Palaeolimnology and lakes with respect to pollution and climate change

• Main Authors: Solovieva, N, Patrick, ST
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: UCL Environmental Change Research Centre 1996
• Subjects: Kola Peninsula; Apatity; kola peninsula
• Online Access: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10111138/1/ecrc_report_33_Solovieva%20%26%20Patrick_1996_palaeolimnology%20%26%20lakes_OCR.pdf; https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10111138/

The objectives of this INT AS programme between the Environmental Change Research Centre (ECRC), University College London; Institute of Global Climate and Ecology (IGCE) Moscow; Moscow State University (MSU) Department of Hydrobiology; and the Kola Science Centre (KSC) Apatity, are to introduce recently developed palaeolimnological methods to laboratories in the Former Soviet Union and to apply these techniques collaboratively to problems of environmental change and pollution. The focus of this work is centred on atmospheric pollution and potential climate change in the Kola Peninsula and the Lake Baikal region. In the contract year 1995-1996, young scientists from ECRC have visited IGCE and MSU to discuss ideas and the KSC to undertake fieldwork and laboratory analyses of sample material. Senior scientists from IGCE, MSU and KSC have visited ECRC to review the collaborative programme and young scientists from the three participating Russian laboratories have attended courses in numerical analysis and diatom taxonomy at the ECRC. Inevitably the parlous financial situation in Russian academic institutions has affected the progress of this project. The science programme in the Baikal region has been difficult to maintain and the emphasis in 1995-1996 has been placed on the Kola Peninsula. The logistics of fieldwork and laboratory back-up have been easier to arrange with the involvement of KSU, but even here economic difficulties have precluded certain analyses being undertaken. Additionally, as salaries for senior staff and financial support for young scientists have virtually ceased to exist it is inevitable that money for some of the equipment and consumable purchases designated in the original proposal, has been diverted to help maintain the position of key researchers involved with this project. As part of the palaeoecological reconstruction of recent environmental (acidification) and post Holocene climate history of the Kola Peninsula, surface sediments and water samples have been collected from 27 lakes ...