Using paleolimnology for management and restoration of lakes

Editorial

14 October 2016

Editorial: Using Paleolimnology for Lake Restoration and Management

Isabelle Larocque-Tobler

2,540 views

10 citations

Editors

Isabelle Larocque-Tobler

Université Paris Nanterre

Impact

Change in nMDS axis 1 scores over time in stable, switching, and unstable billabongs. Dashed vertical lines indicate inferred timing of European settlement based on the appearance of exotic pollen and/or magnetic susceptibility profiles.

Original Research

07 March 2016

Muddied Waters: The Case for Mitigating Sediment and Nutrient Flux to Optimize Restoration Response in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia

Peter A. Gell

and

Michael A. Reid

5,416 views

20 citations

Original Research

12 November 2015

Responses of Aquatic Ecosystems to Environmental Changes in Finland and China

Jan Weckström

, 11 more and

Anne-Mari Ventelä

4,737 views

6 citations

Methods

29 September 2015

What is the robustness of early warning signals to temporal aggregation?

Victor Frossard

, 2 more and

François Gillet

3,827 views

12 citations

Original Research

01 September 2015

Using diatom assemblages and sulfur in sediments to uncover the effects of historical mining on Lake Arnoux (Quebec, Canada): a retrospective of economic benefits vs. environmental debt

Paul B. Hamilton

, 2 more and

Karin Ponader

Diatom taxa paleolimnological profiles represented as % abundance in the benthic sediments of Lake Arnoux.

Monitoring changes in environmental conditions is increasingly important as the Canadian economic infrastructure ramps up exploration and mining development in the more inaccessible northern regions of Canada. Governments are concurrently assessing effects from past mining activities and absorbing the economic cost to society with on-going remediation and monitoring initiatives. The abandoned Aldermac mine in northwestern Quebec, mined from 1932 to 1943, is an excellent case study for assessing the state of environmental and economic effects of past mining operations. A paleolimnological approach, using diatoms as environmental proxies, was used to evaluate the spatial and temporal impacts on aquatic receiving environments. Based on the inferences drawn from diatom assemblages in Lake Arnoux, prior to mining activity, lake water pH was similar to that of surrounding lakes (circumneutral to weakly acidic). After mining operations terminated, changes in pH and alkalinity in Lake Arnoux coincided with distinct increases in sediment sulfur content. Across a 30- to 40-year span (circa 1940–1970s) a significant decline in phytoplankton flora coincided with lake acidification and increased clarity of the water column. This resulted in an increase in the benthic diatom population (>90%), replacing the planktonic diatoms. Observed shifts in environmental proxies are concurrent with one, and possibly two, reported tailings pond breaches at the abandoned mine site. Adverse effects of the abandoned Aldermac mine on nearby ecosystems, combined with pressure from local citizens and environmental groups, forced responsible accountability for site restoration led by the Quebec government. Based on the historical period of economic growth, the financial benefits of the Aldermac mine were significant and justify the current pay-it-backward costs for environmental remediation. However, it has now been documented that the pay-it-backward model is not sustainable in the modern economy. New pay-it-forward approaches, addressing our gray water footprint, are required to merge economic and environmental sustainability for future prosperity.

10,562 views

20 citations

Diatom-based inferred limnetic total P values for Lakes Lochloosa and Little Jackson, with summary pH autecological preference information, and sedimented arsenic concentrations in Little Lake Jackson. Summary pH autecological information was calculated as in Whitmore et al. (1996). Arrows on total P panels indicate means of modern measured water quality. (A) Inferred limnetic total P for Lake Lochloosa (modified from Kenney et al., 2014). (B) Summary pH preference data for diatoms in Lake Lochloosa. (C) Inferred limnetic total P for Little Lake Jackson. (D) Summary pH preference data for diatoms in Little Jackson (updated from Whitmore et al., 2006). (E) Net sedimented total As concentrations from Little Lake Jackson (modified from Whitmore et al., 2008).

Perspective

16 September 2015

Limnetic total phosphorus transfer functions for lake management: considerations about their design, use, and effectiveness

Thomas J. Whitmore

, 2 more and

Melanie A. Riedinger-Whitmore

3,457 views

7 citations

Original Research

11 August 2015

Assessing degradation and recovery pathways in lakes impacted by eutrophication using the sediment record

Helen Bennion

, 1 more and

Ben J. Goldsmith

15,096 views

53 citations

Summary plot of CUNS2 Ca, P, and key absolute and relative abundance changes of biological groups against time.

Original Research

12 August 2015

The coming and going of a marl lake: multi-indicator palaeolimnology reveals abrupt ecological change and alternative views of reference conditions

Emma Wiik

, 7 more and

Laura Stone

17,390 views

13 citations

Original Research

03 August 2015

Tracking past changes in lake-water phosphorus with a 251-lake calibration dataset in British Columbia: tool development and application in a multiproxy assessment of eutrophication and recovery in Osoyoos Lake, a transboundary lake in Western North America

Brian F. Cumming

, 5 more and

Ian R. Walker

Recently, there has been an active discussion about the potential and challenges of tracking past lake-water trophic state using paleolimnological methods. Herein, we present analyses of the relationship between modern-day diatom assemblages from the surface sediments of 251 fresh-water lakes from British Columbia and contemporary limnological variables. Total phosphorus (TP) was significantly related to the modern distribution of diatom assemblages. The large size of this new calibration dataset resulted in higher abundances and occurrences of many diatom taxa thereby allowing a more accurate quantification of the optima of diatom taxa to TP in comparison to previous smaller calibration datasets. Robust diatom-based TP inference models with a moderate predictive power were developed using weighted-averaging regression and calibration. Information from the calibration dataset was used to interpret changes in the diatom assemblages from the north and south basins of Osoyoos Lake, in conjunction with fossil pigment analyses. Osoyoos Lake is a large salmon-bearing lake that straddles the British Columbia-Washington border and has undergone cultural eutrophication followed by recovery due to substantial mitigation efforts in managing sources of nutrients. Both diatom assemblages and sedimentary pigments indicate that eutrophication began c. 1950 in the north basin and c. 1960 in the southern basin, reaching peak levels of production between 1960 and 1990, after which decreases in sedimentary pigments occurred, as well as decreases in the relative abundance and concentrations of diatom taxa inferred to have high TP optima. Post-1990 changes in the diatom assemblage suggests conditions have become less productive with a shift to taxa more indicative of lower TP optima in concert with measurements of declining TP, although two of these diatom taxa, Cyclotella comensis and Cyclotella gordonensis, that were previously rare are now abundant.

11,731 views

49 citations

Lakes location and geomorphological characteristics.

Review

07 July 2015

High-resolution paleolimnology opens new management perspectives for lakes adaptation to climate warming

Marie-Elodie Perga

, 21 more and

Valérie Verneaux

Varved lake sediments provide opportunities for high-resolution paleolimnological investigations that may extend monitoring surveys in order to target priority management actions under climate warming. This paper provides the synthesis of an international research program relying on >150 years-long, varved records for three managed perialpine lakes in Europe (Lakes Geneva, Annecy, and Bourget). The dynamics of the dominant, local human pressures, as well as the ecological responses in the pelagic, benthic, and littoral habitats were reconstructed using classical and newly developed paleo-proxies. Statistical modeling achieved the hierarchization of the drivers of their ecological trajectories. All three lakes underwent different levels of eutrophication in the first half of the XXth century, followed by re-oligotrophication. Climate warming came along with a 2°C increase in air temperature over the last century, to which lakes were unequally thermally vulnerable. Unsurprisingly, phosphorous concentration has been the dominant ecological driver over the last century. Yet, other human-influenced, local environmental drivers (fisheries management practices, river regulations) have also significantly inflected ecological trajectories. Climate change has been impacting all habitats at rates that, in some cases, exceeded those of local factors. The amplitude and ecological responses to similar climate change varied between lakes, but, at least for pelagic habitats, rather depended on the intensity of local human pressures than on the thermal effect of climate change. Deep habitats yet showed higher sensitivity to climate change but substantial influence of river flows. As a consequence, adapted local management strategies, fully integrating nutrient inputs, fisheries management, and hydrological regulations, may enable mitigating the deleterious consequences of ongoing climate change on these ecosystems.

10,296 views

58 citations