Limnological Characterization of Three Tropical Crater Lakes in the Archipelago of Samoa (Lanoto‘o, Olomaga, Mataulano)1

Contrasting Common Era climate and hydrology sensitivities from paired lake sediment dinosterol hydrogen isotope records in the South Pacific Convergence Zone

“…Lake Lanoto'o on 'Upolu is situated in a volcanic crater 760 m above sea level (m.a.s.l.) with a maximum depth of 16.4 m, previously described in detail (Gosling et al, 2020;Parkes, 1994;Sear et al, 2020) and harbors dinosterol-producing dinoflagellates (Schabetsberger et al, 2021(Schabetsberger et al, , 2009. To the southwest, Lake Emaotul on the volcanic Efate Island (Ash et al, 1978;Raos and Crawford, 2004) is ~131 m above sea level and experiences fluctuating water depths between 0 and 10 m (Hope, 1996;Schabetsberger et al, 2009); the shallower areas of the lake surrounding the core site were mostly dry between 1994 and 1997 (Sémah and Wirrmann, 2006).…”