Reviving prospects for lake restoration - investigating the geochemistry of Lake Alūksne sediments [Latvia]
2017
Purmalis, O., University of Latvia, Riga (Latvia) | Burlakovs, J., Linnaeus Univ. (Sweden)
Lake sediments have a broad range of elementary and organic substance content. Bottom sediments collect decaying organic debris of aquatic plants and animals mixed by water drift with mineral constituents - deposited in the bottom of the lake in anoxic conditions. Lake Alūksne is situated in Northeast Latvia and is of glacial origin. Its water and bottom sediments chemical content depends on formation conditions – influenced also by anthropogenic activities. In order to determine environmental quality for restoration purposes and sediment recovery, geochemical research is needed. This paper aims to study bottom sediments – texture, ash part, organic compounds and metals to pinpoint necessary steps that are crucial for distinguishing environmental quality of the lake through geochemistry research. Bottom sediments contain sapropel with large admixture of organic compounds and microelements that may significantly influence biota and human health if concentration exceeds natural background levels. When bottom sediments are recovered, it may improve oxygene conditions in the lake, extracted sapropel can be used as a fertilizer, therapeutic agents, supplements for farm foods. Generally, sapropel is improving the structure of agricultural soils, increasing the cation exchange capacity and serving as binding material for complexes formation; thus diminishing ecotoxicological exposure threats of heavy metals, increasing yields and albumen and protein quantity in plants cultivation products. As these sediments can be used for soil fertilizing and crop production improvement in agriculture, mechanisms of ecotoxicological impact to various soil types and agricultural plant ecology should be researched.
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