LFU:online

Students are able to:

link geological and biological processes to understand sedimentary deposits in lakes (main goal)

• examine the complexity of a lake system based upon abiotic and biotic environmental processes
• relate subaerial processes with aquatic processes relevant for sediment production, transport and deposition in a lake system including natural hazards
• recognize the importance of natural processes at the water-sediment interface (e.g., bioturbidity, abiotic processes)
• explain and discuss the role of lake sediments as archives of environmental change
• plan an own limnogeologic project to solve a particular scientific question, e.g., finding, recovering, analyzing and interpreting the sedimentary lake archive (past) or follow specific organism groups/pollen/abiotic parameters through the water column down into the sediment (from presence to past)

The overall themes are

1. Hydro- and geoacoustic survey methods (application of biological and geological questions)
2. Subaerial processes influencing the lake system (atmospheric, environmental and river processes)
3. Biological processes in the water column affecting sedimentation
4. Linking present-day processes to the past record (tracking “proxy” data from the water column into the sediment)
5. Past processes reflected in the sediment (reconstructions from the geological archive)

All topics are interconnected by analyses in the water column, at the water-sediment interface and in the sediment.

Combination of a field campaign on Lake Mondsee and lectures and lab courses to work on an individual small research project.

Evaluation of written reports on the individual research project/practical course report.

Will be distributed in each class unit.

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