EGU22-6605
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6605
EGU General Assembly 2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

The Bassa Nera pond (Central Pyrenees), a potential sentinel of climatic changes over the last 15,000 years.

Arnau Blasco1, Miguel Angel Calero2, Valentí Rull3, Núria Cañellas-Boltà4, Sandra Garcés5, Encarnación Montoya4, and Teresa Vegas-Vilarrúbia1
Arnau Blasco et al.
  • 1University of Barcelona, Department of Ecology, Environmental Sciences and Evolutionary Biology, Barcelona, Spain
  • 2Faculty of Geography and History, Universitat de Barcelona, C/Montalegre, 6, 08001 Barcelona, Spain.
  • 3Botanic Institute of Barcelona (IBB-CSIC), Passeig del Migdia, s/n, 08038 Barcelona, Spain.
  • 4Geociencies Barcelona-CSIC (GEO3BCN), C/Lluis Sole i Sabarís s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
  • 5The Arctic University Museum of Norway, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, 6050 Langnes, 9037 Tromsø, Norway.

Over the last decades, significant increases in temperature and in the incidence of extreme climatic events have been registered in the Iberian Peninsula. Environmental changes  are easily recorded in high mountain lakes, due to their sensitivity and isolated location. Since paleolimnological information can be very useful for planning and modelling future climate change scenarios, it is necessary to find suitable lakes and test their sensitivity to current and past climatic shifts in order to adequately fulfill these tasks.

In order to test the suitability of the Bassa Nera pond as an indicator of global climatic change, this study aims to examine the variations of different  paleoindicators over the last 15,000 years. The variations of paleoenvironmental data can be then compared with the changes of different biological indicators (chironomids, diatoms, pollen), to find likely correlations that can be used to figure out future climatic scenarios and to provide information for environmental management.

For this study, a core of approximately 1,100 cm was extracted (PATAM 12-A-14) and dated with radiometric techniques. Sedimentological analysis was performed by applying conventional stratigraphic techniques and X-ray fluorescence methods. The variability of the sedimentary sequence allowed us to reconstruct the different climatic events. The pond recorded a long sedimentary sequence encompassing the last 15,000 years. The sedimentological analysis allowed us to establish 5 different stratigraphic units which we have separated in two principal sections. The first section is formed by organic rich facies while the remains of the core is composed mainly of clays and silts facies with some sand layers.

These data will be very useful to establish which and how past climatic events have affected this high mountain basin, when reconstructing the evolution of main paleolimnological indicators of environmental change. And in conjunction with subsequent studies, it will establish whether or not the suitability of the Bassa Nera as a sentinel of climatic global change. This in turn will allow the  establishment of a network of sentinel lakes in the Iberian Peninsula.

How to cite: Blasco, A., Calero, M. A., Rull, V., Cañellas-Boltà, N., Garcés, S., Montoya, E., and Vegas-Vilarrúbia, T.: The Bassa Nera pond (Central Pyrenees), a potential sentinel of climatic changes over the last 15,000 years., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-6605, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6605, 2022.