Human-environment interactions

Lake sediments are sensitive recorders of ancient and modern anthropogenic impacts on the environment. Human land-use practices, as for example intensive forest clearance for agricultural purposes during the Classic Maya civilization, may leave clear traces in the lake sediments. By investigating complete source-to-sink systems on a catchment scale (inclusive the ultimate sinks in a lakes), these impacts can be quantified and, as an example, soil erosion rates can be reconstructed.
Human-induced environmental hazards, such as the release of combustion-derived particles or organic pollutants, can be analyzed in dated sediment cores, so that time series of pollution can be established. Lake sediments thus provide powerful natural archives to investigate the complex interactions between environment, climate change and human impact.

Publications

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• Anselmetti, F.S., Ariztegui, D., Brenner, M., Hodell, D., and Rosenmeier, M.F.,(2007) Quantification of soil erosion rates related to ancient Maya deforestation. Geology 35, 915-918.
  
  
• Guyard, H., Chapron, E, St-Onge, G., Anselmetti, F. S., Arnaud, F., Magand, O., Francus, P., Mélières, M.A. (2007) High-altitude varve records of abrupt environmental changes and mining activity since the Bronze Age in the Western French Alps (Lake Bramant, Grandes Rousses Massif). Quaternary Science Reviews 26, 2644-2660.
  
  
• Mueller, A.D., Islebe, G.A., Hillesheim, M.B., Grzesik, D.A., Anselmetti, F.S., Ariztegui, D., Brenner, M., Curstis, J., Hodell, D., Venz, K.A. (in press) Climate drying and associated forest decline in the lowlands of northern Guatemala during the late Holocene. Quaternary Research.
  
  
• Thevenon, F. Williamson, D., Anselmetti, F.S. and Beaufort, L. (subm.) New approaches for determining dark carbon-rich particles (charcoal and black carbon) in natural archives: implications for past fire regimes, the pyrogenic carbon cycle, and the coupling between human activities and climate change. submitted to Global and Planetary Change.
  
  
• Thevenon, F. and Anselmetti, F.S. (2007) Charcoal and flyash particles from Lake Lucerne sediments (Central Switzerland) characterized by image analysis: Anthropologic, stratigraphic and environmental implications. Quaternary Science Reviews 26, 2631-2643.