Interpreting the environmental record in the sediments of Blelham Tarn

Pennington, W. and Cranwell, P.A. and Haworth, E.Y. and Bonny, A.P. and Lishman, J.P. (1977) Interpreting the environmental record in the sediments of Blelham Tarn. In: Forty-fifth annual report for the year ended 31st March 1977. Ambleside, UK, Freshwater Biological Association, (Annual Report, Freshwater Biological Association, Ambleside)

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Abstract

Two aspects of the environmental record in the sediments of Blelham Tarn have been investigated: (1) the ecological history of the catchment, and lake-catchment relationships, by detailed analysis of the preserved pollen (as an indication of vegetation) and sediment composition with respect to a range of inorganic and organic geochemical variables and (2) a detailed investigation of the manner in which sediment is being formed today, including the way in which microfossils (pollen and diatoms) are being recruited and incorporated into sediments. When the record was examined by biological and geochemical analysis, together with radionuclide dating, of closely spaced samples, it was found that the changes of the last 30 yrs represented only the most recent episode in a long history of modification of the lake by man. To find an approach to this it is necessary to go back for at least 2500 yrs.

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