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Holocene Closure of Lib Pond, Marshall Islands

Well-preserved sediment from closed water bodies of atolls such as Lib Pond are rare opportunities to reconstruct the past regional climate, which pieced together across a latitude and longitude range identify the range of movement patterns of wider scale climate phenomena such as the Intertropical...

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Autores principales: Myhrvold, Conor L., Janny, Fran, Nelson, Daniel, Ladd, S. Nemiah, Atwood, Alyssa, Sachs, Julian P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3956464/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24638020
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0090939
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author Myhrvold, Conor L.
Janny, Fran
Nelson, Daniel
Ladd, S. Nemiah
Atwood, Alyssa
Sachs, Julian P.
author_facet Myhrvold, Conor L.
Janny, Fran
Nelson, Daniel
Ladd, S. Nemiah
Atwood, Alyssa
Sachs, Julian P.
author_sort Myhrvold, Conor L.
collection PubMed
description Well-preserved sediment from closed water bodies of atolls such as Lib Pond are rare opportunities to reconstruct the past regional climate, which pieced together across a latitude and longitude range identify the range of movement patterns of wider scale climate phenomena such as the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). We conducted the first physico-chemical survey of Lib Pond, a shallow, closed-water saline lake located on remote and difficult to access Lib Island in the Marshall Islands at 8° 18′ 48.99″ N, 167 22′ 51.90″ E in the Pacific Ocean, in July 2009. We performed a bathymetric survey, recorded salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, and temperature profiles, monitored the tidal variability, and conducted a vegetation survey surrounding the lake. From bathymetric data we calculated the lake volume, which we used to estimate the lake's salt budget, and ultimately the residence time of water in the lake basin. We took a series of sediment cores from the lake, cores which indicate Lib Island's changing environment and climate. Radiocarbon measurements determined sediment age, and reveal significant mixing over the last 2 ka of deposition. We conclude that prior to 3 ka, Lib Island was an atoll with a central lagoon connected to the open ocean, which was then closed off from the open ocean to form the brackish system that exists today. We predict that the sediment accumulation in Lib Pond evident today will continue. As seawater is inhibited from exchanging with fresh water, Lib Pond will become a shallower lake with increasingly fresh water.
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spelling pubmed-39564642014-03-18 Holocene Closure of Lib Pond, Marshall Islands Myhrvold, Conor L. Janny, Fran Nelson, Daniel Ladd, S. Nemiah Atwood, Alyssa Sachs, Julian P. PLoS One Research Article Well-preserved sediment from closed water bodies of atolls such as Lib Pond are rare opportunities to reconstruct the past regional climate, which pieced together across a latitude and longitude range identify the range of movement patterns of wider scale climate phenomena such as the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). We conducted the first physico-chemical survey of Lib Pond, a shallow, closed-water saline lake located on remote and difficult to access Lib Island in the Marshall Islands at 8° 18′ 48.99″ N, 167 22′ 51.90″ E in the Pacific Ocean, in July 2009. We performed a bathymetric survey, recorded salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, and temperature profiles, monitored the tidal variability, and conducted a vegetation survey surrounding the lake. From bathymetric data we calculated the lake volume, which we used to estimate the lake's salt budget, and ultimately the residence time of water in the lake basin. We took a series of sediment cores from the lake, cores which indicate Lib Island's changing environment and climate. Radiocarbon measurements determined sediment age, and reveal significant mixing over the last 2 ka of deposition. We conclude that prior to 3 ka, Lib Island was an atoll with a central lagoon connected to the open ocean, which was then closed off from the open ocean to form the brackish system that exists today. We predict that the sediment accumulation in Lib Pond evident today will continue. As seawater is inhibited from exchanging with fresh water, Lib Pond will become a shallower lake with increasingly fresh water. Public Library of Science 2014-03-17 /pmc/articles/PMC3956464/ /pubmed/24638020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0090939 Text en © 2014 Myhrvold et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Myhrvold, Conor L.
Janny, Fran
Nelson, Daniel
Ladd, S. Nemiah
Atwood, Alyssa
Sachs, Julian P.
Holocene Closure of Lib Pond, Marshall Islands
title Holocene Closure of Lib Pond, Marshall Islands
title_full Holocene Closure of Lib Pond, Marshall Islands
title_fullStr Holocene Closure of Lib Pond, Marshall Islands
title_full_unstemmed Holocene Closure of Lib Pond, Marshall Islands
title_short Holocene Closure of Lib Pond, Marshall Islands
title_sort holocene closure of lib pond, marshall islands
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3956464/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24638020
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0090939
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