Abstract
The Early and Middle Flandrian geological development and paleolimnology of Lake Spitaalijärvi was studied using pollen, diatom and cladoceran analysis and 14C dating. Spitaalijärvi was isolated from the Ancylus Lake about 9000 B.P., at which time birch and pine and plants typical of open habitat communities grew on the solitary island. The rational limits for Alnus and Picea were ca. 8300 B.P. and 3700 B.P., respectively. During the first few hundred years after isolation Spitaalijärvi was probably fairly eutrophic, with a low water level. Water level began to rise before the Alnus rise (A°) and the lake became oligotrophic. After another transgression, which started before the Picea rise (P°), Tabellaria binalis and Semiorbis hemicyclus appear in the diatom stratigraphy indicating ultra-oligotrophic conditions.
The main reason for the ultra-oligotrophy of Lake Spitaalijärvi is the character of the parent material in the catchment, consisting of glacial and littoral deposits derived from the local quartz sandstone of highly siliceous nature.
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Salomaa, R., Alhonen, P. Biostratigraphy of Lake Spitaalijärvi: an ultraoligotrophic small lake in Lauhanvuori, western Finland. Hydrobiologia 103, 295–301 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00028469
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00028469