A 1600-year diatom record of hydroclimate variability from Wolf Lake, New York

Abstract

A high-resolution diatom record from Wolf Lake, a minimally disturbed ‘heritage’ lake, provides insights into the hydroclimatic history of the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York during the last c. 1600 years. Three pronounced dry periods occurred during c. AD 490–610, 780–870, and 1010–1080, and low precipitation generally prevailed during the warm Medieval Climate Anomaly ( c. AD 950–1350), a finding that fills an important gap in knowledge of the spatial extent of droughts across North America during that period. During the cooler ‘Little Ice Age’ interval ( c. AD 1350–1800), inferred water balance was generally more positive. Seven peaks in charcoal abundance represent fire events during both wet and dry periods. Unusually high charcoal and inorganic sediment deposition c. AD 1700 could reflect human activity in the watershed, as might an abrupt rise in the relative abundances of planktonic and tychoplanktonic diatoms in Wolf Lake during the AD 1860s. The diatom record displays periodicities of c. 256 and 512 years in addition to high-frequency fluctuations, suggesting that significant precipitation variability is likely to continue to disrupt climatic trends in this region.

On the Age and Origin of Lake Ejagham, Cameroon, and Its Endemic Fishes

“…The association of high percentages of planktonic diatoms with deep-water habitats and/or wetter climatic conditions has been used for qualitative reconstructions of hydroclimate from fossil diatom assemblages with other lakes around the world (Stager et al, 2005(Stager et al, , 2012(Stager et al, , 2017Laird et al, 2010Laird et al, , 2011. In this study, high percentages of planktonic A. granulata and E. zasuminensis in the cores from the center of Lake Ejagham are taken to represent dilute, open-water conditions similar to those of today.…”

A high-resolution paleolimnological study of climate and human impacts on Lac Noir, Québec, over the past 1000 yr

“…A. tenella is a heavily silicified diatom more commonly found in lakes with turbulent waters and high DOC (Harris et al, 2006; Haig et al, 2013; Rühland et al, 2015). In the MWP, high-frequency variations in precipitation may have led to seasonal mixing of Lac Noir as well as greater inputs of humic-rich allogenic sediments and DOC from the catchment (Köster and Pienitz, 2006; Stager et al, 2017), thus creating optimal conditions for A. tenella .…”

Temporal approaches of historical extreme storm events based on sedimentological archives

“…Cook and Kairiukstis, 2013;Lafon and Speer, 2002;Nicolussi et al, 2005) or diatom (e.g. Nodine and Gaiser, 2015;Stager et al, 2017) production. The crossing of sedimentological deposits with all these methods can be made to assess Holocene storm activity in the same oceanic basin.…”