ALBERT

Description: Thermokarst lakes in the Siberian Arctic contain sediment archives that can be used for paleoenvironmental inference. Until now, however, there has been no study from the inner Lena River Delta with a focus on diatoms. The objective of this study was to investigate how the diatom community in a thermokarst lake responded to past limnogeological changes and what specific factors drove variations in the diatom assemblage. We analysed fossil diatom species, organic content, grain-size distribution and elemental composition in a sediment core retrieved in 2009 from a shallow thermokarst lake in the Arga Complex, western Lena River Delta. The core contains a 3,000-year record of sediment accumulation. Shifts in the predominantly benthic and epiphytic diatom species composition parallel changes in sediment characteristics. Paleoenvironmental and limnogeological development, inferred from multiple biological and sedimentological variables, are discussed in the context of four diatom zones, and indicate a strong relation between changes in the diatom assemblage and thermokarst processes. We conclude that limnogeological and thermokarst processes such as lake drainage, rather than direct climate forcing, were the main factors that altered the aquatic ecosystem by influencing, for example, habitat availability, hydrochemistry, and water level.

Description: Mosses are a major component of the arctic vegetation, particularly of wetlands. We present C/N ratio, d13C and d15N data of 400 moss samples belonging to 10 species that were collected along hydrological gradients within polygonal mires located on the southern Taymyr Peninsula and the Lena River delta in northern Siberia. Additionally, n alkane patterns of six of these taxa were investigated. The aim of the study is to see whether the inter- and intra-specific differences in biochemical and isotopic signatures are indicative of habitat with particular respect to water-level. Overall, we find high variability in all investigated parameters. The C/N ratios range between 15.4 and 70.4 (median: 42.9) and show large variations at intra-specific level. However, species preferring a dry habitat (xero-mesophilic mosses) show higher C/N ratios than those preferring a wet habitat (meso-hygrophilic mosses). We assume that this mainly originates from the association of mosses from wet habitats with microorganisms which supply them with nitrogen. Furthermore, because of the stability provided by water, they do not need to invest in a sturdy stem-structure and accordingly have lower C contents in their biomass. The d13C values range between -37.0 and 22.5 per mil (median = -27.8 per mil). The d15N values range between -6.59 and +1.69 per mil (median = 2.17 per mil). We find differences in d13C and d15N signatures between both habitat types and, for some species of the meso-hygrophilic group, a significant relation between the individual habitat water-level and isotopic signature was inferred as a function of microbial symbiosis. The n alkane distribution also shows differences primarily between xero-mesophilic and meso-hygrophilic mosses, i.e. having a dominance of n-alkanes with long (n-C29, n-C31) and intermediate chain lengths (n-C25), respectively. Overall, our results reveal that biochemical and isotopic signals of certain moss taxa from polygonal wetlands are characteristic of their habitat and can thus be used in (palaeo-) environmental studies.