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| Titel |
Effects of large-scale tephra deposition on vegetation and environment:
evidence from three lakes in Northwest Iceland |
| VerfasserIn |
Sigrún Dögg Eddudóttir, Egill Erlendsson, Leone Tinganelli, Guðrún Gísladóttir |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2016
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
en
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 18 (2016) |
| Datensatznummer |
250133592
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2016-14221.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| The environment of Iceland is one of the most dynamic in the world, shaped by complex
interactions of climate and volcanic activity. The country was uninhabited until about AD 870
and therefore Icelandic paleoecological records offer a unique look at undisturbed
environments for most of the Holocene.
Using lake sediment records from three different environments in Northwest Iceland,
from highland, lowland and oceanic settings, we examine the effects of two of the largest
Holocene tephra depositions on the environment. They are the silicic Hekla 4 (c.
4200 cal. yr BP), which produced c. 9 km3 of tephra and the basaltic Saksunarvatn
tephra (c. 10,300 cal. yr BP) which dispersed >15 km3 of tephra across the North
Atlantic.
To examine whether the tephras affected vegetation communities we examine pollen and
plant macrofossils prior to, and following, both tephra falls. Lithological proxies
such as magnetic susceptibility and organic matter content provide information
about landscape stability prior to and after the events. Both tephra deposits affected
the environment. However, the magnitude of environmental change and rate of
recovery observed in the sediments is dependent on the vegetation in the vicinity of the
lakes at the time of the tephra fall, climate and the characteristics of the tephra. |
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