The evolution of Ace Lake, Antarctica, determined from sedimentary diatom assemblages

doi:10.1016/0031-0182(96)01657-4

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

Volume 124, Issues 1–2, August 1996, Pages 73-86

https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-0182(96)01657-4 Get rights and content

Abstract

The sediments in Ace Lake in the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica, contain a continuous sequence of diatom frustules that record the lake's history since its formation during the retreat of continental ice more than 9200 years ago. Frustules from six indicator groups; Pinnularia microstauron, Nitzschia cylindrus, Nitzschia curta, Eucampia antarctica, a freshwater Stauroneis species and several centric species in a sediment core were used to determine the sequence of the lake's evolution. The history of the lake falls into five stages.

Ace Lake began as a marine inlet influenced by dynamic mixing of ocean and meltwater inputs. As the ice sheet retreated, isostatic uplift isolated the lake allowing it to be flushed by meltwater input from the retreating ice sheet. Over the course of 800 years (∼9200-8400 ¹⁴C yr B.P.) the lake became meromictic supporting a freshwater diatom assemblage. Approximately 6700 years ago, coinciding with Antarctic sea level maxima, diatom assemblages indicate that seawater flooded over the sill into Ace Lake disturbing the freshwater meromixis. The sediments in this period were laminated and contained elemental sulphur suggesting that the marine input was limited in extent and energy. Approximately 5500 years ago this marine input ceased and the lake again became a meromictic basin which stabilised over 1700 years to become the lake that it is today and has been with little change for about the past 4000 years.

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Holocene climate variability from the lake sediment core in Schirmacher Oasis region, East Antarctica: Multiproxy approach
2016, Quaternary International
Citation Excerpt :
However, a neoglacial cooling event from 2 ka Bp to Recent was documented in a few regions of Antarctica. Such neoglacial cooling occurred in the Larsemann Hills (Verleyen et al., 2004), Amery Oasis (Wagner et al., 2004), Vestfold Hills (Fulford-Smith and Sikes, 1996; McMinn 2000), Windmill Islands (Kirkup et al., 2002), Bunger Hills (Verkulich and Hiller, 1994; Verkulich et al., 2002) with some fluctuations in various proxies during the last 2000 years and hence inferred as a cooling event. In the Dronning Maud Land region, a single study from Schirmacher Oasis witnessed a cold and dry climate based on the increase in magnetic values and a decrease in magnetic grain size from ∼2.3 ka BP (Warrier et al., 2014).
A 1.62 m sediment core was retrieved from one of the landlocked freshwater lakes (L-6) in the Schirmacher Oasis (SO), East Antarctica during the 24th Indian Antarctic Expedition (2004–2006). The sediment core samples were analyzed for Total Organic Carbon (TOC), Biogenic Silica (BSi), grain size and elemental concentration ratios (Mg/Ca and Mn/Fe). The sediment core represents the time period of last ∼11.6 cal ka BP as ascertained by AMS ¹⁴C radiocarbon dates. The sedimentation accumulation rate variation of ∼13.6 cm/ka from ∼11.6 to ∼10 cal ka BP reveals a warm phase followed by a low sedimentation accumulation rate of ∼2.9 cm/ka from ∼10 ka BP to ∼3.1 ka BP, indicating a cold period in the region. The sedimentation accumulation rate again increased from ∼3.1 cal ka BP to recent with a maximum of ∼88 cm/ka which reveals the initiation of glacier retreat or ice-free conditions in the study area. The Total Organic Carbon (TOC) is <2% from ∼10 to ∼3.1 cal ka BP indicating a prolonged colder phase in the study area. However, elevated TOC, BSi and Mg/Ca ratio since ∼3.1 cal ka BP to recent points indicates towards ice-free conditions (continental ice sheet retreat) and subsequently high productivity in the region. Moreover, the productivity was higher at the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary as evidenced by the Mg/CA, Mn/Fe ratio and Biogenic Silica (BSi). The present study identified a colder phase (or re-advancement of continental ice sheet) during the early to mid-Holocene and initiation of ice-free or continental ice-sheet retreat during the late Holocene and their implications on the productivity changes.
Production and temperature sensitivity of long chain alkenones in the cultured haptophyte pseudoisochrysis paradoxa
2013, Organic Geochemistry
The alkenone unsaturation index ( $U_{37}^{K}$ or $U_{37}^{K^{'}}$ ) serves as a critical tool for reconstructing temperature in marine environments. Lacustrine haptophyte algae are genetically distinct from their ubiquitous and well studied marine counterparts, and the unknown species-specific genetic imprints on long chain alkenone production by lacustrine species have hindered the widespread application of the $U_{37}^{K}$ temperature proxy to lake sediment records. The haptophyte Pseudoisochrysis paradoxa produces alkenones but its $U_{37}^{K}$ calibration has never been determined. It has an alkenone fingerprint abundant in tetraunsaturated alkenones, a hallmark of lacustrine environments. We present here the first calibration of the $U_{37}^{K}$ index to temperature for a culture of P. paradoxa. We found that the $U_{37}^{K}$ index accurately captured the alkenone response to temperature whereas the $U_{37}^{K^{'}}$ index failed to do so, with $U_{37}^{K^{'}}$ values below 0.08 projecting to two different temperature values. Our results add a fifth species-specific $U_{37}^{K}$ calibration and provide another line of evidence that different haptophyte species require different $U_{37}^{K}$ calibrations. The findings also highlight the necessary inclusion of the C_37:4 alkenone when reconstructing temperatures from P. paradoxa-derived alkenone records.
Post-glacial regional climate variability along the East Antarctic coastal margin-Evidence from shallow marine and coastal terrestrial records
2011, Earth-Science Reviews
Citation Excerpt :
In the Amery Oasis, neoglacial cooling occurred from c. 2.3 ka BP onwards, with a short return to a relatively warmer climate between c. 1.5 and 1 ka BP (Wagner et al., 2004). In the Vestfold Hills, meltwater input into the lakes gradually decreased from 3 ka BP onwards (Fulford-Smith and Sikes, 1996) and an increase in fast ice extent is observed from c. 1.7 ka BP (McMinn, 2000), broadly coincident with the Chelnock Glaciation on land (Adamson and Pickard, 1986). Cold conditions are similarly inferred between c. 1.3 ka BP and 250 yr BP (Bronge, 1992) and low precipitation from c. 1.5 ka 14C BP (c. 1.3–1.5 ka BP, but dating is at low resolution; Roberts and McMinn, 1999).
We review the post-glacial climate variability along the East Antarctic coastline using terrestrial and shallow marine geological records and compare these reconstructions with data from elsewhere. Nearly all East Antarctic records show a near-synchronous Early Holocene climate optimum (11.5–9 ka BP), coinciding with the deglaciation of currently ice-free regions and the optimum recorded in Antarctic ice and marine sediment cores. Shallow marine and coastal terrestrial climate anomalies appear to be out of phase after the Early Holocene warm period, and show complex regional patterns, but an overall trend of cooling in the terrestrial records. A Mid to Late Holocene warm period is present in many East Antarctic lake and shallow coastal marine records. Although there are some differences in the regional timing of this warm period, it typically occurs somewhere between 4.7 and 1 ka BP, which overlaps with a similar optimum found in Antarctic Peninsula terrestrial records. The differences in the timing of these sometimes abrupt warm events in different records and regions points to a number of mechanisms that we have yet to identify. Nearly all records show a neoglacial cooling from 2 ka BP onwards. There is no evidence along the East Antarctic coastline for an equivalent to the Northern Hemisphere Medieval Warm Period and there is only weak circumstantial evidence in a few places for a cool event crudely equivalent in time to the Northern Hemisphere's Little Ice Age. There is a need for well-dated, high resolution climate records in coastal East Antarctica and particularly in Terre Adélie, Dronning Maud Land and Enderby Land to fully understand the regional climate anomalies, the disparity between marine and terrestrial records, and to determine the significance of the heterogeneous temperature trends being measured in the Antarctic today.
Late Quaternary climate-driven environmental change in the Larsemann Hills, East Antarctica, multi-proxy evidence from a lake sediment core
2005, Quaternary Research
Little is known about the response of terrestrial East Antarctica to climate changes during the last glacial–interglacial cycle. Here we present a continuous sediment record from a lake in the Larsemann Hills, situated on a peninsula believed to have been ice-free for at least 40,000 yr. A mutli-proxy data set including geochronology, diatoms, pigments and carbonate stable isotopes indicates warmer and wetter conditions than present in the early part of the record. We interpret this as Marine Isotope Stage 5e after application of a chronological age-depth model and similar ice core evidence. Dry and cold conditions are inferred during the last glacial, with lake-level minima, floristic changes towards a shallow water algal community, and a greater biological receipt of ultraviolet radiation. During the Last Glacial Maximum and Termination I the lake was perennially ice-covered, with minimal snowmelt in the catchment. After ca. 10,500 cal yr B.P., the lake became seasonally moated or ice-free during summer. Despite a low accumulation rate, the sediments document some Holocene environmental changes including neoglacial cooling after ca. 2450 cal yr B.P., and a gradual increase in aridity and salinity to the present.
Faunal microfossils: Indicators of Holocene ecological change in a saline Antarctic lake
2005, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
The sediment record of the fauna of Ace Lake, a saline meromictic lake in the Vestfold Hills, Antarctica, consists of copepod eggs, spermatophores and exoskeletal fragments, rotifer and tintinnid loricae, and foraminiferal and folliculinid tests. The relative abundance of these remains, along with other characteristics of the core, allows the development of a coherent picture of the progress of Ace Lake from a species-poor, freshwater lake early in the Holocene to a biodiverse marine basin following a marine transgression. Subsequent sea level fall reformed Ace Lake as a saline lake and productivity initially increased after isolation. After a major event, possibly associated with overturn of the meromictic lake, biodiversity and productivity decreased, and have continued to do so until the present.
Identification of carotenals in sediments
2005, Organic Geochemistry
High performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array UV–Vis detection and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry was used to analyze sediment samples from the meromictic Ace Lake (Antarctica), as well as a Pliocene sapropel from the Mediterranean Sea and a Miocene marl from the Vena del Gesso formation (Italy). The Ace Lake samples contained intact chlorobactene, isorenieratene, γ- and β-carotene and two series of carotenoid breakdown products. The first and more abundant series was identified as aryl (ϕ)-carotenals of increasing chain length (C₁₃, C₁₅, C₁₈, C₂₀, C₂₂, C₂₅, C₂₇, C₃₀, and C₃₂) on the basis of their UV–Vis and mass spectra. They appear to be formed from chlorobactene through oxidative cleavage of the double bonds of the polyene chain. The minor series (β-carotenals) was also identified, and may be formed from γ-carotene in a similar manner. Intact isorenieratene and the ϕ-carotenal series were also found in the Mediterranean Sea sapropel. Only a trace of the C₃₂ ϕ-carotenal could be detected, suggesting isorenieratene as the predominant source of these ϕ-carotenals. Additionally, intact β-carotene and C₁₃–C₃₀ β-carotenals were found in the sapropel. The absence of the C₃₂ β-carotenal strongly suggests these breakdown products are derived from β-carotene. The Vena del Gesso marl contained both intact isorenieratene and the C₁₃–C₂₅ ϕ-carotenals. The absence of the longer chain length ϕ-carotenals from this sample may indicate more advanced oxidation of isorenieratene. The carotenals are likely formed during storage of samples and/or extracts under non-ideal conditions, i.e., not frozen and exposed to oxygen although they may also be formed by diagenetic processes. They can be relatively abundant and sometimes be an order of magnitude higher in concentration than the parent carotenoid. Hence, not including the ϕ-carotenals could lead to an underestimation of the persistence of photic zone euxinia.

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Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

Abstract

References (26)

Sedimentological and stable-isotope evolution of lakes in the Vestfold Hills, Antarctica

Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

The evolution of Watts Lake, Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica, from marine inlet to freshwater lake

Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

Bacterial and algal hydrocarbons in sediments from a saline antarctic lake, Ace Lake

Organic Geochem.

Cainozoic history of the Vestfold Hills

Vertical distribution of Paralabidocera antarctica (Copepoda: Calanoida) in Ace Lake, Antarctica, in Summer

Aust. J. Mar. Fresw. Res.

Holocene climate fluctuations recorded from lake sediments in Nicholson Lake, Vestfold Hills, Antarctica

Univ. Stockholm Dep. Phys. Geogr. Res. Rep.

Annual cycle of phytoplankton in Ace Lake, an ice covered, saline meromictic lake

Hydrobiologia

Chemistry, physics and evolution of antarctic saline lakes: a review

Hydrobiologia

Sulfur chemistry and microbiological fractionation of sulfur isotopes in a saline antarctic lake

Geomicrobiol. J.

Evidence for Early Holocene deglaciation of the Vestfold Hills, east Antarctica

Polar Rec.

Marine phytoplankton at the Weddell Sea ice edge: seasonal changes at the specific level

Polar Biol.

Microbial ecology of an antarctic saline meromictic lake

Hydrobiologia

Photoadaption of sea-ice microalgae in the Barents Sea

Polar Biol.

Cited by (36)

Holocene climate variability from the lake sediment core in Schirmacher Oasis region, East Antarctica: Multiproxy approach

Production and temperature sensitivity of long chain alkenones in the cultured haptophyte pseudoisochrysis paradoxa

Post-glacial regional climate variability along the East Antarctic coastal margin-Evidence from shallow marine and coastal terrestrial records

Late Quaternary climate-driven environmental change in the Larsemann Hills, East Antarctica, multi-proxy evidence from a lake sediment core

Faunal microfossils: Indicators of Holocene ecological change in a saline Antarctic lake

Identification of carotenals in sediments

Research paperThe evolution of Ace Lake, Antarctica, determined from sedimentary diatom assemblages

Abstract

Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

Organic Geochem.

Cainozoic history of the Vestfold Hills

Vertical distribution of Paralabidocera antarctica (Copepoda: Calanoida) in Ace Lake, Antarctica, in Summer

Aust. J. Mar. Fresw. Res.

Holocene climate fluctuations recorded from lake sediments in Nicholson Lake, Vestfold Hills, Antarctica

Univ. Stockholm Dep. Phys. Geogr. Res. Rep.

Annual cycle of phytoplankton in Ace Lake, an ice covered, saline meromictic lake

Hydrobiologia

Chemistry, physics and evolution of antarctic saline lakes: a review

Hydrobiologia

Sulfur chemistry and microbiological fractionation of sulfur isotopes in a saline antarctic lake

Geomicrobiol. J.

Evidence for Early Holocene deglaciation of the Vestfold Hills, east Antarctica

Polar Rec.

Marine phytoplankton at the Weddell Sea ice edge: seasonal changes at the specific level

Polar Biol.

Microbial ecology of an antarctic saline meromictic lake

Hydrobiologia

Photoadaption of sea-ice microalgae in the Barents Sea

Polar Biol.

Research paper
The evolution of Ace Lake, Antarctica, determined from sedimentary diatom assemblages