Recent primary production increases in arctic lakes

• Main Authors: Rivard, B., Vinebrooke, R.D., Michelutti, N., Wolfe, A.P.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: envir; geo; Arctic; Baffin Island; Canada; Nunavut; Baffin
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.7939/R38Z81; https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/3e2cc24c-826b-41a6-8473-79241ca3ca31

A new application of reflectance spectroscopy enables inferences of lake sediment chlorophyll a concentrations and hence of historical trends in lacustrine primary production. In a survey of six arctic lakes on Baffin Island (Nunavut, Canada), pronounced increases of spectrally-inferred chlorophyll a concentrations are consistently expressed in sediments deposited during the 20th century. Climate warming appears to be increasing both aquatic chlorophyll a production and its sequestration to sediments, as these lakes enter new biological regimes that are largely unique in the context of the late Holocene.