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The chemistry of lake sediments in time and space

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Abstract

Five short cores (1.0–1.5 m) representing different depositional zones of an isolated bay of Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota (USA), were independently dated by 210Pb and pollen analysis and were analyzed stratigraphically for elemental chemistry (following sediment fractionation) and sedimentary pigments (including myxoxanthophyll and oscillaxanthin). Because of good dating control, short-interval time-stratigraphic units could be traced across the basin, and lake-wide accumulation rates and concentrations could be estimated. The accumulation and concentration of each component at a core-site relative to basin-wide averages provide new indices, ‘relative accumulation’ and ‘relative concentration’, that are used to evaluate three major processes controlling sediment deposition: (1) the basin-wide flux, (2) the physical redistribution of bulk sediment, and (3) the selective bio-geochemical transport and fossilization of individual sedimentary components within the lake.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Limnological Research Center 220 Pillsbury Hall, University of Minnesota Minneapolis, 55455, MN, USA

    Daniel R. Engstrom

  2. Gray Freshwater Biological Institute Navarre, 55392, MN, USA

    Edward B. Swain

Authors
  1. Daniel R. Engstrom
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  2. Edward B. Swain
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Engstrom, D.R., Swain, E.B. The chemistry of lake sediments in time and space. Hydrobiologia 143, 37–44 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00026642

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00026642

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