Anthropogenic perturbations to the trophic structure in a permanent hypersaline shallow lake: La Salada de Chiprana (north-eastern Spain)

The changes in the trophic state in the Salada de Chiprana (north-eastern Spain) over two quite different seasonal cycles (1989, 1994/95) were studied. During the former cycle, the lake was permanently stratified, and was biogenically meromictic, and in the latter, showed no apparent stratification. The main variables related to the physico-chemical changes observed can be attributed to the effect caused by the increase in the nutrient loading. The large amounts of nutrients (total-N and total-P) and organic matter are due to the use of the lake as a reservoir for water discharged from irrigation. Two remarkable effects of the change are the permanent mixing of the water column and the immobilization of phosphorus in the form of ionic species and solid phases that are not available to the biota especially primary producers (phytoplankton, periphyton, microbial mats). The results of the present study emphasize the fragility of (hyper) saline ecosystems to anthropogenic disturbances such as increases in freshwater inflow and nutrient inputs. Likewise, the study reveals the failure of conservation criteria that have been used to manage this lake, especially those which refer to the control of freshwater, nutrient-rich influents.     

Seasonal fluctuations in the plankton community in a hypersaline temporary lake (Honda, southern Spain)

Honda saline lake is located in an endorheic basin in the south of Spain. The lake is very shallow, with frequent seasonal drought and a high degree of unpredictability. It was sampled monthly during a relatively dry year (1994–1995, 5 months permanence). To establish a relationship between environmental variables (temperature, depth, salinity and conductivity), variables related to biological activity (organic matter, total solids suspension, and pH) and the planktonic community in the sampled months, various uni-and miltivariate statistical methods were carried out.Dunaliella salina, D. viridis, and ciliates sp. 2 is the principal species group used to average out the dissimilarity between the samples. Muttivariate analysis showed that salinity (as TDS), conductivity and pH made major and significant contributions to the explanation of the variance in the sample data.     

Late Quaternary diatom response to vegetation and climate change in a subalpine lake in Banff National Park, Alberta

The late Quaternary diatom record from subalpine Crowfoot Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta (lat. 51° 61N; long. 116° 31W) has been analyzed. Results are related to independently inferred vegetation and climate changes. No diatoms were found in the basal diamict that predates 11330 ¹⁴C yr BP. Very few occur until ca. 10 100¹⁴ C yr BP probably due to the short time between de-glaciation and an advance of the Crowfoot Glacier during the Younger Dryas Chron. Initial pioneering species were characteristic of alkaline water and calcareous organic sediments. They appeared as sediments became organic and laminated suggesting increasing water clarity, and as the Pinus-dominated forest expanded and the climate warmed. After ca. 9060 ¹⁴C yr BP diatom numbers increased rapidly, reaching a maximum prior to the Mazama tephra; they remained high until ca. 3500 ¹⁴C yr BP. The period between ca. 9060 and 3500 ¹⁴C yr saw timberline elevation increase and the dominance of xerophytic taxa. These are consistent with early to mid-Holocene warmth and aridity. Diatom productivity reflects the warm climate and presumably longer ice-free season, a stable catchment and transparent water. Decreases in diatom productivity coincide with a vegetation change with reduction of xerophytic taxa and the appearance of a closed Picea-Abies forest, hence a cooler, wetter climate at ca. 4100 to 3500 ¹⁴C yr BP. The diatom numbers during the Neoglacial were of the same magnitude as prior to ca. 9060 ¹⁴C yr BP. Small species of Fragilaria (overwhelmingly Fragilaria construens v. venter) became extremely dominant during the period of high diatom productivity, and remained so thereafter. Recovery of the lake appears to have been rapid after deposition of the Mazama tephra. Maximum occurrence of Cyclotella radiosa occurred ca. 8000 ¹⁴C yr BP during the warm early Holocene and may reflect this warmer climate, a longer ice-free season than presently, perhaps less turbid water, or it may reflect a subtly higher nutrient status of the lake water. The diatom record of Crowfoot Lake has responded with sensitivity, particularly in terms of productivity, to the Holocene vegetation and climate changes.     

Adsorption-desorption of phosphate and its availability in the sediment of a saline lake (Fuente de Piedra,southern Spain)

Seasonal changes of soluble reactive phosphorus concentrations in sediments of Fuente de Piedra, a saline lake, have been observed and linked to salinity changes. Phosphate availability in sediments was studied in the laboratory under different salinities, from 10 to 70 g L⁻¹. Changes in adsorption of dissolved phosphate appear to be controlled by salinity variations. The adsorption coefficient increases with salinity and the amount of phosphorus adsorbed ranged between 10 and 30 per cent of the total. Salinity-modulated adsorption is proposed as the primary mechanism explaining the seasonal dynamics of phosphorus in this saline lake and its effects on progressive eutrophication.     

Tracking recent recovery from eutrophication in a high arctic lake (Meretta Lake, Cornwallis Island, Nunavut, Canada) using fossil diatom assemblages

Meretta Lake (Resolute Bay, Cornwallis Island, Nunavut, Canada) is a high arctic lake that received raw sewage for almost 50 years from the Canadian Department of Transport Base. The lake was sampled from 1968–72 during the International Biological Programme, as part of the Char Lake Project. As the number of users at the Transport Base declined throughout the 1990s, so too did the lake's nutrient levels, and Meretta Lake is now classified as oligotrophic. A previous diatom-based paleolimnological study revealed marked species assemblage shifts coincident with sewage inputs beginning in the late 1940s; however, because the core was taken at a time when nutrient levels were still relatively high (i.e., 1993), the diatom record did not yet track any signs of recovery. In this present study, we examined fossil diatom assemblages from a sediment core taken in 2001. Our results indicate a shift to the pre-impact diatom assemblages in the most recent sediments, indicating that the paleolimnological record is tracking the decreased nutrient inputs to this high arctic lake, and confirms that no significant lags exist in these largely ice-covered lakes.     

Changes in diatom assemblages in Lake C2 (Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada): response to basin isolation from the sea and to other environmental changes

Diatoms preserved in the sediments of Lake C2 (82°50 N, 76°00 W), a high arctic meromictic lake, track changes in the lake's salinity which have occurred as the basin was isolated from the sea. An assemblage dominated by marine taxa, such as Chaetoceros species, Nitzschia cylindrus and Diploneis spp., was replaced by a Cyclotella kuetzingiana var. planetophora dominated freshwater flora. A brief brackish period separates the two assemblages. Relatively little floristic change occurred within either the marine or freshwater periods, indicating rather stable environmental conditions, except that rheophilous diatoms fluctuated in relative abundance during the lacustrine phase, perhaps tracking past changes in discharge from inflowing streams. These may reflect periods of warmer, wetter environmental conditions.This is the eighth in a series of papers published in this issue on the Taconite Lakes Project. These papers were collected by Dr R. S. Bradley.