In addition to our scientific focus on climatic and environmental change, LRC researchers study human impacts and geological processes as recorded in lake sediments, and conduct basic research on new and established environmental proxies. As part of our mandate as the National Lacustrine Core Repository and Core Analysis Facility (LacCore), we work to develop standardized protocols and new techniques, and provide support at all stages of lake sediment research. Below is a link to the complete list of LRC publications from almost 50 years of work, and a list of some of our current research projects.
LRC Bibliography (PDF): List of 621 publications by LRC faculty, staff, researchers, and students, dating from 1964 to 2004. 2006 revision coming soon.
Research Projects
BIOLIM: Biodiversity changes in lakes derived both from sediment analyses and in-lake limnological monitoring - case studies in selected European lakes. Funded by the European Union- Network of Excellence ALTERNet. Participants: CSIC (Spain), HBI-CAS (Czech Republic) and Bucarest University (Romania)
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BMW (Braunschweig-Minnesota Waubay project): Cyclic Holocene aridity patterns in northeastern South Dakota using magnetic parameters, grain size, ostracodes, diatoms, and stable isotopes. (Antje Schwalb [U. Braunschweig]; Christoph Geiss [Trinity College]; Walt Dean [USGS]; Amy Myrbo; Mark Shapley)
Calibrating fossil pollen to interpret a landscape scale vegetation mosaic: We are developing tools to interpret vegetation heterogeneity on the scale of tens of km using Public Land Survey vegetation data and pre-Ambrosia rise pollen assemblages from small, deep lakes in northwestern Wisconsin. (Randy Calcote, Sara Hotchkiss [University of Wisconsin, Madison], Beth Lynch [Biology Department, Luther College])
CALIBRE: Rapid climate changes in the Iberian Peninsula based on the calibration of proxies, long-term instrumental series and high-resolution analyses from lacustrine sediments. This project is coordinated with other three groups that are focused on marine cores, speleothems and climate modeling, respectively. Funded by the Spanish Government (CICYT projects). B. Valero-Garcés, F. Martínez-Ruíz, M. Jiménez-Sánchez, M. Brunet.
Campbell Lake: Reconstruction of isotopic, geochemical, and ecological lake response to drainage by ditching in early 20th century. (Sara Mueller, Amy Myrbo, Laura Triplett, Rebecca Clotts, Jim Russell, Mark Shapley)
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Carbon-13 in Small Hardwater Lakes: Water-column measurements of δ13C of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in small lakes in Minnesota and Montana show that the "textbook" model of DIC-δ13C behavior is frequently inadequate. In addition to the widely-recognized photosynthesis/respiration control on δ13C, stratification, microbial processes, and carbonate mineral equilibria play important roles. (Amy Myrbo and Mark Shapley)
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CLIBER project aims to reconstruct the climatic variability of the Iberian Peninsula since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) from high-resolution marine and lacustrine archives. The scientific strategy is based in a multidisciplinary analysis including physical, sedimentological, chemical, mineralogical and biological techniques. Funded by the Spanish Government (CICYT projects). B. Valero-Garcés, F. Martínez-Ruíz.
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Climate and Landscape change in Mongolia's Valley of the Great Lakes: By developing a diatom-based transfer function and applying the results to dated sediment cores from small inland lakes, a history of changes in precipitation balance, land use, and human impacts on the landscape is being developed for this Central Asian region. (Avery Cook Shinneman, Emi Ito, Mark Edlund [SCWRS])
Climate, water chemistry and lake level changes in north-central Wisconsin: We are measuring the relative response to climate change and land-use history of lakes in different positions in the hydrologic gradient. (R. Calcote, Sara Hotchkiss & Jim Rusak [U Wisconsin, Madison], Jasmine Saros [U. Wisconsin, LaCrosse])
Coontail Banding: Study of a commonly-observed lithological phenomenon showing centi- to decimeter scale alternation of light (carbonate-rich) and dark (carbonate-poor) bands. The balance between authigenic carbonate precipitation and dissolution appears to drive these cycles, and so research focuses on water column geochemistry, redox, and dissolution textures of mineral grains; new data from high-resolution x-ray fluorescence elemental core scanning and L*a*b* color analysis of digital images provides a new level of detail, especially in varved lake sequences. (Amy Myrbo, Mark Shapley, Ioan Lascu, Stella Dawson [Eckerd College], Chad Wittkop [U. Wisconsin-Eau Claire], Walt Dean [USGS], Jane Teranes [Scripps].)
"Ecological Surprises" during a Multi-Century Drought in Minnesota: The interactions between climate and disturbance (e.g, wind storms, fires) on vegetation patterns require investigation, especially because future vegetation responses to climate change will be mediated by human-induced disturbances (land use) - and may produce surprising results. The development of Minnesota's Big Woods, an "island" of forest amid areas of prairie, acts as an interesting example from the past. Lake sediment cores and radar profiles from small lakes in central Minnesota indicate that the shorelines of lakes in the region fell about 1300 AD when the region transitioned from open oak savannas to dense deciduous forests. Did dry conditions trigger a counter-intuitive ecological response - possibility through effects on prairie fires? Studies of lake cores and with ecological models will examine Minnesota's regional eco-climatological history to improve our understanding of how climate change shapes regional vegetation patterns. (Bryan Shuman)
GNP: Holocene record of glacial erosion in Grinnell Glacier valley, Glacier National Park, based on mineralogy and lithology of sediment cores from two lakes in the drainage. (Kelly MacGregor and Krista Jankowski [Macalester College], Catherine Riihimaki [Bryn Mawr College], Amy Myrbo, Mark Shapley, Anders Noren)
Heavy Metal Contamination in the St. Croix River: Examination of heavy metal concentrations and fluxes in multiple sediment cores shows spatial and temporal variability through Lake St. Croix, a large riverine lake at the terminus of the St. Croix River. (Laura Triplett, Steve Balogh [MCES] and Dan Engstrom [SCWRS])
Holocene hydroclimatic history of the Northern Rocky Mountains: This research examines stable isotope geochemistry, mineralogy, and palynology of sediments from lakes in the Ovando Valley, Montana. Results elucidate the timing and spectral character of Holocene environmental change at decadal resolution in an intermontane setting. (Mark Shapley, Emi Ito, Joe Donovan [West Virginia University], Eric Grimm [Illinois State Museum])
The Holocene Moisture History of the American West: Water is a vital resource in the American West. Water affects vegetation, wildfire regimes, animal populations, and human society, and the availability of water changes constantly because of climatic factors. Future conditions, like those of the past, will deviate from modern norms. Yet, we know little about the potential for change beyond that experienced in recent centuries. Past changes in the levels of lakes can reveal the range of moisture variation that has occurred over multiple centuries and millennia. This study is examining lakes in the Rocky Mountains where most water flowing to rivers and reservoirs in the western United States - and the Mississippi River drainage - originates as snow. Through comparison with vegetation and fire history, archeological data, and lakes in other regions, the results will demonstrate patterns of climatic variation and attendant impacts on landscapes and societies. (Bryan Shuman)
Hydrology and Climate Record: Using stable isotopes of H, C and O, we are investigating how the differences in hydrologic budget of lakes (residence time, groundwater inflow an outflow) affect how lakes respond to modern climate variations. We are focusing our attention on pairs of lakes with contrasting hydrologic budgets located in otherwise identical settings. Sediment cores from these lakes are then studied to investigate how changes in hydrologic budget affect proxy records. (Emi Ito, Joe Donovan [University of West Virginia], Mark Shapley [University of Alaska, Fairbanks], and graduate and undergraduate students).
IBERABRUPT: Correlation of Iberian lakes and speleothems from Northern Iberian Peninsula (Cantabrian and Pyrenees mountains) in order to infer climatic and environmental variations for the last millennia, with special focus on abrupt climate changes and timing of deglaciation processes. Funded by the European Community through a postdoctoral fellowship to A. Moreno (Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship). A. Moreno, B. Valero-Garcés, E. Ito, L. Edwards.
Initial Core Description (ICD): Continuing development and refinement of protocols for the part of core analysis that occurs prior to sampling. ICD includes multisensor core logging, digital imaging, and macro- and microscopic lithological description. The lab and repository staff's work with hundreds of researchers, on all scales of projects, both drives us to improve and streamline these methods and allows us to tailor them to the needs of individual researchers and their sediment types. We offer free or low-cost on-demand training in ICD, and are integrating our existing online procedures into a virtual ICD short course. (Amy Myrbo, Anders Noren, Kristina Brady, and the LacCore user community)
Integration of ostracode geochemistry and tree-ring climate histories from the late Holocene Waubay Lakes complex, South Dakota: In this research, upland climate and lake salinity history in the Northern Great Plains are linked through high-resolution analysis of pin oak (Quercus macrocarpa) growth rates and ostracode (Candona rawsoni) shell Mg:Ca. (Mark Shapley, Carter Johnson [South Dakota State University], Dan Engstrom [SCWRS] and Waite Osterkamp [USGS])
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Lake Itasca Holocene Record: Examining the impact basin morphology has on how diatoms record climate change by comparing the early and mid Holocene diatom record from Elk Lake, Clearwater County, to nearby Lake Itasca in north-central Minnesota. (Kristina Brady, Mark Edlund, Emi Ito)
Landscape paleoecology of northwestern Wisconsin: Does the distribution of "natural vegetation" described by Public Land Survey data of the mid-1800s represent a stable vegetation mosaic? We are analyzing fossil pollen and charcoal from a dozen small, deep lakes as a record of a changing landscape over several thousand years. (Randy Calcote, Sara Hotchkiss [Botany Department, U. Wisconsin], Elizabeth A. Lynch [Biology Dept, Luther College]).
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LAVOLTER: In the framework of this project we will address the study of two lakes from the Altiplano of Northern Chile (Chungará and Surire) and three lakes from Easter Island, with the main objective of discriminating and evaluating the climatic signatures (mainly those related to ENSO variability) versus those related to volcanic and geothermal activity in the area. Funded by the Spanish Government (CICYT projects). S. Giralt, B. Valero-Garcés.
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Miss Carbon: Comparative study of carbon cycling and its sedimentary record in a pair of small Minnesota lakes. (Amy Myrbo, Walt Dean [USGS])
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Modeling geochemistry and isotope hydrology of groundwater-influenced lakes in western Montana. This research entails mineral equilibrium and isotope-balance modeling of lake-groundwater-climate interactions, based on field research in Montana’s Blackfoot River basin. The result is an improved framework for the interpretation of paleohydrologic signals extracted from groundwater-influenced lake systems. (Mark Shapley, Emi Ito, Joe Donovan [West Virginia University])
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Mongolia: Modern lakes in the western Mongolia and selected lake sediments are being studied to investigate the hydrochemical niches of various ostracodes to construct a training set and to apply this to reconstruct hydrochemical changes and thus the Holocene changes in hydrologic balance ~ climate of the region. Effect of ionic composition and ratios on presence/absence of specific species is emphasized. Other proxies such as sediment lithology and mineralogy and ostracode shell chemistry will be used to support the ostracode species assemblage data. (Emi Ito, Koen Martens [Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences], Dirk Verschuren [University of Ghent, Belgium], and a graduate student).
Multi-Century Droughts in New England during the Past 11,000 Years: Hydrologic variability poses significant challenges to society. However, the potential for hydrologic change remains poorly understood. Sedimentary patterns within small lakes record past changes in water levels and can be used to track shifts in moisture availability over time. This NSF-funded study, conducted in collaboration with researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and Brown, proposes to assess hydrologic variability at the scale of millennia and centuries over the past 11,000 years in Massachusetts, where existing lake sedimentary data appear to indicate significant changes in the frequency of past droughts. The creation, analysis, and synthesis of new, well-resolved sedimentary data, in combination with detailed fossil pollen data, will enable us to evaluate sub-millennial hydrologic variability, its controls, and its effects. (Bryan Shuman)
Non-marine ostracodes and hydrochemistry: Using regular monitoring and one-time sampling of many lakes, springs and wetlands, the hydrochemical niches and the relation among hydrochemistry and shell size, morphology, and chemistry of several non-marine ostracodes are being investigated. (Emi Ito, Francesc Mezquita [University of Valencia, Spain], and graduate students)
Qaidam Basin: This pilot study is investigates paired chemically-contrasting lakes (fresh and saline) in the arid northeastern Tibetan Plateau (near the northern limit of the East Asian monsoon) to study the water isotopic and elemental evolution, and the interactions of environmental change and lacustrine geochemical processes. We use a multidisciplinary approach to investigate at regional and watershed scales, the modern processes in these two lakes, history of solute and water flux from mineralogy and chemical and isotopic composition of authigenic and biogenic minerals, and from species assemblage of ostracodes and the history of climate and environmental change from such records of landscape processes as pollen, plant macrofossils, and environmental magnetism. (Emi Ito, Zicheng Yu [Lehigh University], Fahu Chen and Yan Zhao [Lanzhou University, PRC], and graduate students)
Sediment Trap Deposition: Investigation of seasonal variations in lake water chemistry and sediment composition in three Minnesota varved lakes. The focus of this study is on factors that control the geochemistry and magnetic properties of sediments collected in sediment traps on a seasonal basis, and their relationship with the sedimentary record. (Ioan Lascu, Emi Ito, Subir Banerjee)
Silica in Large Rivers: A study of the effects of eutrophication on silica cycling and trapping in large rivers, as seen in two large impoundments in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (Lake St. Croix and Lake Pepin, MN and WI). (Laura Triplett, Dan Engstrom [SCWRS] and Scott Schellhaass [Metropolitan Council Environmental Services])
Smear slides: An integral part of initial core description (ICD), smear slides provide a low-cost, semi-quantitative view of sediment composition including mineralogy, grain size, and biotic components. LRC LacCore Facility staff routinely train visiting scientists in smear slide analysis, and are expanding an existing online smear slide library into a tutorial so that more scientists will feel comfortable using this powerful technique. We plan a workshop in 2007, for which we will invite the world's experts in lacustrine smear slide mineralogy with the purpose of producing a manuscript and associated online smear slide analysis and identification tools. (Amy Myrbo, Mark Shapley, Jim Russell [Brown University], Doug Schnurrenberger, Mike Talbot [U. Bergen, Norway], Tom Johnson [UM Duluth], Daniel Ariztegui [University of Geneva], others)
Surface-Atmosphere Feedbacks and Holocene Climate Variations: Computer climate models provide a unique view of the dynamics that may have shaped past climates, but have often produced inconsistent projections of both past and future moisture changes. New reconstructions of seasonal- moisture levels for the United States 6000 years ago, generated as part of a collaborative NSF-funded project with researchers at Wisconsin, Purdue, and Oregon, provide a useful test of the models. New continental-scale climate model simulations capture many of the reconstructed patterns well, and provide a useful mechanism for to evaluating the causes of intense aridity in the mid-continent during the mid-Holocene. (Bryan Shuman)
Urban Lake McCarrons: Investigation of the long-term context of cultural eutrophication and remediation efforts in a small lake in a first-ring suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. The varved sediments provide a high-resolution record that permits testing of assumptions about δ13C behavior under changing hydrological and productivity conditions. (Amy Myrbo)
VILLARQUEMADO: Study of a 73 m long core from a tectonic basin in the Iberian Range (NE Spain) to reconstruct recurrence time for fault activity and the hydrological and climate history of the Iberian Range during the last 200 ka. Funded by the Aragon government (DGA projects). B. Valero-Garcés, A. Moreno, P. González-Sampériz.
A Whole-Lake Stratigraphic Record of Sediment and Phosphorus Loading to Lake St. Croix, USA: M.S. Thesis, 2004. (Laura Triplett)
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updated 10/23/06