Dissolved noble gases in the porewater of lacustrine sediments as palaeo-limnological proxies

Abstract

This paper presents results from the numerical modelling of the transport of atmospheric noble gases (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe), tritiated water and 3He produced by radioactive decay of 3H, in unconsolidated lacustrine sediment. Two case studies are discussed: (1) the evolution of 3H and 3He concentrations in the sediment porewater of Lake Zug (Switzerland) from 1953 up to the present; and (2) the response of dissolved atmospheric noble gas concentrations in the sediment porewater of a subtropical lake to an abrupt climatic change that occurred some 10 kyr before the present. (1) Modelled 3H and 3He porewater concentrations are compared with recent data from Lake Zug. An estimate of the effective diffusion coefficients in the sediment porewater is derived using an original approach which is also applicable also to lakes for which the historical 3H and 3He concentrations in the water column are unknown. (2) The air/water partitioning of atmospheric noble gases is sensitive to water temperature and salinity, and thus provides a mechanism by which these environmental variables are recorded in the concentrations of atmospheric noble gases in lakes. We investigate the feasibility of using noble gas concentrations in the porewater of lacustrine sediments as a proxy for palaeoenvironmental conditions in lakes. Numerical modelling shows that heavy noble gases in sediment porewater, because of their comparatively small diffusion coefficients and the strong temperature sensitivity of their equilibrium concentrations, can preserve concentrations corresponding to past lake temperatures over times on the order of 10 kyr. Noble gas analysis of sediment porewaters therefore promises to yield valuable quantitative information on the past environmental states of lakes.