Diatom-inferred climatic and environmental changes over the last ∼ 9000 years from a low Arctic (Nunavut, Canada) tundra lake

Abstract

Diatom assemblage changes over the Holocene were examined from a 14C-dated sediment core retrieved from Lake TK-2, a small low Arctic lake located ca. 200 km north of the forest–tundra ecotone in mainland Nunavut, Canada. Notable changes in the diatom assemblages were recorded throughout the core, suggesting that the Holocene epoch in this region has been environmentally and climatically dynamic. The earliest diatom assemblages (ca. 9000 cal yr BP) were dominated by taxa that are atypical of post-glacial assemblages commonly recorded throughout the Arctic, and may suggest that early Holocene conditions at Lake TK-2 were relatively warmer. A shift to dominance by small, benthic, opportunistic Fragilaria taxa followed (after ca. 8550 cal. yr BP), more typical of Arctic assemblages during initial lake ontogeny, suggesting the onset of cooler, more alkaline conditions. An abrupt and short-lived marked decrease in diatoms between ca. 8550 and 8500 cal. yr BP, with corresponding changes in physical and chemical indicators (e.g., sedimentation rate, siliciclastic content, % organic matter content), provides potential evidence for the 8.2 k cooling anomaly, an event rarely recognized from other paleolimnological studies in the Canadian north. Following ca. 7000 cal. yr BP, a substantial shift occurred to a more complex and diverse diatom assemblage that now included more acidophilic taxa. This compositional change is likely indicative of a natural, long-term loss of alkalinity in the lake, and marks the onset of the Holocene Thermal Maximum, consistent with the timing of this warm period for this region. The relatively stable diatom assemblage composition during the Neoglacial period was punctuated by fluctuations in key species potentially correlative with the so-called Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age. In the most recent sediments, the post-industrial expansion of the small, planktonic Cyclotella stelligera complex, and a concurrent decline in the heavily-silicified Aulacoseira lirata complex, are similar to shifts that are increasingly being recognized as geographically widespread diatom responses to recent climate warming. The Lake TK-2 diatom record provides important insights into the Holocene environmental history of this understudied region of the Canadian Arctic. Furthermore, it is one of the few Arctic lakes in which the 8.2 k cold event is possibly expressed.