title: A seasonal cycle of terrestrial inputs in Lake Van, Turkey.
abstract: Lake Van in Turkey is the world's largest soda lake (607 km(3)). The lake's catchment area is estimated to be ∼12,500 km(2), and the terrestrial input is carried through eolian, riverine, snowmelt and anthropogenic paths. Extent and seasonality of the terrestrial inputs to the lake have not been studied, but it is essential to evaluate its environmental status and to assess the use of environmental proxies to estimate the lake's response to climate changes. This study aims to measure seasonal changes in terrestrial input of natural and anthropogenic origin as recorded by the fluxes of pollen and biomarkers of soil bacteria and vascular or higher plants, as well as petrogenic biomarkers in monthly resolved sediment traps from August 2006 to July 2007. Fluxes of pollen, soil and higher plant biomarkers seem to be related to precipitation and snowmelt in autumn and spring. In addition, dust storms, which are common during the summer months, may have resulted in long-distance transport. Anthropogenic biomarker fluxes indicate year-round petrogenic contamination although some mature biomarker fluxes are higher in summer and in late winter-spring. The relative changes between petrogenic markers indicate variations in the pollutant sources.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Edifici CN, torre C5, 4a planta, Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain. carme.huguet@uab.cat
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huguet
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fietz
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Moraleda
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Litt
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Heumann
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stockhecke
authors.forename: F S
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Anselmetti
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sturm
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000737:chemistry; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D060106:Lakes / Q000737:chemistry*; D011058:Pollen / Q000737:chemistry; D012621:Seasons; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D014421:Turkey; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical