| 1. |
- Bindler, Richard, 1963-, et al.
(författare)
-
Reshaping the landscape: mining, metallurgy and a millennium of environmental changes in south-central Sweden
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Before the recognition of emerging environmental issues during the 20th century such as acid rain, mercury pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss, human activities had already significantly altered landscapes around the globe. As elsewhere in Europe, the introduction of agriculture into Sweden during the Bronze and Iron Ages led to changes in forest cover, especially in southern areas, but also more limited impacts in central and northern Sweden along river valleys and coastal areas. In central Sweden the rise and rapid spread of ore mining and metallurgy from the 12th and especially 13th century initiated a widespread reshaping of the landscape named after its mining heritage –Bergslagen (mining laws). This mineral rich 89,000 km2 region encompasses ~5000 metallurgical sites (furnaces, smelters, foundries, forges) and ~10000 mines registered in the Swedish National Antiquities Board’s database.Analyses of >30 lake-sediment records using a combination of geochemical, diatom and pollen analyses, in combination with archaeological and historical records and toponyms, add important details to the early, poorly documented history of mining/metallurgy as well as provide insights into some of the environmental impacts across this large landscape. These impacts included damming of lakes and regulation of watercourses for waterpower, increase in erosion, emission of metals to surface waters and the atmosphere (and leaching from slag piles), decrease in forest cover and changes in water quality. The discontinuous appearance of pollen from cultivated plants (cereals) indicates some limited settlement before the 12th century, but the regular occurrence thereafter of cereal pollen together with a sharp increase in charcoal particles and geochemical evidence of mining/metallurgical activities, indicates mining/metallurgy was a driving force for settlement. Decline in forest cover was gradual from the 13th century, but was more significant from the late 16th century when iron and copper production increased exponentially. The increased demand for charcoal and increased agriculture, including an expansion of summer forest farms, contributed to a reduction in inferred forest cover to 40–80% – as compared to pre-anthropogenic (≤2000 BP) values of 84–95%. From the 16th century charcoal became the limiting resource within Bergslagen and metallurgy expanded to regions adjoining Bergslagen, contributing to a more widespread decline in forest cover also beyond the Bergslagen landscape.In association with the increase in land-use activities and resulting changes in vegetation cover, there was a decline (20–50%) in spectrally inferred lake-water total organic carbon, which we hypothesize resulted from a decreased pool of labile soil carbon. In some lakes closely connected with blast furnaces, where the peasant-miners also lived and farmed, there was an increase in diatom-inferred lake-water pH – as observed previously in SW Sweden in association with Iron Age land use. Only in a suite of lakes in close proximity to the smelting of copper sulfide ores in the surroundings of Falun was there evidence for pre-20th century acidification.While current rates of environmental change may be unprecedented, they build on an already modified landscape. Because pre-industrial conditions, i.e., pre-19th century, are often used as a reference level the scale of current changes may underestimate the full extent of ecosystem and environmental impacts.
|
|
| 2. |
- Capo, Eric, et al.
(författare)
-
Landscape setting drives the microbial eukaryotic community structure in four Swedish mountain lakes over the holocene
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Microorganisms. - : MDPI. - 2076-2607. ; 9:2
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- On the annual and interannual scales, lake microbial communities are known to be heavily influenced by environmental conditions both in the lake and in its terrestrial surroundings. How-ever, the influence of landscape setting and environmental change on shaping these communities over a longer (millennial) timescale is rarely studied. Here, we applied an 18S metabarcoding approach to DNA preserved in Holocene sediment records from two pairs of co‐located Swedish mountain lakes. Our data revealed that the microbial eukaryotic communities were strongly influenced by catchment characteristics rather than location. More precisely, the microbial communities from the two bedrock lakes were largely dominated by unclassified Alveolata, while the peatland lakes showed a more diverse microbial community, with Ciliophora, Chlorophyta and Chytrids among the more predominant groups. Furthermore, for the two bedrock‐dominated lakes—where the oldest DNA samples are dated to only a few hundred years after the lake formation—certain Alveolata, Chlorophytes, Stramenopiles and Rhizaria taxa were found prevalent throughout all the sediment profiles. Our work highlights the importance of species sorting due to landscape setting and the persistence of microbial eukaryotic diversity over millennial timescales in shaping modern lake microbial communities.
|
|
| 3. |
- Myrstener, Erik, et al.
(författare)
-
Long-term development and trajectories of inferred lake-water organic carbon and pH in naturally acidic boreal lakes
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Limnology and Oceanography. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0024-3590 .- 1939-5590. ; 66:6, s. 2408-2422
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Monitoring of surface waters in the boreal region over the last decades shows that waters are becoming browner. This timeframe may not, however, be sufficient to capture underlying trajectories and driving mechanisms of lake-water quality, important for prediction of future trajectories. Here we synthesize data from seven lakes in the Swedish boreal landscape, with contemporary lake-water total organic carbon (TOC) concentrations of 1.4–14.4 mg L−1, to conceptualize how natural and particularly human-driven processes at the landscape scale have regulated lake-water TOC levels over the Holocene. Sediment-inferred trends in TOC are supported by several proxies, including diatom-inferred pH. Before ~ 700 ce, all lakes were naturally acidic (pH 4.7–5.4) and the concentrations of inferred lake-water TOC were high (10–23 mg L−1). The introduction of traditional human land use from ~ 700 ce led to a decrease in lake-water TOC in all lakes (to 5–14 mg L−1), and in four poorly buffered lakes, also to an increase in pH by > 1 unit. During the 20th century, industrial acid deposition was superimposed on centuries of land use, which resulted in unprecedentedly low lake-water TOC in all lakes (3–11 mg L−1) and severely reduced pH in the four poorly buffered lakes. The other lakes resisted pH changes, likely due to close connections to peatlands. Our results indicate that an important part of the recent browning of boreal lakes is a recovery from human impacts. Furthermore, on a conceptual level we stress that contemporary environmental changes occur within the context of past, long-term disturbances.
|
|
| 4. |
- Myrstener, Erik, et al.
(författare)
-
Long-term development of clear- and brown-water acidic lakes in the Swedish boreal landscape : implications for contemporary lake-water quality
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The recent browning of surface waters and its effects on water quality across northern latitudes continue to raise questions about the driving mechanisms and future trajectories. However, even when based on multi-decadal environmental monitoring data, assessments of contemporary trends and drivers often overlook potential underlying long-term changes in lake-water quality. Here we synthesize data from seven clear- and brown-water acidic lakes in the Swedish boreal landscape to conceptualize how natural and human-driven processes have regulated lake-water quality, measured as spectrally inferred lake-water total organic carbon (TOC) and diatom-inferred pH. From 10,000 BCE to ~500 CE, all studied lakes were browner (lake-water TOC 10–24 mg L-1) and underwent natural acidification, decreasing from pH ~7 to 4.7–5.4. From ~500 to 1850 CE, historical human land use caused lake-water TOC to decline by ~50% in all lakes and in the poorly buffered, clear-water lakes, pH to increase by >1 unit. During the 20th century, the interaction between centuries of land use and more recent industrial acid deposition resulted in unprecedentedly low lake-water TOC (3–8 mg L-1) in all lakes and severely re-duced pH in the poorly buffered lakes, whereas those surrounded by peatlands resisted these pH changes. These extreme values coincided with the onset of environmental monitoring, meaning that contempo-rary increases in lake-water TOC and pH occur within the context of past, long-term disturbances, which are therefore crucial to consider for the purposes of lake management and prediction of lake responses to future environmental disturbances, especially climate change.
|
|
| 5. |
- Ninnes, Sofia, 1984-, et al.
(författare)
-
Application of mid-infrared spectroscopy for the quantitative and qualitative analysis of organic matter in Holocene sediment records
- 2024
-
Ingår i: The Holocene. - : Sage Publications. - 0959-6836 .- 1477-0911. ; 34:3, s. 259-273
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The organic matter composition of lake sediments influences important in-lake biogeochemical processes and stores information on environmental changes. Extracting this information is notoriously difficult because of the complexity of the organic matter matrix, which routinely imposes trade-offs between high temporal and analytical detail in the selection of methods of analysis. Here, we demonstrate the potential of diffuse reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (DRIFTS) for achieving both of these objectives using untreated bulk samples from two Holocene lake-sediment cores from central Sweden. We develop quantitative models for sediment total organic carbon (TOC) with the same predictive abilities as models based on samples diluted with KBr and qualitatively characterize the organic matter using a spectra processing-pipeline combined with principal component analysis. In the qualitative analysis we identified four organic matter sub-fractions and the interpretation of these is supported and further advanced with molecular data from pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). Within these organic fractions, compound groups such as aromatics, lignin, aliphatics, proteins and polysaccharides were identified by means of DRIFTS and the analyses and processes outlined here enables rapid and detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of sediment organic matter. The DRIFTS approach can be used as stand-alone method for OM characterization with high temporal resolution in Holocene sediment records. It may also function as a screening process for more specific analyses of sample subsets, such as when coupled with pyrolysis-GC/MS to further tease apart the OM composition, identify sources and determine degradation status.
|
|
| 6. |
- Ninnes, Sofia, et al.
(författare)
-
Investigating molecular changes in organic matter composition in two Holocene lake-sediment records from central Sweden using pyrolysis-GC/MS
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences. - : American Geophysical Union (AGU). - 2169-8953 .- 2169-8961. ; 122:6, s. 1423-1438
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Organic matter (OM) is a key component of lake sediments, affecting carbon, nutrient, and trace metal cycling at local and global scales. Yet little is known about long-term (millennial) changes in OM composition due to the inherent chemical complexity arising from multiple OM sources and from secondary transformations. In this study we explore how the molecular composition of OM changes throughout the Holocene in two adjacent boreal lakes in central Sweden and compare molecular-level information with conventional OM variables, including total carbon, total nitrogen, C:N ratios, delta C-13, and delta N-15. To characterize the molecular OM composition, we employed a new method based on pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS), which yields semiquantitative data on > 100 organic compounds of different origin and degradation status. We identify large changes in OM composition after deglaciation (circa 8500 +/- 500 B.C.), associated with early landscape development, and during the most recent 4050 years, driven by degradation processes. With molecular(-)level information we can also distinguish between natural landscape development and human catchment disturbance during the last 1700 years. Our study demonstrates that characterization of the molecular OM composition by the high-throughput PyGC/MS method is an efficient complement to conventional OM variables for identification and understanding of past OM dynamics in lake-sediment records. Holocene changes observed for pyrolytic compounds and compound classes known for having different reactivity indicate the need for further paleo-reconstruction of the molecular OM composition to better understand both past and future OM dynamics and associated environmental changes.
|
|
| 7. |
- Ninnes, Sofia, 1984-
(författare)
-
Molecular analysis of lake-sediment organic matter : long-term dynamics and environmental implications in boreal lakes
- 2023
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Lake sediment organic matter is material composed of residues from plants, algae, animals, fungi and bacteria. Its molecular composition is dependent on the sources as well as secondary biotic and abiotic transformations, which combined generates a highly complex matrix. Considering that organic matter plays a key role in carbon and nitrogen cycle, and its composition affects many different biogeochemical reactions, paleolimnologic studies have payed proportionately little attention to the organic matter composition compared with the other sediment fractions, even though organic matter makes up 20–60 % of the dry sediment mass in boreal and subarctic lakes. This thesis therefore primarily aims to explore and evaluate two methods; pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Pyrolysis-GC/MS) and diffuse reflectance Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (DRIFTS) for characterisation of bulk organic matter at the molecular level, both which have been extensively used for soils and peat and which balances the need for cost and time-effective analysis and for analytical detail.With pyrolysis-GC/MS the organic matter composition and long-term dynamics in two neighbouring boreal lakes is explored and compared with the conventional bulk carbon and nitrogen contents and their stable isotopes. Both pyrolysis data and conventional data capture the timing of organic matter compositional changes, but only pyrolysis provides detailed information on how the composition changes, which allows for a deeper understanding of the processes behind the changes. The same two lakes are also analysed with DRIFTS and with this approach information on the major organic compound groups aromatics, lignin, aliphatics, proteins and polysaccharides is extracted. In combination with the rapid analysis time and low cost, DRIFTS emerges as a very useful tool for rapid yet informative organic matter analysis. DRIFTS is then evaluated as a stand-alone tool for sediment characterisation in four mountain lakes. The four lakes all have different sediment composition and as a result of the multi-fraction information obtained with DRIFTS compositional differences can be related and explained in terms of their individual lake and landscape settings. The importance of landscape setting is further highlighted in the synthesis of the long-term dynamics of lake-water quality in seven lakes where development trajectories and responses to different types of disturbances are connected to the extent of peatlands within the lake catchments. This thesis demonstrates the advantages of two different approaches for more detailed lake sediment organic matter characterisation and advances our understanding of the molecular organic matter composition in boreal lakes over the Holocene, and how landscape setting affects both the organic matter composition and the sensitivity of lakes to disturbance.
|
|
| 8. |
|
|
