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Annual-scale environmental and ecosystem changes since the mid-19th century were reconstructed in a seasonally frozen lagoon, Lake Mokoto, located along the Okhotsk Sea coast of Hokkaido, northern Japan. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and diatom analyses of laminated sediment were conducted to determine the impact of short-term climate oscillations and anthropogenic eutrophication on the lagoon ecosystem. In this lagoon, eutrophication has progressed since the early 20th century due to deforestation and human activity in the catchment area, such as development of the cattle industry and field agriculture. In particular, the sedimentation rate of Lake Mokoto and potassium and phosphorus contents of lake sediment have increased rapidly since 1970, in association with an increase in the number of cattle. In addition, the Lake Mokoto ecosystem shows interannual and decadal cyclic fluctuations that are separate from the anthropogenic effects. Prior to anthropogenic eutrophication, the nutrient condition of Lake Mokoto showed a close relationship with the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO). The growth of seagrass, inferred from epiphytic diatom abundance, showed a clear decadal cycle following variation in solar irradiance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Diatom fossils from core sediments and living diatoms from water samples of Notoro Lagoon in northern Japan were examined to evaluate natural climate effects on lagoon environmental changes. In 1974, the artificial inlet was excavated. Immediately after, the anoxic bottom water in Notoro Lagoon began to disappear due to an increasing water exchange rate. However, chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the bottom water of Notoro Lagoon gradually increased, with fluctuations, during the last 30 years. In addition, the dominant diatom assemblages in Notoro Lagoon shifted to ice-related and spring bloom taxa after the excavation. The dominant taxa of each year in the sediment core were also strongly related to the timing of lagoon ice melting. This is because the COD in Notoro Lagoon was affected by the deposited volume of blooming diatoms, which was controlled by the duration of ice cover and the timing of ice discharge to the Okhotsk Sea likely due to an air pressure pattern change over the northern North Pacific like the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Paleoenvironment and paleoclimate changes during the Little Ice Age (LIA) were investigated using sediments from Lake Hamana. This lagoon in central Japan is under a complicated climate system influenced by the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM), East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM), and strong typhoon events. Diatom assemblages and chemical components of a 1.3 m sediment core suggest historical events of rapid salination and cyclical ecosystem shifts accompanied by monsoon condition changes. Most research has indicated that Lake Hamana changed from a freshwater lake to a brackish lagoon because of the Meio earthquake in 1498 CE. However, based on results from the diatom assemblage and chemical components, this salination occurred because of changes in the Hamana paleoriver flow, and this change happened before the earthquake, around the mid-15th century. Furthermore, it is clear that Lake Hamana was an oligohaline lagoon before salination. The lithology of the lake sediments and the diatom assemblage changed during the LIA; sand, water, and total diatom contents decreased. However, the relative abundance of marine diatom taxa increased during the LIA. These changes were introduced by a weakening EASM coupled with low precipitation under low solar activity during the LIA. Several flood events represented by freshwater diatom taxa and magnetic susceptibility peaks co-occurred with strong El Niño events during the LIA. It is inferred that this strong El Niño during the LIA induced frequent typhoons causing floods in central Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To detect long-term change in the reservoir effect of the eastern coast of Korea, we measured the radiocarbon ages of terrestrial plant and marine shell pairs from the same horizons from approximately 12 m of Holocene sediments under reclaimed land around the Mae-ho Lagoon. The lagoon sediment was examined for lithology, and sedimentary structures, as well as mollusk and diatom assemblages. From bottom to top the sediment comprised three units: transgressive lagoon, restricted lagoon, and delta. The offset in the radiocarbon age of nine pairs were also divided into three stages: 300 ± 90 to 410 ± 120 years (transgressive lagoon sediment in 7350–5800 cal BP), 640 ± 150 to 800 ± 150 years (restricted lagoon sediment in 4320–1600 cal BP), and 120 ± 140 to 330 ± 100 years (deltaic sediment in 1200–390 cal BP). The reservoir ages (R) in the sediments of transgressive lagoon and the restricted lagoon include the variation associated with dietary of shells, herbivorous and deposit-feeding, respectively. The R values in the deltaic lagoon sediment were the most representative of those in the Mae-ho Lagoon because they were obtained from the shells of a filter-feeding taxon, Potamocorbula amurensis , in the most recent sediment. These values from the deltaic lagoon sediment are also consistent with previously reported modern reservoir ages from the Korean Peninsula and Peter the Great Gulf around Vladivostok. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]