The sediment record of Lake Ohrid (Albania/Macedonia)

Abstract

This thesis had two primary objectives: One objective was to explore and develop applications of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIRS) for the quantification of biogeochemical properties in lake sediment; the other objective was to assess the Lake Ohrid (Albania/Macedonia) sediment record with an emphasis on tephrostratigraphy and inferences of climatic and environmental changes using a 15 m long sediment succession (core Co1202) from the north-eastern part of the lake. Studies presented in this thesis were conducted within the scope of an envisaged deep drilling campaign at Lake Ohrid and therefore represent important preliminary studies. FTIR spectra of lacustrine sediment samples were calibrated to infer concentrations of total organic carbon (TOC), total inorganic carbon (TIC), total nitrogen (TN), and biogenic silica (BSi). To test the applicability of the FTIRS technique, site-specific FTIRS calibrations and FTIRS calibrations based on a surface sediment dataset from 94 northern Swedish lakes were constructed. Both approaches demonstrated significant correlations between FTIRS-inferred and conventionally assessed biogeochemical property concentrations, ranging between R2 = 0.79 0.99 for TOC, R2 = 0.85 0.99 for TIC, R2 = 0.62 0.84 for TN, and R2 = 0.68 0.94 for BSi ...

Zsfassung in dt. und engl. Sprache