Limnogeological Reconstruction of Late Quaternary Climate and Environment of Kamchatka

Funding

BMBF (2006-2009)

 
Russian Partners

Dr. Oleg Dirksen & Dr. Veronika Dirksen
Tephra Stratigraphy & Palynology
Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the  
Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskkij, Russian Federation

Background 

In summer 2007, limnogeological field studies were carried out on Kamchatka under the umbrella of the joint Russian-German project KALMAR (Kurile-Kamchatka and Aleutian Marginal Sea-Island Arc Systems: Geodynamic and Climate Interaction in Space and Time“, which mainly deals with tectonic and volcanic processes at the active continental margin of the NW Pacific realm. Another major aspect is the palaeoenvironmental development of the region, inferred from palaeoceanography and land records. The project is funded by the BMBF. The limnogeological study takes place in the scope of subproject TP5 “Limnogeological Reconstruction of the late Quaternary Climate and Environment of Kamchatka (Diekmann & Hubberten).

The project is devoted to the inference of Holocene climate variability obtained from lake-sediment records. Through the application of a palaeolimnological multi-proxy approach on lacustrine sediment cores, insights into the changes of the Kamchatka land climate are anticipated. The research programme is based on sedimentological and geochemical data and pollen analyses, which document the variability of climate-related detrital sediment fluxes, lake-level oscillations, changes in aquatic biological productivity, as well as vegetation dynamics around the lake. Special emphasis is being put forward on the evaluation of stable-isotope signals in diatoms, which can be used as a palaeothermometer of former surface-water temperatures. Age assignments of the sediment records will be deduced from radiocarbon stratigraphy and the recognition of volcaniclastic marker beds. The field campaign took place in September 2007 at six lakes in central Kamchatka.

Outcomes

De Hoog, V., 2011: Late Holocene climate and environmental changes in Kamchatka, inferred from a subfossil chironomid record. - Diploma Thesis at University Potsdam.

Hoff, U., 2010: Freshwater diatoms as indicators for Holocene environmental and climate changes on Kamchatka, Russia. - PhD Thesis at University Potsdam.

Hoff, U., Lange-Bertalot, H., Diekmann, B. (2011). Fragilaria flexura sp. nov. (Bacillariophyceae) - A new freshwater diatom from a meso-oligotrophic mountain lake on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia. - Nova Hedwigia, 92 (3/4): 441-451.

Hoff, U., Dirksen, O., Dirksen, V., Herzschuh, U., Hubberten, H.W., Meyer, H., van den Bogaard, C., Diekmann, B. (submitted). Late Holocene diatom assemblage in a lake-sediment record of central Kamchatka, Russia. - Journal of Paleolimnology.

Dirksen, O., van den Bogaard, C., Danhara, T., Diekmann, B. (submitted). Tephrochronological investigation at Two-Yurts lake area, Kamchatka: numerous landslides and lake tsunamis and their impact to environments. - Quaternary International.