Lakes meromictic

Pit lake at the former El Mine is a meromictic lake with a thermocline and a chemocline coinciding at the depth 20 m, where former open pit was connected to the shaft. 

The biochemical reduction of sulfate to sulfide by bacteria of the genus Desulfovibrio in anoxic waters is a significant process in terms of the chemistry of natural waters since sulfide participates in precipitation and redox reactions with other elements. Examples of these reactions are discussed later in this paper. It is appropriate now, however, to mention the enrichment of heavy isotopes of sulfur in lakes. Deevey and Nakai (13) observed a dramatic demonstration of the isotope effect in Green Lake, a meromictic lake near Syracuse, N. Y. Because the sulfur cycle in such a lake cannot be completed, depletion of 32S04, with respect to 34S04, continues without interruption, and 32S sulfide is never returned to the sulfate reservoir in the monimolimnion. Deevey and Nakai compared the lake to a reflux system. H2S-enriched 32S diffuses to the surface waters and is washed out of the lake, leaving a sulfur reservoir depleted in 32S. The result is an 34S value of +57.5% in the monimolimnion. 

Tuomi, P., T. Torsvik, M. Heldal, and G. Bratbak. 1997. Bacterial population dynamics in a meromictic lake. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 63 2181—2188. 

Fry, B. (1986) Sources of carbon and sulfur nutrition for consumers in three meromictic lakes of New York State. Limnol. Oceanogr. 31, 79-88. 

Anderson G. C. (1958b) Some limnological features of a shallow saline meromictic lake. Limnol. Oceanogr. 3, 259-270. 

Putschew A., Scholz-Bottcher B. M., and RuIIkotter J. (1996) Early diagenesis of organic matter and related sulfur incorporation in surface sediments of meromictic Lake Cadagno in the Swiss Alps. Org. Geochem. 25, 379-390. 

Schouten S., Rijpstra W. I. C., Kok M., Hopmans E. C., Summons R. E., Volkman J. K., and Sinninghe Damste J. S. (2001b) Molecular organic tracers of biogeochemical processes in a saline meromictic lake (Ace Eake). Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 65, 1629-1640. 

Dubinina, G.A. Gorlenko, V.M. and Suleimanov, Ya.I., 1974. A study of microorganisms involved in the circulation of manganese, iron, and sulfur in meromictic Lake Gek-Gel . Microbiology, 42 817-822. 

Sorokin, Yu.I., 1970a. Interrelations between sulphur and carbon turnover in meromictic lakes. Arch. Hydrobiol., 66 391— 446. 

Meromictic lake one that is partly mixed and in which thermal turnover occurs only in the top layers bottom layers are stagnant and anaerobic. 

Figure 9.2 Sketch showing the relationships between oxygen, temperature and biogenic activity in a meromictic lake, at noon in summer (Loclat Lake, Switzerland data from Aragno, 1981, and personal communication). The mixolimnion constitutes the oxic zone. The mixolimnion includes the metalimnion and the epilimnion, both defined by the temperature curve. The anoxic zone is called the monimolimnion.

Sketch of the relationships between oxygen, temperature and biogenic activity in a meromictic lake, at noon in summer. 

Molecular organic tracers of biogeochemical processes in a saline meromictic lake (Ace Lake). Geochim. 

Balistrieri, L. S., Murray, J. W., and Paul, B. (1994). The geochemical cycling of trace elements in a biogenic meromictic lake. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 58 3993-4008. 

Hall, K. J. and G. F. Lee. 1974. Molecular size and spectral characterization of organic matter in a meromictic lake. Water Res. 8 239-251. 

---