Geochemical evidence of human impacts on deep Lake Fuxian, southwest China

Human activities in Lake Fuxian and its catchment have caused environmental changes that are preserved in the geochemical records of lake sediments. Human activities responsible for the environmental changes include agriculture, mining, industrial development, and fishery management. To elucidate human impacts on this deep water body during the past several decades, two short sediment cores were collected from the lake, dated by 137Cs, and analyzed for several geochemical variables (total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), δ13C and heavy metals). The multi-proxy geochemical and isotopic evidence can be used to divide the limnological record into a 3-part history. Although increasing inputs of chromium (Cr) had begun as early as the 1950s, human activities, including heavy metal contamination, apparently had little effect on lacustrine production, as δ13C, TOC, TN and TOC/TN were relatively constant until the 1980s. Mining and industry have generated large amounts of heavy metal elements such as Zn, Pb and Cd that have been deposited into the lake since the 1980s, increasing to their highest concentrations over the last decades. Zn, Pb and Cd probably were released by industrial processes such as the manufacture of cement. Cr concentrations increased at site FB, but declined at site FZ, most likely due to the closer proximity of site FB to the source of metal production. From the middle of the 1980s, the decreased δ13C, and increased TOC, TN and TOC/TN suggest a broad change in lake ecology. In the 1980s, a new fish species was introduced into Lake Fuxian and fish yields increased quickly, which may mark the beginning of a change in ecosystem structure.