Abstract
Lakes and palustrine wetlands host vast sediment archives that reflect changes in climate, flora, fauna, carbon sequestration and landscape processes. Unravelling these sediment archives involves a multitude of techniques, including geochemical proxies, sedimentological analyses, changes to faunal morphology, pollen and other micro and macrofossil abundance. Generally, sediment cores are collected from the deepest basin locations as they are typically expected to contain the longest and most complete sedimentary record.
Geophysical surveying using ground penetrating radar (GPR) can complement sediment core data by mapping sediment characteristics across the entire basin. Specifically, collecting transects of GPR with intersecting lines allow for the correlation of surfaces and calculation of volumes and thicknesses. The addition of geophysical data allows for basin analysis using sequence stratigraphy and interpretation of water level changes, to which sediment cores are typically blind. If used prior to coring, GPR can inform sediment core site selection to be most representative of the site or to target locations with the longest and/or highest resolution records.
This presentation showcases records from sediment cores and GPR in wetlands and shallow lakes from New York, USA and Queensland, Australia.