Understanding lake ecosystem responses to natural and human stressors through the Holocene: a palaeolimnological approach

Past Life and Environments

RHUL

RHUL

Understanding how lake ecosystems respond to stressors (e.g. climate, land-use, human activity) is a priority research area in ecology. Many ecological processes within lake systems, however, occur on longer timescales (decadal to millennial) than those typically addressed in contemporary ecological studies. Sediments beneath lakes act as valuable archives of ecological information and accordingly provide a long-term perspective. Microscopic fossils preserved within these sediments, including fossil pollen, plant material, diatoms (algae) and charcoal, offer insights into how the climate and surrounding landscape has changed through time (the study of palaeoecology). My research uses these palaeoecological techniques to investigate the sensitivity of a lake in East Anglia (UK) to stressors over the past 10,000 years. The outcomes of this research will have important implications for lake management and restoration efforts whilst also providing archaeologists with a detailed environmental context for early human activity over this period.

• Martin-Puertas, C., Walsh, A.A, Blockley, S.P.E., Harding, P., Biddulph, G.E., Palmer, A., Ramisch, A., Brauer, A. (2020) The First Holocene Varve Chronology for the UK: based on the integration of varve counting, radiocarbon dating and tephrostratigraphy from Diss Mere (UK) Quaternary Geochronology DOI: https://doi.org//10.1016/j.quageo.2020.101134
• Walsh, A.A., Blockley, S.P.E., Milner, A.M., Matthews, I.P., Martin-Puertas, C. (2021) Complexities in European Holocene cryptotephra dispersal revealed in the annually laminated lake record of Diss Mere, East Anglia Quaternary Geochronology DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2021.101213
• P. Harding, C. Martin-Puertas, J. Sjolte, A.A. Walsh, R. Tjallingii, C.Langdon, S.P.E Blockley, A. Brauer, P.Langdon, A.M.Milner, R. Muscheler, M. Perez (2022) Wind regime changes in the Euro‑Atlantic region driven by Late‑Holocene Grand Solar Minima Climate Dynamics DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06388-w