CALCIUM CARBONATE WHITING EVENTS IN FAYETTEVILLE GREEN LAKE: BIOLOGICAL OR GEOLOGICAL ORIGIN?

Seasonal whiting events in localities such as Green Lake in Fayetteville, NY have long been recognized as important sediment sources for limnological climate records. Because Green Lake is meromictic, sediment from the whiting events settle to the lakebed and remain undisturbed in the lower, anoxic waters preserving a climate record. These important whiting events are often attributed to the precipitation of calcium carbonate associated with blooms of Synechococcus bacteria, but most of these data were collected more than fifty years ago. This project aims to compare our findings with and improve the resolution of other datasets. Water samples were collected from multiple depths during the summer of 2019. Seasonal fluctuations in Synechococcus concentrations were measured using epifluorescence microscopy and compared with concentrations of precipitated calcium carbonate. The results of this study will contribute to the ongoing discussion of the role of biotic vs abiotic processes in the formation of whiting events, improve our understanding of the processes that create important climate records, and perhaps provide insights into the types of environments likely to preserve climate records.