Human Impacts: Applications of Numerical Methods to Evaluate Surface-Water Acidification and Eutrophication

In this chapter we review the contributions that numerical techniques have made in answering key questions in applied palaeolimnology relating to studies of lake acidification and eutrophication. Palaeoecological data and calibration functions in particular provide some of the key observations implicating acid emissions from industrial and power-generation sources as the major cause of the recent acidification of lakes in northern Europe and North America. Sedimentary records and subsequent quantitative analyses play a similar role in understanding the eutrophication of lakes, and today are being used widely to inform management of enriched lakes and to set restoration targets for recovery.

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