Diatom succession related to land use during the last 6000 years: a study of a small eutrophic lake in southern Sweden

Abstract

Diatoms, pollen, physical and magnetic analyses of the sediments have been used to reconstruct the development over the last 6000 years of Lake Bussjosjon, a small lake in southern Sweden. Stratigraphic variations in a core of more than 15 m reveal changes in diatom assemblages, which correspond closely to changes in pollen, loss-on-ignition, and magnetic measurements that are related to land use and vegetation changes in the catchment. From ca 6000 BP to 2700 BP, a forest surrounded what was then a slightly eutrophic lake. The sudden appearance of Cyclostephanos dubius (Fricke) Round and several epiphytic/epipsammic diatoms at 2700 BP coincides with deforestation of the catchment (2700 BP to 2500 BP). A change in land use from predominantly pasture to arable land from 1300 BP to 1100 BP caused a high level of soil erosion with a decrease of C. dubius and the increase of Stephanodiscus species. An increase of epiphytic/epipsammic species coincides with increased arable farming and the change from a field-rotation to a crop-rotation system, and shows not only an increase in eutrophication but also changes in water depth. The influence of the catchment through time resulted in a smaller, shallower and eutrophic to hypertrophic lake.