Figure 5 Records of 5'80 and 8'°C obtained on bulk carbonates (thin lines), discrete calcitic Chara encrustations (open circles) and Bithynia tentaculata calcitic opercula (thick lines total organic carbon (TOC) content, CaCO3 content, and carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratio, obtained from the Lake Bjarstrask sediment sequence, plotted against age. (Hammarlund et al., 1999, 2003), which together with data from Lake Geneva (Anadon et al., 2006) suggests that calcification of B. tentaculata opercula is not associated with any substantial isotopic vital effects. Millennial-scale variations in 8'C, on the other hand, likely reflect changes in lakewater uptake of 'C-enriched atmospheric carbon dioxide through changes in residence time (cf. Hammarlund et al., 2003). Potential contributions derive from changes in the supply of soil-derived 'C-depleted carbon dioxide in response to vegetation development in the catchment (cf. Reuss et al., 2010). Variations in primary productivity are unlikely to have played a role as dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) is rapidly replenished in Lake Bjdrstrask due to the short lakewater residence time. Moreover, centennial-scale episodes of higher/lower 5!°C values generally do not correspond to increases/decreases in sediment TOC content (Fig. 5), which can be assumed to primarily reflect aquatic pro- ductivity. This decoupling would suggest transient episodes of increased flushing of 'C-depleted groundwater and runoff, which could have disturbed the Chara calcification process due to elevated suspension load (cf. Hammarlund et al., 2005). An alternative explanation is periodic methane formation, which may have