Using lake and pond sediments to assess the effects of multiple-stressors in the Arctic

• Main Authors: Jules M. Blais, John P. Smol
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.607.4279; http://www.cryosphere.pwias.ubc.ca/papers/session 6 - blais and smol.pdf

Ecosystems are being subjected to multiple environmental stressors, but tracking the effects of these problems is very difficult due to the lack of long-term monitoring data. For example, most environmental assessments are based on sampling strategies of three years or less (Smol 2002). The lack of long-term monitoring data is especially acute in Arctic ecosystems, where logistical difficulties and other concerns make frequent sampling difficult. Fortunately, polar regions are often characterized by large numbers of aquatic and semi-aquatic ecosystems, such as ponds, lakes, and bogs. These habitats archive important records of past environmental change in their sedimentary records. The multi-disciplinary field of paleolimnology uses the biological, chemical and physical information in these sediments to reconstruct past environmental conditions, from which hypotheses and models can be evaluated, and from which the natural, pre-anthropogenic conditions and modes of environmental change can be assessed. Paleolimnology is now being used extensively in many polar regions (Pienitz et al. 2004). This presentation will review some of the recent advances that have occurred in the field of arctic paleolimnology, and focus especially on two interacting environmental stressors: climatic