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Depositional environments, sediment characteristics, palaeoecological analysis and environmental assessment of an internationally protected shallow Mediterranean lagoon, Gialova Lagoon – Navarino Bay, Greece

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2015

P. Avramidis ,
G. Iliopoulos ,
N. Kontopoulos ,
D. Panagiotaras ,
P. Barouchas ,
K. Nikolaou  and
P. Papadopoulou
P. Avramidis
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece. Email: p.avramidis@upatras.gr
G. Iliopoulos
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece. Email: p.avramidis@upatras.gr
N. Kontopoulos
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece. Email: p.avramidis@upatras.gr
D. Panagiotaras
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technological Educational Institute of Western Greece, 26334 Patras, Greece.
P. Barouchas
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Soils and Irrigation, Technological Educational Institute of Western Greece, Nea Ktiria, 30200 Mesolonghi, Greece.
K. Nikolaou
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece. Email: p.avramidis@upatras.gr
P. Papadopoulou
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece. Email: p.avramidis@upatras.gr
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Abstract

This study presents sedimentological, palaeoecological and geochemical data from a shallow Mediterranean coastal lagoon which has been severely influenced by human intervention over the last 70 years. The Gialova Lagoon is protected by international conventions and is listed in the Natura 2000 European Community Network as Special Protection Area (SPA) and Site of Community Importance (SCI). The spatial variability of sediment characteristics such as grain size, total organic carbon (TOC) and moment measures, mean, sorting, kurtosis and skewness were calculated. Moreover, micro- and macrofossil and sediment geochemical analyses were carried out on six gravity core samples. Study of the above parameters indicates that the anthropogenic impact and intervention are reflected in the micro- (ostracods, foraminifera, charophytes) and macrofossil (molluscs) taxa corresponding to different depositional environmental facies, representing a brackish lagoon with the influence of (a) fresh water inflow, (b) shallow marine environment and (c) hypoxic and dystrophic conditions. The geochemical characteristics and the calculation of the degree of sediment contamination using enrichment factors (EF), contamination factors (Cif) and the index of geo-accumulation (Igeo) indicate a recent relative improvement of the lagoon towards the upper layers of the gravity cores, rendering the lagoon as unpolluted to moderately polluted. This combinatorial study of sediment geochemical characteristics, as well as the downcore micro- and macrofossil assemblages, can be considered as a baseline for future monitoring in accordance with European Union directives, and for any future engineering interventions for the lagoon environmental maintenance and conservation; as this is the first time that geochemical and downcore palaeoecological data have been presented from this lagoon.

Keywords

coastal lagoonMediterranean Seapalaeoecologypollution indexsedimentology
Type
Articles
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 105 , Issue 3 , September 2014 , pp. 189 - 206
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Society of Edinburgh 2015 

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