Sediment extracted organic matter fluorescence: an archive of organic matter flux and origins?

Organic matter buried in sediments contain a record of the intensity and characteristics of organic matter supply from overlying waters through time. A fraction of the organic matter pool can be extracted and characterised using UV-visible spectroscopy (absorption and fluorescence). In this study we investigate the utility of using the optical characteristics of this organic matter pool as a quantitative and qualitative proxy. We use the optical properties of based extracted organic matter from a well characterised Baltic Sea core from the Northern Gotland Deep to infer changes in the intensity and character of organic matter supply over the past 8000 years. Over this period the modern Baltic Sea was formed from its original state as the Ancylus Lake. There are three clear periods of hypoxia which have influenced the supply and quality of organic matter in sediments. The first two periods, the Ancylus-Littorina transgression (7000-4000 B.P.) and Medieval Climate Anomaly (1400-700 years B.P.) are attributed to enhanced stratification. The third is recognised as driven by anthropogenic eutrophication over the past 100 years. The optical properties of sediment extracted organic matter from these periods not only follow the trends in sediment organic carbon content but also show clear differences organic matter characteristics not apparent in other measurements. The series of hypoxic events within the Ancylus-Littorina transgression differ from each other. While organic matter from 7000-6500 years BP is similar to that from MCA and modern times, subsequent Ancylus-Littorina transgression periods of hypoxia are different suggesting different origins of organic matter. Organic matter optical characteristics here are more similar to material from periods will less/no hypoxia.