Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
The Holocene
This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
Right arrow Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Donovan, J. J.
Right arrow Articles by Grimm, E. C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Episodic struvite deposits in a Northern Great Plains flyway lake: indicators of mid-Holocene drought?

Joseph J. Donovan

Department of Geology and Geography, West Virginia University, Morgantown WV 26506-6300, USA, jdonovan{at}wvu.edu

Eric C. Grimm

Illinois State Museum, Research and Collections Center, 1011 East Ash Street, Springfield IL 62703, USA

A series of 34 layers of struvite (hydrous Mg-ammonium-phosphate) were deposited in laminated sediments of Kettle Lake, North Dakota, in the Northern Great Plains, USA. Sedimentologic, mineralogic and nitrogen isotopic evidence suggest that struvite was deposited during nutrient-enriched eutrophication events within a Mg-rich lacustrine environment. The struvite layers are dispersed between 4650 and 8700 cal. yr BP, with particularly high frequency between 8068 and 8700 cal. yr BP. The youngest struvite layer dates to 2734 cal. yr BP. Key features of the struvite-forming events were (a) relatively low water stage and consequent elevated water salinity associated with the dry mid Holocene, (b) disappearance of most lakes and wetlands in the region, and (c) focused, but brief, visitations by large populations of migratory waterfowl. The lack of more frequent occurrence of struvite is ascribed to the rarity with which this combination of conditions was achieved, in combination with difficulty of preservation for this salt. 15N isotopes in struvite (mean 7.51{per thousand}) are heavy relative to 15N in sediment and also extremely uniform over time. The isotopes are interpreted to reflect a waterfowl waste source without extensive NH4 volatilizaton. The timing of the struvite events does not closely correspond to century-scale mid-Holocene drought cycles inferred from oscillating aragonite concentrations, although there is a weak preferred occurrence in the humid phase of these cycles. Thus the struvite events are ephemeral prairie features of this generally arid period but tend not to occur at precisely the most arid intervals.

Key Words: Struvite • Northern Great Plains • limnogeology • waterfowl • prairie pothole • palaeoclimate • drought indicators • Holocene.

References

  • Adnan, A., Dastur, M., Mavinic, D.S. and Koch, F.A. 2004: Preliminary investigation into factors affecting controlled struvite crystallization at the bench scale. Journal of Environmental Engineering and Science 3, 195—202.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Ahn, Y.H. and Choi, H.C. 2004: Municipal sludge management and disposal in South Korea: status and a new sustainable approach. Water Science and Technology 50, 245—53.
  • Altinbas, M., Yangin, C. and Ozturk, I. 2002: Struvite precipitation from anaerobically treated municipal and landfill wastewaters. Water Science and Technology 46, 271—78.
  • Bernasconi, S.M., Barbieri, A. and Simona, M. 1997: Carbon and nitrogen isotope variations in sedimenting organic matter in Lake Lugano. Limnology and Oceanography 42, 1755—65.[Web of Science]
  • Boistelle, R., Abbona, F. and Lundager Madsen, H.E. 1983: On the transformation of struvite into newberyite in aqueous systems. Physics and Chemistry of Minerals 9, 216—22.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Brenner, M., Whitmore, T.J., Curtis, J.H., Hodell, D.A. and Schelske, C.L. 1999: Stable isotope ({delta}13C and {delta}15N) signatures of sedimented organic matter as indicators of historic lake trophic state. Journal of Paleolimnology 22, 205—21.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Bridge, P.J. and Robinson, B.W. 1983: Niahite; a new mineral from Malaysia. Mineralogical Magazine 47, 79—80.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Buck, C.E., Christen, J.A. and James, G.N. 1999: BCal: an on-line Bayesian radiocarbon calibration tool. Internet Archaeology 7. http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue7/buck_index.html (last accessed 19 September 2007).
  • Chung, F.H. 1975: Quantitative interpretation of X-ray diffraction patterns of mixtures. I. Matrix-flushing method for quantitative multicomponent analysis. Journal of Applied Crystallography 7, 519—25.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Cohen, L.H. and Ribbe, P.H. 1966: Magnesium phosphate mineral replacement at Mono Lake, California. American Mineralogist 51, 1755—65.[Web of Science]
  • Cooper, J.F., Jr and Dunning, G.E. 1969: Struvite found at Mono Lake. Mineral Information Service 22, 44—45.
  • Cullen, D.J. 1988: Mineralogy of nitrogenous guano on the Bounty Islands, SW Pacific Ocean. Sedimentology 35, 421—28.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Donovan, J.J. and Rose, A.L. 1994: Geochemical evolution of lacustrine brines from variable-scale groundwater circulation. Journal of Hydrology 154, 35—62.[CrossRef]
  • Donovan, J.J., Engstrom, D.R., Almendinger, J.E. and Fritz, S. 1999: Endogenic lacustrine carbonate flux as a proxy for paleorecharge; comparing the record of two evaporative groundwater-dominated lakes. Abstracts with Programs — Geological Society of America 31, 88.
  • Erskine, P.D., Bergstrom, D.M., Schmidt, S., Stewart, G.R., Tweedie, C.E. and Shaw, J.D. 1998: Subantarctic Macquarie Island — a model ecosystem for studying animal-derived nitrogen sources using 15N natural abundance. Oecologia 117, 187—93.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Ferraris, G., Fuess, H. and Joswig, W. 1986: Neutron diffraction study of MgNH4PO4.6H 2O (struvite) and survey of water molecules donating short hydrogen bonds. Acta Crystallographica, Section B: Structural Science 42, 253—58.
  • Finney, B.P., Gregory-Eaves, I., Douglas, M.S.V. and Smol, J.P. 2002: Fisheries productivity in the northeastern Pacific Ocean over the past 2,200 years. Nature 416, 729—32.[CrossRef]
  • Frank, D.A. and Evans, R.D. 1997: Effects of native grazers on grassland N cycling in Yellowstone National Park. Ecology 78, 2238—48.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Frank, D.A., Kuns, M.M. and Guido, D.R. 2002: Consumer control of grassland plant production. Ecology 83, 602—606.[Web of Science]
  • Gould, D.J. and Fletcher, M.R. 1978: Gull droppings and their effects on water quality. Water Research 12, 655—72.
  • Gregory, M.R. and Rodgers, K.A. 1989: Phosphate minerals from the Bounty Islands, South Pacific Ocean. Neues Jahrbuch fuer Mineralogie Abhandlungen 160, 117—31.
  • Grimm, E.C. 2001: Trends and palaeoecological problems in the vegetation and climate history of the Northern Great Plains, USA. Biology and Environment: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 101B, 47—64.
  • Gu, B., Schelske, C.L. and Brenner, M. 1996: Relationship between sediment and plankton isotope ratios ({delta}13C and {delta}15N) and primary productivity in Florida lakes. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 53, 875—83.
  • Hassan, K.M., Swinehart, J.B. and Spalding, R.F. 1997: Evidence for Holocene environmental change from C/N ratios, and {delta}13C and {delta}15N values in Swan Lake sediments, western Sand Hills, Nebraska. Journal of Paleolimnology 18, 121—30.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Heegaard, E., Birks, H.J.B. and Telford, R.J. 2005: Relationships between calibrated ages and depth in stratigraphical sequences: an estimation procedure by mixed-effect regression. The Holocene 15, 612—18.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • Hodell, D.A. and Schelske, C.L. 1998: Production, sedimentation, and isotopic composition of organic matter in Lake Ontario. Limnology and Oceanography 43, 200—14.[Web of Science]
  • International Center for Diffraction Data 2003: PDF-2 release 2003. Available as CD-ROM from http://www.icdd.com
  • Johnson, C.R. 1980: Mineralogy and geochemistry of Wildcat Lake, Whitman County, Washington. Unpublished M.S. Thesis, Washington State University, 131 pp.
  • Jones, R.I., King, L., Dent, M.M., Maberly, S.C. and Gibson, C.E. 2004: Nitrogen stable isotope ratios in surface sediments, epilithon and macrophytes from upland lakes with differing nutrient status. Freshwater Biology 49, 382—91.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Kameda, K., Koba, K., Hobara, S., Osono, T. and Terai, M. 2006: Pattern of natural 15N abundance in lakeside forest ecosystem affected by cormorant-derived nitrogen. Hydrobiologia 567, 69—86.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Kitchell, J.F., Schindler, D.E., Herwig, B.R., Post, D.M. and Olson, M.H. 1999: Nutrient cycling at the landscape scale: the role of diel foraging migrations by geese at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico. Limnology and Oceanography 44, 828—36.[Web of Science]
  • Köster, D., Pienitz, R., Wolfe, B.B., Barry, S., Foster, D.R. and Dixit, S.S. 2005: Paleolimnological assessment of human-induced impacts on Walden Pond (Massachusetts, USA) using diatoms and stable isotopes. Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management 8, 117—31.
  • Last, W.M. 1993: Salt dissolution features in saline lakes of the northern Great Plains, Western Canada. Geomorphology 8, 321—34.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Last, W.M., Deleqiat, J., Greengrass, K. and Sukhan, S. 2002: Re-examination of the recent history of meromictic Waldsea Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada. Sedimentary Geology 148, 147—60.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Legeros, R.Z. and Legeros, J.P. 1984: Phosphate minerals in human tissues. In Nriagu, J.O., editor, Phosphate minerals. Springer-Verlag, 351—85.
  • Lent, R.M., Lyons, W.B., Showers, W.J. and Johannesson, K.H. 1995: Late Holocene paleoclimatic and paleobiologic records from sediments of Devils Lake, North Dakota. Journal of Paleolimnology 13, 193—207.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Lind, B.B., Ban, Z. and Byden, S. 2000: Nutrient recovery from human urine by struvite crystallization with ammonia adsorption on zeolite and wollastonite. Bioresource Technology 73, 169—74.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Lind, C.B. 2003: Precipitation of phosphorus in wastewater, lakes, and animal wastes. In Saleh, A., editor, Environmental regulations-II. Proceedings of the 8—12 November 2003 conference (Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA). ASAE Publication 701P1503, 107—17.
  • Lojen, S., Ogrinc, N. and Dolenec, T. 1997: Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope fractionation in the sediment of lake Bled (Slovenia). Water, Air, and Soil Pollution 99, 315—23.
  • Manny, B.A., Johnson, W.C. and Wetzel, R.G. 1994: Nutrient additions by waterfowl to lakes and reservoirs: predicting their effects on productivity and water quality. Hydrobiologia 279, 121—32.[CrossRef]
  • Martens, C.S., Berner, R.A. and Rosenfeld, J.K. 1978: Interstitial water chemistry of anoxic Long Island Sound sediments. 2. Nutrient regeneration and phosphate removal. Limnology and Oceanography 23, 605—17.[Web of Science]
  • McFarlane, D.A., Keeler, R.C. and Mizutani, H. 1995: Ammonia volatilization in a Mexican bat cave ecosystem. Biogeochemistry 30, 1—8.
  • Meltzer, D.J. 1999: Human responses to middle Holocene (Altithermal) climates on the North American Great Plains. Quaternary Research. 52, 404—16.
  • Meyers, P.A. and Teranes, J.L. 2001: Sediment organic matter. In Last, W.M. and Smol, J.P., editors, Tracking environmental change using lake sediments. Volume 2: Physical and geochemical methods. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 239—69.
  • Minagawa, M. and Wada, E. 1984: Stepwise enrichment of 15N along food chains: further evidence and the relation between {delta}15N and animal age. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 48, 1135—40.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Mizutani, H. and Wada, E. 1988: Nitrogen and carbon isotope ratios in seabird rookeries and their ecological implications. Ecology 69, 340—49.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Mizutani, H., Kabaya, Y. and Wada, E. 1985a: Ammonia volatilization and high 15N/ 14N ratio in a penguin rookery in Antarctica. Geochemical Journal 19, 323—27.[Web of Science]
  • ——— 1985b: High-performance liquid chromatographic isolation of uric acid from soil for isotopic determination. Journal of Chromatography 331, 371—81.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Münch, E.V. and Barr, K. 2001: Controlled struvite crystallisation for removing phosphorus from anaerobic digester sidestreams. Water Research 35, 151—59.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Ohlinger, K.N., Young, T.M. and Schroeder, E.D. 1999: Kinetics effects on preferential struvite accumulation in wastewater. Journal of Environmental Engineering 125, 730—37.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Post, D.M. 2002: Using stable isotopes to estimate trophic position: models, methods, and assumptions. Ecology 83, 703—18.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Reimer, P.J., Baillie, M.G.L., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Bertrand, C.J.H., Blackwell, P.G., Buck, C.E., Burr, G.S., Cutler, K.B., Damon, P.E., Edwards, R.L., Fairbanks, R.G., Friedrich, M., Guilderson, T.P., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kromer, B., McCormac, G., Manning, S., Ramsey, C.B., Reimer, R.W., Remmele, S., Southon, J.R., Stuiver, M., Talamo, S., Taylor, F.W., van der Plicht, J. and Weyhenmeyer, C.E. 2004: INTCAL04 terrestrial radiocarbon age calibration, 0—26 cal kyr BP. Radiocarbon 46, 1029—58.[Web of Science]
  • Schiffman, P. 1998: Mineralogical investigation of an enterolith from a Grant's zebra. Environmental Geochemistry and Health 20, 103—12.
  • Schmidt, S., Dennison, W.C., Moss, G.J. and Stewart, G.R. 2004: Nitrogen ecophysiology of Heron Island, a subtropical coral cay of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Functional Plant Biology 31, 517—28.
  • Shapley, M.D., Ito, E. and Donovan, J.J. 2005: Authigenic calcium carbonate flux in groundwater-controlled lakes; implications for lacustrine paleoclimate records. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 69, 2517—33.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Sievers, D.M. 1997: Potential reduction of struvite formation from anaerobic swine lagoon effluent by treatment in constructed wetlands. Transactions of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers 40, 803—805.
  • Smith, A.J., Donovan, J.J., Ito, E., Engstrom, D.R. and Panek, V.A. 2002: Climate-driven hydrologic transients in lake sediment records; multiproxy record of mid-Holocene drought. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 625—46.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Sperrin, M.W. and Rogers, K. 1998: The architecture and composition of uroliths. British Journal of Urology 82, 781—84.[Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Talbot, M.R. 2001: Nitrogen isotopes in palaeolimnology. In Last, W.M. and Smol, J.P., editors, Tracking environmental change using lake sediments. Volume 2: Physical and geochemical methods. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 401—39.
  • Talbot, M.R. and Johannessen, T. 1992: A high resolution palaeoclimatic record for the last 27,500 years in tropical West Africa from the carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition of lacustrine organic matter. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 110, 23—37.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Tatur, A., Myrcha, A. and Niegodzisz, J. 1997: Formation of abandoned penguin rookery ecosystems in the maritime Antarctic. Polar Biology 17, 405—17.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Teranes, J.L. and Bernasconi, S.M. 2000: The record of nitrate utilization and productivity limitation provided by {delta}15N values in lake organic matter — a study of sediment trap and core sediments from Baldeggersee, Switzerland. Limnology and Oceanography 45, 801—13.[Web of Science]
  • Udert, K.M., Larsen, T.A. and Gujer, W. 2003: Biologically induced precipitation in urine-collecting systems. Water Science and Technology: Water Supply 3, 71—78.
  • Valero-Garces, B.L., Laird, K.R., Fritz, S.C., Kelts, K., Ito, E. and Grimm, E.C. 1997: Holocene climate in the Northern Great Plains inferred from sediment stratigraphy, stable isotopes, carbonate geochemistry, diatoms, and pollen at Moon Lake, North Dakota. Quaternary Research 48, 359—69.
  • Vanderklift, M.A. and Ponsard, S. 2003: Sources of variation in consumer-diet {delta}15N enrichment: a meta-analysis. Oecologia 136, 169—82.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Weaver, D.M. and Ritchie, G.S.P. 1994: Phosphorus leaching in soils amended with piggery effluent or lime residues from effluent treatment. Environmental Pollution 84, 227—35.[CrossRef][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Wilsenach, J.A., Maurer, M., Larsen, T.A. and Van Loosdrecht, M.C.M. 2003: From waste treatment to integrated resource management. Water Science and Technology 48, 1—9.
  • Wright, H.E., Jr 1967: A square-rod piston sampler for lake sediments. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 37, 975—76.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

The Holocene, Vol. 17, No. 8, 1155-1169 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0959683607082556
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?



This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
Right arrow Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Donovan, J. J.
Right arrow Articles by Grimm, E. C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?