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  • Sediment core Alex Werner

    Sediment cores collected from Seto Inland Sea, Japan

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Reconstruction of environmental change using natural archives

Worldwide, natural ecosystems have come under intense pressure from indirect and direct human impacts such as climate change, land clearing, and pollution. Through the study of natural archives (e.g. sediments, peat bogs, ice cores) many historic periods of environmental pollution dating thousands of years have been identified. However, environmental degradation has increased significantly during the last century, due to global industrialisation and the increased use of natural resources required to support mass populations. Better understanding of environmental status prior to anthropogenic impacts, and responses of ecosystems to disturbances provides crucial information for effective ecosystem management.

The main aims for this project are to:

  1. Assess the triggers and thresholds resulting in algal blooms in the Seto Inland Sea (SIS), Japan, based on the study of seagrass sedimentary archives;
  2. Validate the use of glomalin in peat soils as an effective proxy to reconstruct land use change.

Mass industrialisation and coastal development throughout the SIS led to increasing eutrophic events, resulting in strict phosphorous (P) use regulations. The SIS also shows signs of oligotrophication, and has seen declines in fisheries production and nutrient deficiencies among native marine fauna. In order to understand the natural trends in the SIS, this research will use seagrass paleo-archives to reconstruct natural trends and cycles in diatom assemblages in response to nutrient loading during pre- and post-industrialization periods, to assess nutrient thresholds resulting in algal blooms and underpin management (Chapter 1).

Glomalin is a heat-shock resistant protein produced by fungi in terrestrial environments which is stable in anoxic conditions such as those often found in seagrass soils. Previous studies identified that glomalin could be a more time and cost-effective proxy than previous indicators such as pollen palynomorphs. Here we hypothesise that, similar to seagrass soils, glomalin will be preserved in peatland sedimentary archives and can be used as a paleo-reconstruction proxy to detect terrestrial land use changes (Chapter 2).

Funding agency

Edith Cowan University
Port and Airport Research Institute, Japan

Project duration

2019-2021

Researchers

Mr Axel Werner
Dr Oscar Serrano
Professor Pere Masqué
Dr Tomohiro Kuwae, Port and Airport Research Institute (Japan)

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