Interaction of geomorphic and ecologic features across altitudinal zones in a subarctic landscape

Vegetation is often considered to stabilize geomorphic processes. An increasing abundance of vegetation may cause negative feedbacks within a periglacial system. In this study, we explored the importance of vegetation on the occurrence of active cryoturbation-dominated feature fields in subarctic Finland on a landscape scale. The vegetation–cryoturbation interaction was studied across three altitudinal zones by applying hierarchical partitioning (HP) and variation partitioning (VP) methods that overcome collinearity problems in multivariate analysis. Firstly, our results showed that vegetation factors, especially the canopy cover of the field-layer vegetation and the total above ground biomass, were among the most important environmental variables affecting the occurrence of active cryoturbation features. Moreover, vegetation factors were for the most part positively associated with cryoturbation. Under the predicted global warming, the ‘greening’ of arctic and subarctic regions may, therefore, decrease and also increase the activity of the periglacial processes in sparsely vegetated terrain. Secondly, our analyses gave contrasting results of the environmental factors of the periglacial processes across altitudinal zones, although the relative importance of the vegetation group was rather constant throughout the zones. Thus, we stress the importance of the spatial study setting in geomorphic studies in topographically varying relief. We recommend either taking the altitudinal zonation of the landscape into consideration or studying the features within a predetermined zone to decrease misinterpretations in environment–process relationships. Methodologically, our results encourage wider applications of partitioning methods in multivariate settings in geomorphology.     

Multiproxy evidence for the ‘Little Ice Age’ from Lake Hampträsk,Southern Finland

We studied a short sediment core from Lake Hampträsk, southern Finland, for evidence of the ‘Little Ice Age’ (LIA) in aquatic invertebrate communities. Subfossil chironomids, cladocerans, and chydorid ephippia were investigated, together with detrended correspondence analyses (DCAs) and loss-on-ignition (LOI). Our results show two cooler periods. The first cooling, indicated by increased numbers of chydorid ephippia and cold-water chironomid taxa, occurred ca. 1400 AD and the second, more drastic cooling, during the seventeenth century, when cold-water chironomids began to increase. Our data suggest that the cooling culminated around 1700 AD, when cold-stenothermic chironomids and chydorid ephippia attained maximal values and the LOI and diversity of invertebrates decreased to minimal values. After the LIA, the aquatic fauna appeared to respond to rising trophic state caused by enhanced land use in the catchment.     

New insights into lake responses to rapid climate change: the Younger Dryas in Lake Gościąż, central Poland

The sediment profile from Lake Gościąż in central Poland comprises a continuous, seasonally resolved and exceptionally well-preserved archive of the Younger Dryas (YD) climate variation. This provides a unique opportunity for detailed investigation of lake system responses during periods of rapid climate cooling (YD onset) and warming (YD termination). The new varve record of Lake Gościąż presented here spans 1662 years from the late Allerød (AL) to the early Preboreal (PB). Microscopic varve counting provides an independent chronology with a YD duration of 1149+14/–22 years, which confirms previous results of 1140±40 years. We link stable oxygen isotopes and chironomid-based air temperature reconstructions with the response of various geochemical and varve microfacies proxies especially focusing on the onset and termination of the YD. Cooling at the YD onset lasted ~180 years, which is about a century longer than the terminal warming that was completed in ~70 years. During the AL/YD transition, environmental proxy data lagged the onset of cooling by ~90 years and revealed an increase of lake productivity and internal lake re-suspension as well as slightly higher detrital sediment input. In contrast, rapid warming and environmental changes during the YD/PB transition occurred simultaneously. However, initial changes such as declining diatom deposition and detrital input occurred already a few centuries before the rapid warming at the YD/PB transition. These environmental changes likely reflect a gradual increase in summer air temperatures already during the YD. Our data indicate complex and differing environmental responses to the major climate changes related to the YD, which involve different proxy sensitivities and threshold processes.     

Paleolimnological assessment of ecological integrity and eutrophication history for Lake Tiiläänjärvi (Askola,Finland)

In this study, we aim to reconstruct long-term limnoecological development of the clay-turbid Lake Tiiläänjärvi in Askola, southern Finland, using fossil Chironomidae assemblages. The study lake suffers from hypereutrophic conditions and late-winter and end-of-summer anoxia. The retrieved sediment record revealed a succession from oligo-mesotrophic (~AD 1940–2000) to eutrophic community (~AD 2000–2010) that finally reached hypereutrophic climax community in the most recent sediments. The initial state of the record was characterized by stable ecological conditions, but the biological integrity (community and functional diversity) was completely lost in the upper part of the sediment profile. The number of taxa markedly decreased following the nutrient enrichment and only one taxon (Chironomus plumosus-type), tolerant of temporary anoxia, remained in the surface sample. During the period of available observational data (since AD 1978), variance in midge community composition was mostly explained by limnological factors, namely total phosphorus (TP), whereas the influence of climate was statistically insignificant, thus enabling quantitative midge-based reconstruction of autumnal epilimnetic TP. The midge-based reconstruction showed an identical trend compared to sediment characteristics, which correspond to increased lake productivity and anthropogenic activities in the catchment. The inferred values for the initial state indicated mesotrophic conditions, which are typical for non-disturbed clay-turbid lakes in southern Finland, and a subsequent increase to eutrophic conditions, with hypereutrophic state reached at the top of the core. This development corresponds with the instrumentally monitored development. In addition, when the reconstruction was compared with the instrumental values, the inferences were mostly (75 % of the samples) within the error estimates of the model. The present results provide invaluable information on the limnoecological development of Lake Tiiläänjärvi, and more generally, support the theory that fossil remains of chironomids provide a useful tool for assessments of eutrophication history and biological integrity.