Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T17:48:07.288Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Anthropogenic Influence on the 14C Activity and Other Constituents of Recent Lake Sediments: A Case Study1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Dušan Srdoč
Affiliation:
Rudjer Bošković Institute, 41001 Zagreb, Croatia
Nada Horvatinčić
Affiliation:
Rudjer Bošković Institute, 41001 Zagreb, Croatia
Marijan Ahel
Affiliation:
Rudjer Bošković Institute, 41001 Zagreb, Croatia
Walter Giger
Affiliation:
Swiss Federal Institute for Water Resources and Water Pollution Control, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
Christian Schaffner
Affiliation:
Swiss Federal Institute for Water Resources and Water Pollution Control, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
Ines Krajcar Bronić
Affiliation:
Rudjer Bošković Institute, 41001 Zagreb, Croatia
Donat Petricioli
Affiliation:
Rudjer Bošković Institute, 41001 Zagreb, Croatia
Jože Pezdič
Affiliation:
Jožef Stefan Institute, 61000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Elena Marčenko
Affiliation:
Rudjer Bošković Institute, 41001 Zagreb, Croatia
Anđelka Plenković-Moraj
Affiliation:
Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Botany, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Anthropogenic activities that introduce an excess of nutrients and other pollutants into rivers and lakes are causing significant changes in their aquatic environment. Excessive nutrients greatly accelerate eutrophication, and lake marl formed during eutrophication differs from that formed in oligotrophic water.

We analyzed recent sediment cores from Prošće and Kozjak lakes located in Plitvice National Park, central Croatia. Analyses consisted of 14C activity of calcareous lake marl, the ratio of stable isotopes (δ13C, δ18O), organic compounds in the sediment and the distribution of diatoms. Previous 14C activity measurements helped to determine the sedimentation rate and thus the time period of increased input of nutrients into lakes. We determined the increased 14C activity in lake sediments caused by nuclear bomb effect in recent depth profiles. We attributed the sudden increase in diatom species, Cyclotella operculata unipuctata and Achnanthes clevei rostrata, in the uppermost 5-cm layer, to eutrophication of the lake water.

We performed a molecular characterization of hydrocarbons isolated from the sediments, and applied computer-assisted high-resolution gas chromatography/mass spectrometry to estimate contributions of biogenic, fossil and pyrolytic hydrocarbons.

Type
II. Applied Isotope Geochemistry
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

Blumer, M. and Sass, J. 1972 Indigenous and petroleum-derived hydrocarbons in an oil polluted sediment. Marine Pollution Bulletin 3: 9294.Google Scholar
Giger, W. and Schaffner, C. 1978 Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the environment by glass capillary gas chromatography. Analytical Chemistry 50: 243249.Google Scholar
Giger, W., Schaffner, C. and Wakeham, S. G. 1980 Aliphatic and olefinic hydrocarbons in recent sediments of Greifensee, Switzerland. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 44: 119129.Google Scholar
Krajcar-Bronić, I., Horvatinčić, N., Srdoč, D. and Obelić, B. 1992 Experimental determination of the 14C initial activity of calcareous deposits. Radiocarbon, this issue.Google Scholar
Laflamme, R. E. and Hites, R. 1978 The global distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in recent sediments. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 42: 289303.Google Scholar
Levin, I., Münnich, K. O. and Weiss, W. 1980 The effect of anthropogenic CO2 and 14C sources on the distribution of 14C in the atmosphere. In Stuiver, M. and Kra, R. S., eds., Proceedings of the 10th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 22(2): 379391.Google Scholar
Marčenko, E., Srdoč, D., Golubič, S., Pezdič, J. and Head, M. J. 1989 Carbon uptake in aquatic plants deduced from their natural 13C and 14C content. In Long, A., Kra, R. S. and Srdoč, D., eds., Proceedings of the 13th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 31(3): 785794.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scharpenseel, H. W. and Becker-Heidmann, P. 1989 Shifts in 14C patterns of soil profiles due to bomb carbon, including effects of morphogenetic and turbation processes. In Long, A, Kra, R. S. and Srdoč, D., eds., Proceedings of the 13th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 31(3): 627636.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schell, W. R. and Barnes, R. S. 1986 Environmental isotope and anthropogenic tracers of recent lake sedimentation. In Fritz, P. and Fontes, J.-Ch., eds., Handbook of Environmental Isotope Geochemistry 2. Amsterdam, Elsevier Scientific Publishing Co.: 169206.Google Scholar
Srdoč, D., Breyer, B. and Sliepčevič, A. 1971 Rudjer Bošković Institute radiocarbon measurements I. Radiocarbon 13(1): 135140.Google Scholar
Srdoč, D., Horvatinčić, N., Obelić, B., Krajcar-Bronić, I. and Sliepčević, A. 1985 Calcite deposition processes in karstwaters with special emphasis on the Plitvice Lakes, Yugoslavia (in Serbo-Croatian, with extended English abstract). Carsus Iugoslaviae 11/4–6: 101204.Google Scholar
Srdoč, D., Obelić, B., Horvatinčić, N., Krajcar-Bronić, I., Marčenko, E., Merkt, J., Wong, H. K. and Sliepčević, A. 1986 Radiocarbon dating of lake sediment from two karst lakes in Yugoslavia. In Stuiver, M. and Kra, R. S., eds., Proceedings of the 12th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 28(2A): 495502.Google Scholar
Wakeham, S. G., Schaffner, C. and Giger, W. 1980a Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in recent lake sediments. I. Compounds having anthropogenic origins. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 44: 403413.Google Scholar
Wakeham, S. G., Schaffner, C. and Giger, W. 1980b Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in recent lake sediments. II. Compounds derived from biogenic precursors during early diagenesis. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 44: 415429.Google Scholar
Wong, H. K. 1992 The morphometry of lakes Kozjak and Prošće in the Plitvice National Park, Yugoslavia. In Srdoč, D., Golubić, S. and Wong, H. K., eds., Travertines and Lake Sediments: A Case Study, Plitvice Lakes, Yugoslavia. Berlin-Heidelberg, Springer-Verlag, in press.Google Scholar
Youngblood, W. W. and Blumer, M. 1975 Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the environment: homologous series in soils and recent marine sediments. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 39: 13031314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar