Multi-proxy palaeoecological responses to water-level fluctuations in three shallow Turkish lakes

Download

index.pdf

Date

2016-05-01

Author

Levi, Eti E.
Bezirci, Gizem
Cakiroglu, Ayse Idil
Turner, Simon
Bennion, Helen
Kernan, Martin
Jeppesen, Erik
Beklioğlu, Meryem

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

171
views

150
downloads

Natural or human-induced water-level fluctuations influence the structure and function of shallow lakes, especially in semi-arid to arid climate regions. In order to reliably interpret the effect of water-level changes from sedimentary remains in the absence of historical data, it is crucial to understand the variation in sedimentary proxies in relation to water level measurements. Here, we took advantage of existing water surface elevation data on three large shallow lakes in Turkey to elucidate the impact of lake-level changes on benthic-pelagic primary production over the last 50-100 years. Sub-fossil cladocerans, diatoms, plant remains and pigments were investigated as biological variables; X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and loss on ignition (LOI) analyses were conducted as geochemical-physical variables on a set of Pb-210 and Cs-137 dated cores. Dating of the cores were robust, with the exception of uncertainties in Lake Marmara littoral core due to low unsupported 210Pb activities and high counting errors. Results indicated that Lake Marmara was dominated by benthic species throughout the sediment record, while Lakes Beysehir and Uluabat shifted from a littoral-dominated system to one with increased pelagic species abundance. In all cores there was a stronger response to longer-term (decadal) and pronounced water-level changes than to short-term (annual-biennial) and subtle changes. It was also noted that degree of alteration in proxies differed between lakes, through time and among pelagic-littoral areas, likely emphasising differences in depositional environments and/or resolution of sampling and effects of other stressors such as eutrophication. Our results highlight lake-specific changes associated with water-level fluctuations, difficulties of conducting studies at required resolution in lakes with rather mixed sediment records and complexity of palaeolimnological studies covering recent periods where multiple drivers are in force. They further emphasise the need to include instrumental records when interpreting effects of recent water-level changes from sediment core data in large shallow lakes.

Subject Keywords

Earth-Surface Processes, Palaeontology, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Oceanography

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/41823

Journal

PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.02.052

Collections

Department of Biology, Article

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Spatial and temporal variability in the chemical properties of the oxic and suboxic layers of the Black Sea Tuğrul, Süleyman; Murray, James W.; Friederich, Gernot E.; Salihoglu, Ilkay (Elsevier BV, 2014-07-01) The Black Sea, a land-locked deep basin with sulfide bearing waters below 150-200 m, has been subject to anthropogenic pressures since the 1970s. Large inputs of nutrients (nitrate - N, phosphate - P, silicate - Si) with high N/P but low Si/N ratios and subsequent development of intensive eutrophication over the basin have changed vertical distributions and inventories of nutrients and redox-sensitive metals in the oxic, suboxic and anoxic layers. Chemical data sets obtained between 1988 and 2010, and older...
Review: Short-term sea-level changes in a greenhouse world - A view from the Cretaceous Sames, B.; Wagreich, M.; Wendler, J. E.; Haq, B. U.; Conrad, C. P.; Melinte-Dobrinescu, M. C.; Hu, X.; Wendler, I.; Wolfgring, E.; Yılmaz, İsmail Ömer; Zorina, S. O. (Elsevier BV, 2016-01-01) This review provides a synopsis of ongoing research and our understanding of the fundamentals of sea-level change today and in the geologic record, especially as illustrated by conditions and processes during the Cretaceous greenhouse climate episode. We give an overview of the state of the art of our understanding on eustatic (global) versus relative (regional) sea level, as well as long-term versus short-term fluctuations and their drivers. In the context of the focus of UNESCO-IUGS/IGCP project 609 on Cr...
The Role of Top-Down and Bottom-Up Control for Phytoplankton in a Subtropical Shallow Eutrophic Lake: Evidence Based on Long-Term Monitoring and Modeling Mao, Zhigang; Gu, Xiaohong; Cao, Yong; Zhang, Min; Zeng, Qingfei; Chen, Huihui; Shen, Ruijie; Jeppesen, Erik (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2020-02-03) Lake ecosystems are exposed to a range of anthropogenic pressures, particularly eutrophication, and in some cases also stocking and/or overfishing of top-predator fish species, all factors that have implications for the food web structure and which could lead to dominance of nuisance cyanobacteria. Restoration of degraded lakes demands insight into the relative role of top-down for bottom-up regulating forces. While knowledge about these forces in temperate lakes is extensive, comparatively little is known ...
Patterns of Seasonal Stability of Lake Phytoplankton Mediated by Resource and Grazer Control During Two Decades of Re-oligotrophication Fu, Hui; Yuan, Guixiang; Özkan, Korhan; Johansson, Liselotter Sander; Sondergaard, Martin; Lauridsen, Torben L.; Jeppesen, Erik (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2020-09-01) Human-induced changes in external nutrient loading affect the phytoplankton community and abundance directly by changing the amount of nutrients available, but also indirectly through changes in the zooplankton (that is, grazer) community structure, mediated in part by changes in the fish community structure and biomass. Such shifts affect the species dynamics and community succession of lake phytoplankton communities, and they may ultimately influence community stability. However, the relative importance o...
Use of waste pyrite as an alternative to gypsum for alkaline soil amelioration TOZSİN, Gülşen; Arol, Ali İhsan; ÇAYCI, GÖKHAN (Informa UK Limited, 2015-05-04) The reclamation of alkaline soils is of great interest especially in arid and semi-arid climatic regions of the world. The aim of this study was to investigate the application of pyrite from the waste materials of a copper concentration plant as an alternative to gypsum application for alkaline soil amelioration. The second aim was to assess heavy metal contamination. Waste pyrite (FeS2) obtained from a copper concentration plant and pure gypsum (CaSO4 center dot 2H(2)O) were added to soil within the column...

Citation Formats

E. E. Levi et al., “Multi-proxy palaeoecological responses to water-level fluctuations in three shallow Turkish lakes,” PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY, pp. 553–566, 2016, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/41823.