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Sedimentation rates, residence times and radionuclide inventories in Lake Baikal from 137Cs and 210Pb in sediment cores

Nature volume 350, pages 601–604 (1991)Cite this article

Abstract

RADIONUCLIDES in lake sediments may act as indicators of the sedimentation rate of particles on which they are adsorbed; these rates in turn provide a direct indication of the residence times of particles in the water column. The radionuclide 137Cs is anthropogenic (an atomic-bomb product), so that its concentration in sediments also reveals the input history of this species and thus a record of atmospheric contamination by this nuclide in the lake's watershed. Here we report measurements of 137Cs and the natural radionuclide 210Pb in cores from several stations throughout the three basins of Lake Baikal. The results confirm earlier indirect estimates1 of the mean sedimentation rate, and show that the effective settling rate of these radionuclides is the same as that in the Great Lakes; the longer residence times for Lake Baikal are therefore simply a consequence of its greater depth. As well as allowing estimates of fluxes at the sediment–water interface2–1, our results provide information on the timing of palaeolimnological events5, on the existence of different depositional zones throughout the lake, on the long-term (decadal) diffusion of nuclides in sediments6 and for the development of mass-balance models for sediments and contaminants7–9.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Great Lakes Studies, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

    David N. Edgington & J. Val Klump

  2. Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

    John A. Robbins

  3. USSR Academy of Science Siberian Division, Limnological Institute, Irkutsk, USSR

    Yuri S. Kusner

  4. USSR Academy of Science Siberian Division, Institute of Geochemistry, Irkutsk, USSR

    Victor D. Pampura & Igor V. Sandimirov

Authors
  1. David N. Edgington
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  2. J. Val Klump
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  5. Victor D. Pampura
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  6. Igor V. Sandimirov
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Edgington, D., Klump, J., Robbins, J. et al. Sedimentation rates, residence times and radionuclide inventories in Lake Baikal from 137Cs and 210Pb in sediment cores. Nature 350, 601–604 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1038/350601a0

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