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Frontiers of Earth Science

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Front. Earth Sci.    2014, Vol. 8 Issue (4) : 573-581    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-014-0440-0
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Biogenic silica contents of Lake Qinghai sediments and its environmental significance
Bin LIU1,2,*(),Hai XU1,Jianghu LAN1,2,Enguo SHENG1,2,Shuai CHE1,Xinying ZHOU3
1. State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710075, China
2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
3. Laboratory of Human Evolution and Archeological Science, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China
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Abstract

Changes in the levels of biogenic silica (BSi%) in lake sediments have been widely used in order to study lake productivity and palaeoclimatic changes. However, the provenance of biogenic silica (BSi) needs to be investigated for each lake, especially for large lakes, as does the relationship between levels of BSi and relevant environmental factors. In this study, we measured the percentage of BSi contained in lake sediments, river sediments, and surface soils within the the Lake Qinghai catchment, and compared the quantities and shapes of diatoms and phytoliths before and after the extraction processes. The results suggest that BSi in lake sediments is primarily derived from endogenous diatoms; therefore, BSi levels can be used to reflect the changes in primary productivity within the lake. Further comparisons showed that on long-term timescales, the variations in BSi% are generally consistent with those in total organic carbon (TOC) and grain size, reflecting the dominant impacts of precipitation on primary productivity in Lake Qinghai. On short-term timescales, however, the relationship between BSi% and TOC and that between BSi% and grain size are not clear or stable. For example, BSi% sometimes covaried with grain size, but it was sometimes out of phase with or even inversely related to grain size. We speculate that both climate and environmental processes, such as the dilution effect, influence short-term BSi% and its related environmental significance. As a result, BSi% should be used selectively as an indicator of climatic changes on different time scales.
Keywords biogenic silica      environmental significance      Lake Qinghai      precipitation     
Corresponding Author(s): Bin LIU   
Online First Date: 30 April 2014    Issue Date: 13 January 2015
 Cite this article:   
Bin LIU,Hai XU,Jianghu LAN, et al. Biogenic silica contents of Lake Qinghai sediments and its environmental significance[J]. Front. Earth Sci., 2014, 8(4): 573-581.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fesci/EN/10.1007/s11707-014-0440-0
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fesci/EN/Y2014/V8/I4/573
Water chemistry Lake water River water Groundwater Rainfall water
Na+/(mg·L-1) a) 4406.11 14.03 49.52 0.92
K+/(mg·L-1) a) 165.36 1.17 1.91 0.78
Ca2+/(mg·L-1) a) 22.50 37.50 43.80 13.10
Mg2+/(mg·L-1) a) 852 20.40 13.90 0.88
TDS/(mg·L-1) a) 15564 532.02 300.66 68.11
pH a) 9.11 8.05 8.05 <8
Dissolved Si/(mg·L-1) b) 4.76 (N= 8) 0.84 (N=40 ) 5.15 (N=25 ) \
Tab.1  The chemical parameters of waters from different end-members in Lake Qinghai catchment
Fig.1  Sampling sites of the surface soils, river sediments, and lake sediment cores within the the Lake Qinghai catchment. The red stars indicate the sampling sites for surface soils and river sediments, while the white dots indicate sampling sites of surface lake sediment cores.
Fig.2  Procedures for the measurement of BSi% and the extraction of phytoliths and diatoms.
Fig.3  Scanning electron microscope (SEM) photographs of phytoliths (a) and diatoms (b) in Lake Qinghai sediments. The sediments are from a mixed 30 cm long surface core (100°10.999′E, 36°47.713′N; water depth: ~25.3 m).
Sample Before alkali treatment After alkali treatment
Diatoms Phytoliths Diatoms Phytoliths
BHH-2 river sediment A few integrated diatoms Very few phytoliths No observed integrated diatoms Very few fragments of phytoliths
BHH-2 surface soil Few diatoms A few phytoliths (approximately 50 on one slice) Few diatoms A few phytoliths (approximately 54 on one slice)
HEG-4 surface soil Few diatoms A few phytoliths (approximately 30 on one slice) Few diatoms A few phytoliths (approximately 18 on one slice)
QH lake sediment A?large?number of integrated diatoms Few phytoliths No observed integrated diatoms Few phytoliths
Tab.2  Counts of phytoliths and diatoms in surface soils, river sediments, and lake sediments before and after the BSi extraction processes
Sample numbers BSi/% Sample numbers BSi/%
HEG-4 surface soil 0.8 HEG-4 river sediment 0.7
HEG-5 surface soil 0.6 HEG-5 river sediment 0.8
HEG-6 surface soil 0.6 HEG-6 river sediment 0.4
SLH-2 surface soil 1.1 SLH-2 river sediment 0.7
SLH-3 surface soil 0.7 SLH-3 river sediment 0.7
SLH-4 surface soil 0.7 SLH-4 river sediment 0.5
SLH-5 surface soil 0.8 SLH-5 river sediment 0.6
BHH-1 surface soil 0.9 BHH-1 river sediment 0.8
BHH-2 surface soil 0.8 BHH-2 river sediment 0.6
BHH-3 surface soil 0.9 BHH-3 river sediment 0.5
BHH-4 surface soil 0.7 BHH-4 river sediment 0.6
BHH-5 surface soil 0.5 BHH-5 river sediment 0.5
BHH-6 surface soil 0.8 BHH-6 river sediment 0.6
HMH-1 surface soil 0.9 HMH-1 river sediment 1.2
HMH-2 surface soil 0.7 HMH-2 river sediment 1.1
DTH-1 surface soil 0.6 DTH-1 river sediment 0.6
QJH-2 surface soil 0.7 QJH-2 river sediment 1.2
GZH-1 surface soil 1.1 GZH-1 river sediment 1.0
Surface soil average 0.8 River sediment average 0.7
Lake sediments average 2.3
Tab.3  The BSi content of surface soils, river sediments, and lake sediments in the Lake Qinghai catchment
Fig.4  The average levels of BSi in surface soils (0.8%), river sediments (0.7%), and lake sediments (2.3%) of the Lake Qinghai catchment. The bars indicate the standard deviation of the data.
Fig.5  Comparison between BSi% and TOC% of core QH10A.
Fig.6  Comparison between the BSi% and TOC% of core QH0708, core QH0707, core QH0711, and core QH10A (0–25 cm).
Fig.7  Comparison between BSi% and grain size of core QH10A.
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