  
Floodplain Lake ◽  
Accumulation Rates ◽  
Amazon Floodplain ◽  
Dating Methods ◽  
Lead 210

AbstractAnthropogenic radionuclide signatures associated with nuclear testing are increasingly utilized in environmental science to explore recent sedimentation. In this study, we assess the suitability of Pu radioisotope analysis in floodplain lake environments in the Amazon Basin to form geochronologies during the 20thcentury. The240Pu +239Pu (240+239Pu) signatures in six sediment cores indicate sediment accumulation rates in the floodplain lakes of the major rivers; Amazon (2.3 mm year-1), Tapajos (10.2 and 2.4 mm year-1) and Madeira (3.4, 4.2 and 6.2 mm year-1). The results from this study show that240+239Pu fallout activities, and the well documented (240Pu/239Pu) atomic ratios of the above ground nuclear tests which began in the 1950’s, are sufficient and well preserved in Amazon floodplain lake sediments to infer chronologies. Lead-210 dating analyses in the same sediment cores produced comparable sediment accumulation rates at three of the six sites. The differences between dating methods may be attributed to the different time scale these dating methods represent and/or in the solubility between Pb and Pu along the sediment column. The geochronologies derived from the240+239Pu and210Pb dating methods outlined in this work are of interest to identify the effects of changing sediment accumulation rates during the previous century as a result of development, including deforestation, along the Amazon Basin which increased towards the middle of the 20thcentury. This study shows that Pu dating provides a viable alternative geochronology tool for recent sediment accumulation (previous ~60 years) along the Amazon Basin.

scholarly journals Quartz OSL dating of late quaternary Chinese and Serbian loess: A cross Eurasian comparison of dust mass accumulation rates

2019 ◽  
Vol 502 ◽  
pp. 30-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoran Perić ◽  
Emma Lagerbäck Adolphi ◽  
Thomas Stevens ◽  
Gábor Újvári ◽  
Christian Zeeden ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Osl Dating ◽  
Accumulation Rates ◽  
Dust Mass ◽  
Mass Accumulation Rates ◽  
Mass Accumulation

scholarly journals Phosphorus burial in the ocean over glacial-interglacial time scales

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 501-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Tamburini ◽  
K. B. Föllmi
Keyword(s):  
Primary Productivity ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Interglacial Period ◽  
Accumulation Rates ◽  
The World ◽  
Mass Accumulation Rates ◽  
Mass Accumulation ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract. The role of nutrients, such as phosphorus (P), and their impact on primary productivity and the fluctuations in atmospheric CO2 over glacial-interglacial periods are intensely debated. Suggestions as to the importance of P evolved from an earlier proposal that P actively participated in changing productivity rates and therefore climate change, to most recent ones that changes in the glacial ocean inventory of phosphorus were important but not influential if compared to other macronutrients, such as nitrate. Using new data coming from a selection of ODP sites, we analyzed the distribution of oceanic P sedimentary phases and calculate reactive P burial fluxes, and we show how P burial fluxes changed over the last glacial-interglacial period at these sites. Concentrations of reactive P are generally lower during glacial times, while mass accumulation rates (MAR) of reactive P show higher variability. If we extrapolate for the analyzed sites, we may assume that in general glacial burial fluxes of reactive P are lower than those during interglacial periods by about 8%, because the lack of burial of reactive P on the glacial shelf reduced in size, was apparently not compensated by burial in other regions of the ocean. Using the calculated changes in P burial, we evaluate their possible impact on the phosphate inventory in the world oceans. Using a simple mathematical approach, we find that these changes alone could have increased the phosphate inventory of glacial ocean waters by 17–40% compared to interglacial stages. Variations in the distribution of sedimentary P phases at the investigated sites seem to indicate that at the onset of interglacial stages, shallower sites experienced an increase in reactive P concentrations, which seems to point to P-richer waters at glacial terminations. All these findings would support the Shelf-Nutrient Hypothesis, which assumes that during glacial low stands nutrients are transferred from shallow sites to deep sea with possible feedback on the carbon cycle.

Reconstructing the Rate of Accumulation of Lake Sediment: The Effect of Sediment Focusing

1975 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 541-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Lehman
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Variation ◽  
Lake Sediment ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Sediment Accumulation ◽  
Maximum Depth ◽  
Accumulation Rates ◽  
Sediment Focusing ◽  
Regional History ◽  
Rate Of Accumulation

Use of accumulation rates of pollen or minerals to infer regional history is complicated by nonuniform deposition of lake sediment. Sediment focusing, direction of sediment to the deepest part of a basin, can introduce a discrepancy between changes in accumulation rates measured directly from sediment cores and actual changes in influx of sediment or pollen to a lake. This difference depends on values and temporal variation of the ratio of mean depth to maximum depth in a basin as it fills. Several models of sediment accumulation show how measurements from a single core can be transformed to yield basinwide influx rates, and how the distortion due to sediment focusing can be assessed. Basins shaped like hyperboloids or frustums may introduce much greater distortions than basins conforming to ellipsoid or sinusoid shapes.

scholarly journals Twelve thousand years of dust: the Holocene global dust cycle constrained by natural archives

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 4277-4363 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Albani ◽  
N. M. Mahowald ◽  
G. Winckler ◽  
R. F. Anderson ◽  
L. I. Bradtmiller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Accumulation Rates ◽  
Dust Deposition ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
The North ◽  
Dust Mass ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
Mass Accumulation Rates ◽  
Mass Accumulation ◽  
Natural Archives

Abstract. Mineral dust plays an important role in the climate system by interacting with radiation, clouds, and biogeochemical cycles. In addition, natural archives show that the dust cycle experienced variability in the past in response to global and local climate change. The compilation of the DIRTMAP paleodust datasets in the last two decades provided a target for paleoclimate models that include the dust cycle, following a time slice approach. We propose an innovative framework to organize a paleodust dataset that moves on from the positive experience of DIRTMAP and takes into account new scientific challenges, by providing a concise and accessible dataset of temporally resolved records of dust mass accumulation rates and particle grain-size distributions. We consider data from ice cores, marine sediments, loess/paleosol sequences, lake sediments, and peat bogs for this compilation, with a temporal focus on the Holocene period. This global compilation allows investigation of the potential, uncertainties and confidence level of dust mass accumulation rates reconstructions, and highlights the importance of dust particle size information for accurate and quantitative reconstructions of the dust cycle. After applying criteria that help to establish that the data considered represent changes in dust deposition, 43 paleodust records have been identified, with the highest density of dust deposition data occurring in the North Atlantic region. Although the temporal evolution of dust in the North Atlantic appears consistent across several cores and suggest that minimum dust fluxes are likely observed during the Early to mid-Holocene period (6000–8000 years ago), the magnitude of dust fluxes in these observations is not fully consistent, suggesting that more work needs to be done to synthesize datasets for the Holocene. Based on the data compilation, we used the Community Earth System Model to estimate the mass balance and variability of the global dust cycle during the Holocene, with dust load ranging from 17.1 to 20.5 Tg between 2000 and 10 000 years ago, and a minimum in the Early to Mid-Holocene (6000–8000 years ago).

scholarly journals Evaluating the historical sedimentation patterns in two different Mediterranean deep environments (Sardinia and Sicily Channels)

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 542 ◽  
Author(s):  
NOUR EL HOUDA HASSEN ◽  
NAFAÂ REGUIGUI ◽  
MOHAMED AMINE HELALI ◽  
NEZHA MEJJAD ◽  
ABDELMOURHIT LAISSAOUI ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Water Depth ◽  
Accumulation Rate ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Sediment Accumulation ◽  
Inverse Correlation ◽  
Accumulation Rates ◽  
Deep Sediment ◽  
210Pb And 137Cs ◽  
Excess 210Pb

The sediment accumulation rate in the Sardinia and Sicily channels in the central part of the Mediterranean Sea was studied by using short-lived radionuclides (210Pb and 137Cs) in two deep sediment cores. Different sedimentation regimes were identified indicating substantial differences in accumulation rates and historical patterns. The 210Pb-derived mean accumulation rate found in the Strait of Sardinia was 0.05 g.cm-2.y-1, lower than that in Sicily Channel (0.1 g.cm-2.y-1) suggesting an inverse correlation with water depth. Excess 210Pb inventories were 24 ± 1 and 6.0 ± 0.4 kBq.m-2, while the fluxes to the sediment were 745 ± 31 and 188 ± 11 Bq.m-2.y-1 in Sicily and Sardinia channels, respectively. 137Cs failed to use for the validation of the established chronologies, while its inventories found 450 Bq.m-2 and 355 Bq.m-2 in the Sicily and Sardinia channel, respectively.

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