COMPOSITION AND STRATIGRAPHY OF SEDIMENTARY PIGMENTS IN ALPINE LAKES OF TAURUS MOUNTAINS, TÜRKİYE

Date

2025-11-28

Author

Arslan, Hasan

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Anatolia features extensive mountainous regions with numerous alpine lakes, and its sedimentary records have strong potential to reveal climatic and ecological changes. Here we present the first extensive survey of the Aladağ and Bolkar regions and the pigment composition in the water column, surface sediments, and a selected long core from Lake Çinili. Pigment composition in the water column and surface sediments were examined with lake physicochemical characteristics to elucidate drivers. A multiproxy analysis of the long core, combining dating techniques (14C, 137Cs, 210Pb) with elemental composition, C & N content, and pigment analysis, was performed to reconstruct the lake's paleoecological history. The lakes (n: 26) were small (median: 2.21, max: 46.8 ha), shallow (median: 4, max: 24 m), and located between 1364 and 3083 meters asl. The catchments were composed of limestone rocks and covered by alpine vegetation. Twenty pigments were identified in the water column and the surface sediment. The most abundant pigments were chlorophyll-a and pheophytin. There was a strong correlation between pigment composition in the water column and altitude, and between nitrate and phosphate concentrations and altitude, while the pigment composition in surface sediments mainly correlated with nitrate and phosphate concentrations. The 14C dating of pollen remains in the Lake Çinili core revealed it may date back 2200 years before present, with a high reservoir age. Analysis of the Mn/Fe, carbon composition, and pigments in the long core revealed significant fluctuations reflecting changes in water level, organic matter accumulation, and terrestrial influence. Clustering analysis of pigment composition revealed four distinct periods, consistent with the expected hot, arid Medieval Climate Anomaly and a cold, dry Little Ice Age.

Subject Keywords

Paleoecology, Limnology, XRF, pigment, alpine lakes

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/117410

Collections

Graduate School of Marine Sciences, Thesis