Paola Gravina, Alessandro Ludovisi, Beatrice Moroni, Riccardo Vivani, Roberta Selvaggi, Chiara Petroselli, David Cappelletti
{"title":"Geochemical Proxies and Mineralogical Fingerprints of Sedimentary Processes in a Closed Shallow Lake Basin Since 1850","authors":"Paola Gravina, Alessandro Ludovisi, Beatrice Moroni, Riccardo Vivani, Roberta Selvaggi, Chiara Petroselli, David Cappelletti","doi":"10.1007/s10498-022-09403-y","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Lake systems are essential for the environment, the biosphere, and humans but are highly impacted by anthropogenic activities accentuated by climate change. Understanding how lake ecosystems change due to human impacts and natural forces is crucial to managing their current state and possible future restoration. The high sensitivity of shallow closed lakes to natural and anthropogenic forcing makes these lacustrine ecosystems highly prone to variations in precipitation and sedimentation processes. These variation processes, occurring in the water column, produce geochemical markers or proxies recorded in lake sedimentary archives. This study investigated specific proxies on high-resolution sedimentary archives (2–3 years resolution) of the Trasimeno lake (Central Italy). The Trasimeno lake underwent three different hydrological phases during the twentieth century due to several fluctuations induced mainly by human activities and climate change. The Trasimeno lake, a large and shallow basin located in the Mediterranean area, is a good case study to assess the effects of intense anthropogenic activity related to agriculture, tourism, industry, and climate changes during the Anthropocene. The aim is to identify the main characteristics of the main sedimentary events in the lake during the last 150 years, determining the concentrations of major and trace elements, the amount of organic matter, and the mineralogical composition of the sediments. This type of work demonstrates that studying sediment archives at high resolution is a viable method for reconstructing the lake’s history through the evolution/trends of the geochemical proxies stored in the sediment records. This effort makes it possible to assess past anthropogenic impact and, under the objectives of the European Green Deal (zero-pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment), to monitor, prevent, and remedy pollution related to soil and water compartments.</p><h3>Graphical abstract</h3>\n <figure><div><div><div><picture><source><img></source></picture></div></div></div></figure>\n </div>","PeriodicalId":8102,"journal":{"name":"Aquatic Geochemistry","volume":"28 1","pages":"43 - 62"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2022-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10498-022-09403-y.pdf","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Aquatic Geochemistry","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10498-022-09403-y","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"GEOCHEMISTRY & GEOPHYSICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3
Abstract
Lake systems are essential for the environment, the biosphere, and humans but are highly impacted by anthropogenic activities accentuated by climate change. Understanding how lake ecosystems change due to human impacts and natural forces is crucial to managing their current state and possible future restoration. The high sensitivity of shallow closed lakes to natural and anthropogenic forcing makes these lacustrine ecosystems highly prone to variations in precipitation and sedimentation processes. These variation processes, occurring in the water column, produce geochemical markers or proxies recorded in lake sedimentary archives. This study investigated specific proxies on high-resolution sedimentary archives (2–3 years resolution) of the Trasimeno lake (Central Italy). The Trasimeno lake underwent three different hydrological phases during the twentieth century due to several fluctuations induced mainly by human activities and climate change. The Trasimeno lake, a large and shallow basin located in the Mediterranean area, is a good case study to assess the effects of intense anthropogenic activity related to agriculture, tourism, industry, and climate changes during the Anthropocene. The aim is to identify the main characteristics of the main sedimentary events in the lake during the last 150 years, determining the concentrations of major and trace elements, the amount of organic matter, and the mineralogical composition of the sediments. This type of work demonstrates that studying sediment archives at high resolution is a viable method for reconstructing the lake’s history through the evolution/trends of the geochemical proxies stored in the sediment records. This effort makes it possible to assess past anthropogenic impact and, under the objectives of the European Green Deal (zero-pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment), to monitor, prevent, and remedy pollution related to soil and water compartments.
期刊介绍:
We publish original studies relating to the geochemistry of natural waters and their interactions with rocks and minerals under near Earth-surface conditions. Coverage includes theoretical, experimental, and modeling papers dealing with this subject area, as well as papers presenting observations of natural systems that stress major processes. The journal also presents `letter''-type papers for rapid publication and a limited number of review-type papers on topics of particularly broad interest or current major controversy.