A Robust Workflow for Acquiring and Preprocessing Ambient Vibration Data from Small Aperture Ocean Bottom Seismometer Arrays to Extract Scholte and Love Waves Phase-Velocity Dispersion Curves.

The phase-velocity dispersion curve (DC) is an important characteristic of the propagation of surface waves in sedimentary environments. Although the procedure for DC estimation in onshore environments using ambient vibration recordings is well established, the DC estimation in offshore environments using Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBS) array recordings of ambient vibrations presents three additional challenges: (1) the localization of sensors, (2) the orientation of the OBS horizontal components, and (3) the clock error. Here, we address these challenges in an inherent preprocessing workflow to ultimately extract the Love and Scholte wave DC from small aperture OBS array measurements performed between 2018 and 2020 in Lake Lucerne (Switzerland). The arrays have a maximum aperture of 679 m and a maximum deployment water depth of 81 m. The challenges related to the OBS location on the lake floor are addressed by combining the multibeam bathymetry map and the backscatter image for the investigated site with the differential GPS coordinates of the OBS at recovery. The OBS measurements are complemented by airgun surveys. Airgun data are first used to estimate the misorientation of the horizontal components of the OBS and second to estimate the clock error. To assess the robustness of the preprocessing workflow, we use two array processing methods, namely the three-component high-resolution frequency-wavenumber and the interferometric multichannel analysis of surface waves, to estimate the dispersion characteristics of the propagating Scholte and Love waves for one of the OBS array sites. The results show the effectiveness of the preprocessing workflow. We observe the phase-velocity dispersion curve branches in the frequency range between 1.2 and 3.2 Hz for both array processing techniques. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00024-021-02923-8.

Subaqueous geomorphology and delta dynamics of Lake Brienz (Switzerland): implications for the sediment budget in the alpine realm.

Non-invasive techniques such as seismic investigations and high-resolution multibeam sonars immensely improved our understanding of the geomorphology and sediment regimes in both the lacustrine and the marine domain. However, only few studies provide quantifications of basin wide-sediment budgets in lakes. Here, we use the combination of high-resolution bathymetric mapping and seismic reflection data to quantify the sediment budget in an alpine lake. The new bathymetric data of Lake Brienz reveal three distinct geomorphological areas: slopes with intercalated terraces, a flat basin plain, and delta areas with subaquatic channel systems. Quasi-4D seismic reflection data allow sediment budgeting of the lake with a total sediment input of 5.54 × 106 t sediment over 15 years of which three-quarter were deposited in the basin plain. Lake Brienz yields extraordinarily high sedimentation rates of 3.0 cm/yr in the basin plain, much more than in other Swiss lakes. This can be explained by (i) its role as first sedimentary sink in a high-alpine catchment, and by (ii) its morphology with subaquatic channel-complexes allowing an efficient sediment transfer from proximal to distal areas of the lake.

A tsunamigenic delta collapse and its associated tsunami deposits in and around Lake Sils, Switzerland.

Large lacustrine mass movements and delta collapses are increasingly being considered as potential tsunamigenic sources and therefore hazardous for the population and infrastructure along lakeshores. Although historical reports document tsunami events in several lakes in Switzerland, and although the propagation of lake tsunamis has been studied by numerical wave modeling, only little is known about on- and offshore lacustrine tsunami deposits. In Lake Sils, Switzerland, a large prehistoric mass-movement deposit originating from the Isola Delta with a minimum estimated volume of 6.5 × 106 m3 and a basinal thickness of > 6 m in the seismic record has been identified by previous studies and radiocarbon dated to around 700 Common Era. Here, we combine (i) comprehensive sedimentological investigation of sediment cores recovered from the on- and offshore settings, (ii) mineralogical fingerprinting of the inflows from key catchments to characterize sediment provenance, and (iii) numerical tsunami modeling, to test the hypothesis of a tsunamigenic delta collapse in Lake Sils. We observe a clastic event deposit consisting of coarse-grained, fining-upward sand overlying an organic-rich peat deposit in the shallow water. This layer thins and fines landward on the coastal plain. Toward the deeper water (20-40 m), the deposit transforms into a thicker and more heterogeneous sediment package with multiple sequences of fining-upward sand and a well-pronounced clay cap at the top. Radiocarbon dating of the peat underlying the event deposit yields a maximum age of 225-419 calibrated  Common Era. The tsunami models, which indicate wave heights reaching up to 5 m, simulate areas of inundation that coincide with the location of event deposits. Based on our results, we propose that the historically undocumented Isola Delta collapse generated a basin-wide tsunami that inundated the lakeshore, transporting large amounts of unconsolidated sediment along the lakeshore toward the coastal plain and into the deeper lake basin. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version of this article (10.1007/s11069-021-04533-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

8,000 years of climate, vegetation, fire and land-use dynamics in the thermo-mediterranean vegetation belt of northern Sardinia (Italy).

Knowledge about the vegetation history of Sardinia, the second largest island of the Mediterranean, is scanty. Here, we present a new sedimentary record covering the past ~ 8,000 years from Lago di Baratz, north-west Sardinia. Vegetation and fire history are reconstructed by pollen, spores, macrofossils and charcoal analyses and environmental dynamics by high-resolution element geochemistry together with pigment analyses. During the period 8,100-7,500 cal bp, when seasonality was high and fire and erosion were frequent, Erica arborea and E. scoparia woodlands dominated the coastal landscape. Subsequently, between 7,500 and 5,500 cal bp, seasonality gradually declined and thermo-mediterranean woodlands with Pistacia and Quercus ilex partially replaced Erica communities under diminished incidence of fire. After 5,500 cal bp, evergreen oak forests expanded markedly, erosion declined and lake levels increased, likely in response to increasing (summer) moisture availability. Increased anthropogenic fire disturbance triggered shrubland expansions (e.g. Tamarix and Pistacia) around 5,000-4,500 cal bp. Subsequently around 4,000-3,500 cal bp evergreen oak-olive forests expanded massively when fire activity declined and lake productivity and anoxia reached Holocene maxima. Land-use activities during the past 4,000 years (since the Bronze Age) gradually disrupted coastal forests, but relict stands persisted under rather stable environmental conditions until ca. 200 cal bp, when agricultural activities intensified and Pinus and Eucalyptus were planted to stabilize the sand dunes. Pervasive prehistoric land-use activities since at least the Bronze Age Nuraghi period included the cultivation of Prunus, Olea europaea and Juglans regia after 3,500-3,300 cal bp, and Quercus suber after 2,500 cal bp. We conclude that restoring less flammable native Q. ilex and O. europaea forest communities would markedly reduce fire risk and erodibility compared to recent forest plantations with flammable non-native trees (e.g. Pinus, Eucalyptus) and xerophytic shrubland (e.g. Cistus, Erica).

Caribbean cyclone activity: an annually-resolved Common Era record.

Tropical cyclones (TC) represent a substantial threat to life and property for Caribbean and adjacent populations. The prospective increase of TC magnitudes, expressed in the 15th chapter of the IPCC AR5 report, entails a rising probability of ecological and social disasters, which were tragically exemplified by several severe Caribbean TC strikes during the past 20 years. Modern IPCC-grade climate models, however, still lack the required spatial and temporal resolution to accurately consider the underlying boundary conditions that modulate long-time TC patterns beyond the Instrumental Era. It is thus necessary to provide a synoptic mechanistic understanding regarding the origin of such long-time patterns, in order to predict reliable changes of TC magnitude and frequency under future climate scenarios. Caribbean TC records are still rare and often lack the necessary continuity and resolution to overcome these limitations. Here, we report on an annually-resolved sedimentary archive from the bottom of the Great Blue Hole (Lighthouse Reef, Belize). The TC record encompasses 1885 years and extends all existing site-specific TC archives both in terms of resolution and duration. We identified a likely connection between long-term TC patterns and climate phenomena responses to Common Era climate variations and offer a conceptual and comparative view considering several involved tropospheric and oceanographic control mechanisms such as the El-Niño-Southern-Oscillation, the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. These basin-scaled climate modes exercise internal control on TC activity by modulating the thermodynamic environment (sea-surface temperature and vertical wind shear stress dynamics) for enhanced/suppressed TC formation both on millennial (primary) and multi-decadal (secondary) time scales. We interpret the beginning of the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) as an important time interval of the Common Era record and suspect that the southward migration of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) caused, in combination with extensive hydro-climate changes, a shift in the tropical Atlantic TC regime. The TC activity in the south-western Caribbean changed in general from a stable and less active stage (100-900 CE) to a more active and variable state (1,100 CE-modern).

Porewater salinity reveals past lake-level changes in Lake Van, the Earth's largest soda lake.

In closed-basin lakes, sediment porewater salinity can potentially be used as a conservative tracer to reconstruct past fluctuations in lake level. However, until now, porewater salinity profiles did not allow quantitative estimates of past lake-level changes because, in contrast to the oceans, significant salinity changes (e.g., local concentration minima and maxima) had never been observed in lacustrine sediments. Here we show that the salinity measured in the sediment pore water of Lake Van (Turkey) allows straightforward reconstruction of two major transgressions and a major regression that occurred during the last 250 ka. We observed strong changes in the vertical salinity profiles of the pore water of the uppermost 100 m of the sediments in Lake Van. As the salinity balance of Lake Van is almost at steady-state, these salinity changes indicate major lake-level changes in the past. In line with previous studies on lake terraces and with seismic and sedimentological surveys, we identify two major transgressions of up to +105 m with respect to the current lake level at about 135 ka BP and 248 ka BP starting at the onset of the two previous interglacials (MIS5e and MIS7), and a major regression of about -200 m at about 30 ka BP during the last ice age.

Guatemala paleoseismicity: from Late Classic Maya collapse to recent fault creep.

We combine 'on-fault' trench observations of slip on the Polochic fault (North America-Caribbean plate boundary) with a 1200 years-long 'near-fault' record of seismo-turbidite generation in a lake located within 2 km of the fault. The lake record indicates that, over the past 12 centuries, 10 earthquakes reaching ground-shaking intensities ≥ VI generated seismo-turbidites in the lake. Seismic activity was highly unevenly distributed over time and noticeably includes a cluster of earthquakes spread over a century at the end of the Classic Maya period. This cluster may have contributed to the piecemeal collapse of the Classic Maya civilization in this wet, mountainous southern part of the Maya realm. On-fault observations within 7 km of the lake show that soils formed between 1665 and 1813 CE were displaced by the Polochic fault during a long period of seismic quiescence, from 1450 to 1976 CE. Displacement on the Polochic fault during at least the last 480 years included a component of slip that was aseismic, or associated with very light seismicity (magnitude <5 earthquakes). Seismicity of the plate boundary is therefore either non-cyclic, or dominated by long-period cycles (>1 ky) punctuated by destructive earthquake clusters.

Frequent floods in the European Alps coincide with cooler periods of the past 2500 years.

Severe floods triggered by intense precipitation are among the most destructive natural hazards in Alpine environments, frequently causing large financial and societal damage. Potential enhanced flood occurrence due to global climate change would thus increase threat to settlements, infrastructure, and human lives in the affected regions. Yet, projections of intense precipitation exhibit major uncertainties and robust reconstructions of Alpine floods are limited to the instrumental and historical period. Here we present a 2500-year long flood reconstruction for the European Alps, based on dated sedimentary flood deposits from ten lakes in Switzerland. We show that periods with high flood frequency coincide with cool summer temperatures. This wet-cold synchronism suggests enhanced flood occurrence to be triggered by latitudinal shifts of Atlantic and Mediterranean storm tracks. This paleoclimatic perspective reveals natural analogues for varying climate conditions, and thus can contribute to a better understanding and improved projections of weather extremes under climate change.

Correlating the ancient Maya and modern European calendars with high-precision AMS 14C dating.

The reasons for the development and collapse of Maya civilization remain controversial and historical events carved on stone monuments throughout this region provide a remarkable source of data about the rise and fall of these complex polities. Use of these records depends on correlating the Maya and European calendars so that they can be compared with climate and environmental datasets. Correlation constants can vary up to 1000 years and remain controversial. We report a series of high-resolution AMS (14)C dates on a wooden lintel collected from the Classic Period city of Tikal bearing Maya calendar dates. The radiocarbon dates were calibrated using a Bayesian statistical model and indicate that the dates were carved on the lintel between AD 658-696. This strongly supports the Goodman-Martínez-Thompson (GMT) correlation and the hypothesis that climate change played an important role in the development and demise of this complex civilization.

Temporal and spatial coexistence of archaeal and bacterial amoA genes and gene transcripts in Lake Lucerne.

Despite their crucial role in the nitrogen cycle, freshwater ecosystems are relatively rarely studied for active ammonia oxidizers (AO). This study of Lake Lucerne determined the abundance of both amoA genes and gene transcripts of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) over a period of 16 months, shedding more light on the role of both AO in a deep, alpine lake environment. At the surface, at 42 m water depth, and in the water layer immediately above the sediment, AOA generally outnumbered AOB. However, in the surface water during summer stratification, when both AO were low in abundance, AOB were more numerous than AOA. Temporal distribution patterns of AOA and AOB were comparable. Higher abundances of amoA gene transcripts were observed at the onset and end of summer stratification. In summer, archaeal amoA genes and transcripts correlated negatively with temperature and conductivity. Concentrations of ammonium and oxygen did not vary enough to explain the amoA gene and transcript dynamics. The observed herbivorous zooplankton may have caused a hidden flux of mineralized ammonium and a change in abundance of genes and transcripts. At the surface, AO might have been repressed during summer stratification due to nutrient limitation caused by active phytoplankton.

Local conditions structure unique archaeal communities in the anoxic sediments of meromictic Lake Kivu.

Meromictic Lake Kivu is renowned for its enormous quantity of methane dissolved in the hypolimnion. The methane is primarily of biological origin, and its concentration has been increasing in the past half-century. Insight into the origin of methane production in Lake Kivu has become relevant with the recent commercial extraction of methane from the hypolimnion. This study provides the first culture-independent approach to identifying the archaeal communities present in Lake Kivu sediments at the sediment-water interface. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis suggests considerable heterogeneity in the archaeal community composition at varying sample locations. This diversity reflects changes in the geochemical conditions in the sediment and the overlying water, which are an effect of local groundwater inflows. A more in-depth look at the archaeal community composition by clone library analysis revealed diverse phylogenies of Euryarchaeota and Crenarachaeota. Many of the sequences in the clone libraries belonged to globally distributed archaeal clades such as the rice cluster V and Lake Dagow sediment environmental clusters. Several of the determined clades were previously thought to be rare among freshwater sediment Archaea (e.g., sequences related to the SAGMEG-1 clade). Surprisingly, there was no observed relation of clones to known hydrogentrophic methanogens and less than 2 % of clones were related to acetoclastic methanogens. The local variability, diversity, and novelty of the archaeal community structure in Lake Kivu should be considered when making assumptions on the biogeochemical functioning of its sediments.

Contrasting temporal trends and relationships of total organic carbon, black carbon, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in rural low-altitude and remote high-altitude lakes.

Historical records of total organic carbon (TOC), black carbon (BC), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were reconstructed in dated sediment cores from four nearby lakes in central Switzerland. In the sub-Alpine Lake Thun, located at 558 m a.s.l., the proximity to anthropogenic emission sources is reflected in higher input of BC and PAHs into sediments with fluxes only slightly decreasing during the last decades. PAH/BC ratios are relatively high and correlation between levels of total PAHs and BC is almost inexistent in Lake Thun, probably due to the presence of less condensed forms of the BC spectrum (char BC) that is underestimated with the chemothermal oxidation method applied in this study. The sediment profiles of TOC, BC, and PAHs are noticeably different in the mountain lakes located around 2000 m a.s.l. In Lake Engstlen, the PAH/BC ratios, as well as the correlation between PAHs and BC, point towards appreciable amounts of predominantly light soot particles. Light soot particles have higher mobility and can, therefore, be efficiently transported to this remote site. The proglacial Lake Oberaar is shown to be a receptor of BC and PAHs released by the fast melting adjacent glacier acting as a secondary source for these conservative species temporarily stored in the glacier ice. Finally, Lake Stein is in strong contrast to all other lakes. High flux of BC into Lake Stein, combined with constant temporal evolutions of BC and PAHs, and in particular BC/TOC ratios approaching 100% are all strong indications for a geogenic presence of graphite in its catchment area.

The missing piece: sediment records in remote Mountain lakes confirm glaciers being secondary sources of persistent organic pollutants.

After atmospheric deposition and storage in the ice, glaciers are temporary reservoirs of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Recently, the hypothesis that melting glaciers represent secondary sources of these pollutants has been introduced by investigations of the historical trend of POPs in a dated sediment core from the proglacial Alpine Lake Oberaar. Here, the hypothesis is further confirmed by the comparison of sediment data gathered from two Alpine lakes with a glaciated and a nonglaciated hydrological catchment. The two lakes (Lake Engstlen and Lake Stein in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland) are situated only 8 km apart at similar altitude and in the same meteorological catchment. In the nonglacial lake sediment of Lake Engstlen, PCBs and DDT (polychlorinated biphenyls and dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane) levels culminated with the historic usage of these chemicals some 30-50 years ago. In the glacial Lake Stein, this peak was followed by a reincrease in the 1990s, which goes along with the accelerated melting of the adjacent glacier. This study confirms the hypothesis of glaciers being a secondary source of these pollutants and is in accordance with the earlier findings in Lake Oberaar.

Blast from the past: melting glaciers as a relevant source for persistent organic pollutants.

In this study, the hypothesis that melting Alpine glaciers may represent a secondary source of persistent organic chemicals is investigated. To this end, a dated sediment core from a glacier-fed lake (Lake Oberaar, Switzerland) was analyzed for a wide range of persistent organic pollutants, organochlorine pesticides, and synthetic musk fragrances. Input fluxes of all organochlorines increased in the 1950s, peaked in the 1960s-1970s, and decreased again to low levels in the 1980s-1990s. This observation reflects the emission history of these compounds and technical improvements and regulations leading to reduced emissions some decades ago. The input of synthetic musks remained at a high level in the 1950s-1990s, which is consistent with their relatively constant production throughout the second half of the 20th century. Since the late 1990s, input of all compound classes into the high-Alpine Lake Oberaar has increased sharply. Currently, input fluxes of organochlorines are similar to or even higher than in the 1960s-1970s. This second peak supports the hypothesis that there is a relevant release of persistent organic chemicals from melting Alpine glaciers. Considering ongoing global warming and accelerated massive glacier melting predicted for the future, our study indicates the potential for dire environmental impacts due to pollutants delivered into pristine mountainous areas.