Historical Lake Sediment Metal Concentrations in England's Lake District

Environmental Information Data Centre provides measurements of sediment properties, radionuclides, and trace metals from 8 lakes in The Lake District, England. The dataset offers a standardized matrix of sediment variables against stratigraphic depth, with radionuclide dating providing a chronology from the mid-19th century to 2016. Multiple sediment cores exist per lake, with the deepest core used for 210Pb dating.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal trends in mercury, nickel, copper, zinc, and lead concentrations using the 210Pb-derived chronology.
• Correlate sediment organic and carbonate content with trace metal values per mass across different stratigraphic depths.
• Compare radionuclide profiles (210Pb, 137Cs, 241Am) between littoral, intermediate, and deep core locations within the same lake.
• Model the deposition history of legacy mine waste using dated sediment successions from the mid-19th century onward.

Strengths

• Chronology is reliably established using 210Pb, 137Cs, and 241Am radionuclide dating.
• Data covers 8 lakes with multiple core samples (littoral, intermediate, deepest) per water body.
• Temporal coverage spans from the mid-19th century to 2016, capturing over 150 years of deposition.

Limitations

• Most intermediate and littoral depth cores are not dated, limiting direct temporal analysis for those samples.
• Sample size is limited to 8 lakes in a single geographic region (The Lake District).

Provenance

Source

Environmental Information Data Centre

Collection Method

Measurements of sediment properties, radionuclides, and elements in lake sediment successions, with 210Pb dating applied to the deepest core.

Time Range

mid-19th century to 2016

Freshness

Data current to 2016, with metadata last updated in March 2026.

Geography

The Lake District, England