Palaeoenvironmental significance of holocene lake-level fluctuations in Shropshire

Abstract

Studies relating geomorphological features to lake level fluctuations reach back into the nineteenth century. It is only relatively recently, however, that sedimentary characteristics have been examined for indications of lake level changes. Temperate lakes have been studied for changes in water level as part of the IGCP Project 158, Palaeohydrology of the temperate zone, and climatic changes during the Holocene inferred from these results. Lake level fluctuation studies on lakes in southern Sweden indicate periods of lowered water level thought to be due to palaeoclimatic change around 9000BP and 500BP. These studies are based on results obtained from a combination of three major analyses, namely sediment limit reconstruction, particle size analysis and macrofossil analysis.

No lake level fluctuation studies have been done on lowland eutrophic lakes in Great Britain and it has been suggested that as Britain experiences greater oceanicity of climate than Sweden, any climatic changes would not be sufficient to be recorded in the sediment. This study aims to test this hypothesis by analysis of sediment from Crose Mere and Fenemere, two meres situated on the Shropshire Plain. The results obtained indicate that four periods of lowered water level have been recorded in the sediments of Crose Mere since the lateglacial, these occurring around 9100BP, 3700BP, 1800BP and 1800AD. The first two fluctuations correlate well with results from studies on lakes and mires in the Shropshire region suggesting that palaeoclimatic change was the primary factor involved.

The two later episodes appear to be more localised and are probably linked to anthropogenic disturbance. Such lake level lowerings are not, however, recorded in Fenemere and possible reasons for this difference between two sites only 10km apart are discussed together with alternative explanations for the fluctuation of lake levels.

More information

Identifiers

Catalogue record

Export record

ASCII CitationAtomBibTeXData Cite XMLDublin CoreDublin CoreEP3 XMLEndNoteHTML CitationHTML CitationHTML ListJSONMETSMODSMPEG-21 DIDLOpenURL ContextObjectOpenURL ContextObject in SpanRDF+N-TriplesRDF+N3RDF+XMLRIOXX2 XMLReferReference ManagerSimple Metadata