A 14,000-year sediment record of mercury accumulation and isotopic signatures from Lake Malaya Chabyda (Siberia)

Description

The frozen soils in Eurasia contain a lot of organic carbon and mercury. As the climate gets warmer and the soil thaws, carbon and mercury might be released into the air and water. To understand these dynamics, a study was conducted on sediment archives from a lake in Russia that go back 14,000 years. The study found that the amount of mercury in the sediment was connected to organic carbon. During a very cold period called the Younger Dryas, when the lake level was low, both mercury and carbon in the sediment were low. The lake had poor conditions for life during this time. As the climate warmed, carbon and mercury inputs increased in the sediment, especially during the early Holocene period. This suggests that more aquatic algae and plant growth traps carbon and mercury. From 4,100 years ago until now, the ratio of mercury to organic carbon kept increasing, indicating more mercury being deposited into the lake. The type of mercury in the sediment changed, showing that more of it was directly taken up by the water. This happened because of more plant growth and better trapping of mercury in the sediment. The data in this repository includes Age (BP), Hg (ng/g), HgAR (ug/m2/y), d202, D199, D200, and D201.

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