Analysis of lake and peat cores

Background Lake sediments and peats are natural archives of past environmental conditions.Concentrations of various trace elements preserved in lake sediments and peats are used to characterize the flux of elements of concern to terrestrial and aquatic systems.By analyzing sediments and peats of various ages, we can compare the flux of elements of concern over time against on-going and potential anthropogenic inputs. This work is in response to the need for detailed work to better understand the flux of elements of concern into northern ecosystems. Sediments have been collected using a freeze corer from lakes in the Northwest Territories and are housed at Carleton University in cold storage.A sub-sampling microtome device, designed at Carleton University, will be used to sample high-resolution (mm-scale) slices of one or more freeze cores to enable corresponding high-resolution analysis of the flux of elements of concern by scientists at the Geological Survey of Canada. Peat cores were also collected from the Northwest Territories. These are currently in cold storage at Carleton University and must also be sub-sampled for analyses to evaluate the transport and fate of elements of concern in northern ecosystems.