Environmental history of Taylor Valley, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica, during the late Quaternary, reconstructed by a multidisciplinary study of lake sediments

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Martin Melles
• Subject Area: Oceanography
• Term: from 2005 to 2009
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5455477

• Final Report Year: 2012

Final Report Abstract

The project “Environmental history of Taylor Valley, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica, during the late Quaternary, reconstructed by a multidisciplinary study of lake sediments” has substantially improved the present knowledge of the climatic and environmental history of coastal East Antarctica. It provided the first record of deep-water sediments from the proglacial Lake Washburn, which has occupied the Taylor Valley of the Dry Valleys during last glacial and early Holocene. This lake was known to have existed from deltaic deposits on land, however, our project provided first information on its variability with respect to hydrology, lake level and clastic sediment supply. The project faced significant problems in the dating of the postglacial sediments recovered, due to the scarcity of organic matter for radiocarbon dating, large reservoir effects, and the failure of OSL dating. However, from the comparison of the records recovered from Lakes Fryxell, Hoare, and West Lobe Bonney, quite satisfactory age models could eventually be developed, allowing to put the complex postglacial history, mainly influenced by lake-level fluctuations, into a chronstratigraphic context. Building on the project, we have continued the collaboration with our U.S. partners in the Dry Valleys. In 2010/11 a joint field campaign was conducted at Lake Vida, a small lake with a ca. 15 m thick ice cover in the Victoria Valley. The field party penetrated the ice cover and recovered first lake sediments, which are currently investigated for sedimentology, biogeochemistry and mineralogy within the framework of a Bachelor thesis at the University of Cologne. A succeeding expedition, which aims on the recovery of the entire sediment record in Lake Vida, is currently planned for the seasons 2012/13 or 2013/14.

Publications

• (2005). Glacial and postglacial sedimentation in the Fryxell basin, Taylor Valley, southern Victoria Land. „2nd Alfred Wegener Symposium“, Bremerhaven, Oct./Nov. 2005
  Wagner B., Melles M., Doran P., Pierau R., Allan P., Kenig F.
  
• (2006). Environmental history of Taylor Valley, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica, during the Late Quaternary, reconstructed by a multi-disciplinary study of lake sediments. „DFG Antragskolloquium des SPP Antarktisforschung“, Bremerhaven, March 2006
  Melles M., Wagner B. & Ortlepp S.
  
• (2006). Glacial and postglacial sedimentation in the Fryxell basin, Taylor Valley, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 241: 320-337
  Wagner B., Melles M., Doran P.T., Kenig F., Forman S.L., Pierau R., & Allan P.
  
• (2006). Late Quaternary development of the Fryxell basin, Taylor Valley, southern Victoria Land. „EGU General Assembly 2006“, Vienna, April 2006
  Wagner B., Melles M., Ortlepp S., Doran P. & Kenig F.
  
• (2006). Paleolimnology of Lake Fryxell, East Antarctica, based on a 48 kyr sediment sequence. Preliminary results. LTER All Scientists Meeting, Estes Park, CO, U.S.A, Sept. 2006
  Topinka N., Doran P.T., Kenig F., Wagner B., Scherer R. & Sjunneskog C.
  
• (2006). Seesedimente aus den Trockentälern, Antarktis: Variabilität und Potential für Klima- und Umweltrekonstruktionen. „28. Arbeitskreistreffen Polargeologie“, Würzburg, Germany, May 2006
  Ortlepp S., Melles M. & Wagner B.
  
• (2007). Late Quaternary environmental history of Antarctic Oases, re-constructed from aquatic sediment records. “Berichtskolloquium des DFG-SPP Antarktisforschung“, Febr. 2007
  Wagner B. & Melles M.
  
• (2007). Late Quaternary environmental history of Taylor Valley, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica, reconstructed by a multi-disciplinary study of lake sediments. “ISAES X”-Conference, Santa Barbara, USA, Aug. 2007
  Ortlepp S., Wagner B., Melles M., Doran P. & Kenig F.
  
• (2008). Glaziale und postglaziale Entwicklungsgeschichte des Fryxell Beckens, Taylor Tal, Antarktis. Leipziger Geowissenschaften, 19: 69-84
  Pierau R. & Wagner B.
  
• (2008). Lake Hoare sediments as archives of the Late Quaternary environmental history of Taylor Valley, Antarctica. Geo2008, Aachen, Sept./Oct. 2008
  Ortlepp S., Wagner B., Melles M., Doran P. & Kenig F.
  
• (2008). Lake sediments as archives for the reconstruction of the Late Quaternary environmental history of Taylor Valley, Southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. „23. Intern. Polartagung“, Münster, March 2008
  Ortlepp S., Wagner B., Melles M., Doran P. & Kenig F.
  
• (2008). Sediment characteristics of lakes in Taylor Valley, Southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. “SCAR/IASC IPY Open Science Conference”, St. Petersburg, Russia, July 2008
  Ortlepp S., Berg S., Wagner B., Melles M., Doran P. & Kenig F.
  
• (2009). Late Quaternary environmental history of Taylor Valley, southern Victorialand, Antarctica, reconstructed by a multidisciplinary study of lake sediments. Dissertation, University of Cologne, 95 pp.
  Ortlepp S.
  
• (2010). Palaeoenvironmental implications derived from a piston core from East Lake Bonney, Taylor Valley, Antarctica. Antarctic Science, 22: 522-530
  Wagner B., Ortlepp S., Kenig F., Doran P.T. & Melles M.
  
• (2011). The Holocene environmental history of Lake Hoare, Taylor Valley, Antarctica, reconstructed from sediment cores. Antarctic Science, 23: 1-13
  Wagner B., Ortlepp S., Doran P.T., Kenig F., Melles M. & Burkemper A.
  
• Carbon Sequestration and Release from Antarctic Lakes: Lake Vida and West Lake Bonney (McMurdo Dry Valleys). Antarctic Science
  Marion G.M., Kenig F., Murray A.E., Doran P.T., Wagner B. & Fritsen C.H.