Impacts of climate, tephra and land use upon Holocene landscape stability in Northwest Iceland

Leone Tinganelli; Egill Erlendsson; Sigrún Dögg Eddudóttir; Guðrún Gísladóttir

doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2018.08.025

Impacts of climate, tephra and land use upon Holocene landscape stability in Northwest Iceland

Leone Tinganelli^*, Egill Erlendsson, Sigrún Dögg Eddudóttir, Guðrún Gísladóttir

^*Corresponding author for this work

Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Climate, land use and tephra deposition are the primary drivers of environmental change in Iceland. Understanding the roles of these factors in the formation of the current Icelandic landscape requires an examination of environmental change over wide temporal and spatial scales. Using sediments from two lakes, each spanning the last 10,300 years, this study presents evidence of the effects of climate, volcanism and human settlement on the environment in the highland margin and in lowland areas in Northwest Iceland during the Holocene. The results show that sedimentary processes in the lakes have been primarily driven by the different geographical settings in lowland and highland areas. The impacts of Holocene climate change on the environment were identified in both lake records by distinct variations in both physical and chemical proxies. The lacustrine sedimentary records from Hafratjörn and Barðalækjartjörn highlight the important relationship between vegetation cover and landscape resilience to two of the most voluminous tephra deposits of the Holocene: Hekla 4 and Hekla 3. The detrimental human impact on landscape stability is marked in the lake records by an increase in minerogenic material and by elevated C/N ratios in the sediment.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	117-131
Number of pages	15
Journal	Geomorphology
Volume	322
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2018.08.025
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Authors thank Höskuldur Þorbjarnarson and Þorsteinn Jónsson for assistance in the field and Utra Mankasingh for technical support. Jessica Lynn Till is thanked for proofreading the manuscript. The Blönduvirkjun hydropower plant hosted us during fieldwork. The research was supported by the Landsvirkjun Energy Research Fund, the University of Iceland Research Fund, and the Icelandic Research Fund (grant no. 141842-051).

Funding Information:
Authors thank Höskuldur Þorbjarnarson and Þorsteinn Jónsson for assistance in the field and Utra Mankasingh for technical support. Jessica Lynn Till is thanked for proofreading the manuscript. The Blönduvirkjun hydropower plant hosted us during fieldwork. The research was supported by the Landsvirkjun Energy Research Fund, the University of Iceland Research Fund, and the Icelandic Research Fund (grant no. 141842-051 ).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier B.V.

Other keywords

Climate
Land use
Soil erosion
Tephra

Access to Document

10.1016/j.geomorph.2018.08.025

Cite this

@article{24e9a982c34f474881019ed1147e7717,

title = "Impacts of climate, tephra and land use upon Holocene landscape stability in Northwest Iceland",

abstract = "Climate, land use and tephra deposition are the primary drivers of environmental change in Iceland. Understanding the roles of these factors in the formation of the current Icelandic landscape requires an examination of environmental change over wide temporal and spatial scales. Using sediments from two lakes, each spanning the last 10,300 years, this study presents evidence of the effects of climate, volcanism and human settlement on the environment in the highland margin and in lowland areas in Northwest Iceland during the Holocene. The results show that sedimentary processes in the lakes have been primarily driven by the different geographical settings in lowland and highland areas. The impacts of Holocene climate change on the environment were identified in both lake records by distinct variations in both physical and chemical proxies. The lacustrine sedimentary records from Hafratj{\"o}rn and Bar{\dh}al{\ae}kjartj{\"o}rn highlight the important relationship between vegetation cover and landscape resilience to two of the most voluminous tephra deposits of the Holocene: Hekla 4 and Hekla 3. The detrimental human impact on landscape stability is marked in the lake records by an increase in minerogenic material and by elevated C/N ratios in the sediment.",

keywords = "Climate, Land use, Soil erosion, Tephra",

author = "Leone Tinganelli and Egill Erlendsson and Eddud{\'o}ttir, {Sigr{\'u}n D{\"o}gg} and Gu{\dh}r{\'u}n G{\'i}slad{\'o}ttir",

note = "Funding Information: Authors thank H{\"o}skuldur {\TH}orbjarnarson and {\TH}orsteinn J{\'o}nsson for assistance in the field and Utra Mankasingh for technical support. Jessica Lynn Till is thanked for proofreading the manuscript. The Bl{\"o}nduvirkjun hydropower plant hosted us during fieldwork. The research was supported by the Landsvirkjun Energy Research Fund, the University of Iceland Research Fund, and the Icelandic Research Fund (grant no. 141842-051). Funding Information: Authors thank H{\"o}skuldur {\TH}orbjarnarson and {\TH}orsteinn J{\'o}nsson for assistance in the field and Utra Mankasingh for technical support. Jessica Lynn Till is thanked for proofreading the manuscript. The Bl{\"o}nduvirkjun hydropower plant hosted us during fieldwork. The research was supported by the Landsvirkjun Energy Research Fund, the University of Iceland Research Fund, and the Icelandic Research Fund (grant no. 141842-051 ). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 Elsevier B.V.",

year = "2018",

month = dec,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1016/j.geomorph.2018.08.025",

language = "English",

volume = "322",

pages = "117--131",

journal = "Geomorphology",

issn = "0169-555X",

publisher = "Elsevier",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Impacts of climate, tephra and land use upon Holocene landscape stability in Northwest Iceland

AU - Tinganelli, Leone

AU - Erlendsson, Egill

AU - Eddudóttir, Sigrún Dögg

AU - Gísladóttir, Guðrún

N1 - Funding Information: Authors thank Höskuldur Þorbjarnarson and Þorsteinn Jónsson for assistance in the field and Utra Mankasingh for technical support. Jessica Lynn Till is thanked for proofreading the manuscript. The Blönduvirkjun hydropower plant hosted us during fieldwork. The research was supported by the Landsvirkjun Energy Research Fund, the University of Iceland Research Fund, and the Icelandic Research Fund (grant no. 141842-051). Funding Information: Authors thank Höskuldur Þorbjarnarson and Þorsteinn Jónsson for assistance in the field and Utra Mankasingh for technical support. Jessica Lynn Till is thanked for proofreading the manuscript. The Blönduvirkjun hydropower plant hosted us during fieldwork. The research was supported by the Landsvirkjun Energy Research Fund, the University of Iceland Research Fund, and the Icelandic Research Fund (grant no. 141842-051 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2018 Elsevier B.V.

PY - 2018/12/1

Y1 - 2018/12/1

N2 - Climate, land use and tephra deposition are the primary drivers of environmental change in Iceland. Understanding the roles of these factors in the formation of the current Icelandic landscape requires an examination of environmental change over wide temporal and spatial scales. Using sediments from two lakes, each spanning the last 10,300 years, this study presents evidence of the effects of climate, volcanism and human settlement on the environment in the highland margin and in lowland areas in Northwest Iceland during the Holocene. The results show that sedimentary processes in the lakes have been primarily driven by the different geographical settings in lowland and highland areas. The impacts of Holocene climate change on the environment were identified in both lake records by distinct variations in both physical and chemical proxies. The lacustrine sedimentary records from Hafratjörn and Barðalækjartjörn highlight the important relationship between vegetation cover and landscape resilience to two of the most voluminous tephra deposits of the Holocene: Hekla 4 and Hekla 3. The detrimental human impact on landscape stability is marked in the lake records by an increase in minerogenic material and by elevated C/N ratios in the sediment.

AB - Climate, land use and tephra deposition are the primary drivers of environmental change in Iceland. Understanding the roles of these factors in the formation of the current Icelandic landscape requires an examination of environmental change over wide temporal and spatial scales. Using sediments from two lakes, each spanning the last 10,300 years, this study presents evidence of the effects of climate, volcanism and human settlement on the environment in the highland margin and in lowland areas in Northwest Iceland during the Holocene. The results show that sedimentary processes in the lakes have been primarily driven by the different geographical settings in lowland and highland areas. The impacts of Holocene climate change on the environment were identified in both lake records by distinct variations in both physical and chemical proxies. The lacustrine sedimentary records from Hafratjörn and Barðalækjartjörn highlight the important relationship between vegetation cover and landscape resilience to two of the most voluminous tephra deposits of the Holocene: Hekla 4 and Hekla 3. The detrimental human impact on landscape stability is marked in the lake records by an increase in minerogenic material and by elevated C/N ratios in the sediment.

KW - Climate

KW - Land use

KW - Soil erosion

KW - Tephra

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053052412&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.geomorph.2018.08.025

DO - 10.1016/j.geomorph.2018.08.025

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85053052412

SN - 0169-555X

VL - 322

SP - 117

EP - 131

JO - Geomorphology

JF - Geomorphology

ER -

Impacts of climate, tephra and land use upon Holocene landscape stability in Northwest Iceland

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Other keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this