Lake Søbygaard: a shallow lake in recovery after a reduction in phosphorus loading

The development and recovery of a shallow and hypertrophic lake following a reduction in the external phosphorus load has been documented. In spite of this reduction, phosphorus concentrations and phytoplankton biomass in the lake water are still very high. The reason for this development can be explained by three main factors: (1): the sediment has been accumulating a large phosphorus pool which is now causing a high internal phosphorus load, (2) due to the shallow conditions, resuspension of the upper sediment often takes place because of wind action and thereby increases the phosphorus loading from the sediment, (3) the development of a large population of planktivorous fish decreases the zooplankton biomass resulting in the development of a large phytoplankton biomass.     

The role of palaeolimnology in assessing eutrophication and its impact on lakes

Eutrophication is perhaps the most pervasive form of pollution. Here we first review its effects on lake ecosystems based largely on modern ecological investigation. The longer time scale afforded by palaeolimnological investigation has seen an increase in the number of the publications since 1990 with a disproportionate increase in citations demonstrating the increasing use and usefulness of palaeolimnology to help understand lakes ecosystems and their response to eutrophication. We summarise briefly the history and origins of palaeolimnological investigation into eutrophication and its impacts in lakes. Then we review quantitative and qualitative palaeolimnological methods for tracking change in nutrient concentrations, algal community and abundance, macrophyte community composition and abundance and zooplanktivorous fish density. The usefulness of stable isotope analysis on sediment organic matter to track eutrophication is assessed and alternative methods discussed. A current challenge is to determine the effects of recent climate change on lake ecosystems. The impacts of climate change and eutrophication on the ecology of lakes have many similarities making it difficult to disentangle the impact of one from the other, in particular where the eutrophication impacts are greatest. We review a number of recent palaeolimnological studies, in particular those integrating long term monitoring data, which have gone some way to identifying when nutrients or climate may be having the greatest impact. Finally, we discuss possible future directions for the discipline, such as the greater integration of studies of evolutionary change using molecular techniques.     

Comparison of polar mesospheric cloud measurements from the Cloud Imaging and Particle Size experiment and the solar backscatter ultraviolet instrument in 2007

We compare measurements from the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) Cloud Imaging and Particle Size (CIPS) experiment to the NOAA-17 solar backscatter ultraviolet (SBUV/2) instrument during the 2007 Northern Hemisphere polar mesospheric cloud (PMC) season. Daily average Rayleigh scattering albedos determined from identical footprints from the CIPS nadir camera and SBUV/2 agree to better than ～5% throughout the season. Average PMC brightness values derived from the two instruments agree to within ±10%. PMC occurrence frequencies are on average ～5% to nearly a factor of two higher in CIPS, depending on latitude. Agreement is best at high latitudes where clouds are brighter and more frequent. The comparisons indicate that AIM CIPS data are valid for scientific analyses. They also show that CIPS measurements can be linked to the long time series of SBUV/2 data to investigate long-term variability in PMCs.     

Cladoceran stratigraphy in two shallow brackish lakes with special reference to changes in salinity, macrophyte abundance and fish predation

Sub-fossils of Cladocera and Foraminifera were used to reconstruct changes since 1870 in the trophic dynamics of two brackish lakes, Glombak and Han Vejle, located in the Vejlerne nature reserve, Denmark, a site of international conservation importance. After creation of the lakes in the mid-1870s following land reclamation, the two lakes have developed quite differently; today Glombak is turbid, while Han Vejle is clear. In both lakes, stratigraphic changes in the assemblages of foraminifers and cladocerans indicate an abrupt shift from marine to brackish conditions at the end of the 19th century, coinciding with land reclamation. However, the composition of the fossil invertebrate assemblages in the 20th century implies differences in the exposure to salinity, in fish predation and in habitat diversity. In Glombak, the cladoceran record suggests relatively saline conditions in the first quarter of the last century and high macrophyte abundance followed by lower salinities and subsequently a major decrease in macrophyte abundance and an increase in fish predation during the past ca. 40 years. By contrast, in Han Vejle low salinity, high abundance of macrophytes and only minor changes in fish predation seem to have prevailed throughout most of the 20th century. The results are consistent with recent contemporary data, the few historical records, as well as with trends in the records of diatoms and macrofossils. This study highlights the potential of using crustacean remains as indicators of long-term changes in the trophic dynamics of brackish lakes.     

Relationships between environmental variables and zooplankton subfossils in the surface sediments of 36 shallow coastal brackish lakes with special emphasis on the role of fish

Subfossil zooplankton assemblages (Cladocera 22 taxa, Rotifera 1 taxon) were identified from the surface sediments of 36 shallow (median depth = 0.7 m) Danish coastal brackish lakes differing in epilimnic salinity (SAL, range 0.2–17.4), summer-mean total phosphorus (TP, 27–327 g l^–1) and total nitrogen (TN, 0.850–2.629 mg l^–1), as well as in submerged macrophyte coverage and planktivorous fish density (PL-CPUE). Cladoceran species richness declined significantly with increasing SAL, TP and TN, while no significant correlation was found to either PL-CPUE, macrophyte coverage or lake surface area. Bonferroni-adjusted forward selection within canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) showed that 22.1% of the variation in zooplankton data was explained by PL-CPUE, SAL and TP uniquely; each variable explaining an almost equally significant amount of variation in the zooplankton data. Predictive models to infer PL-CPUE, SAL and TP were developed using variance weighted-averaging (WA) procedures. Almost similar values of boot-strapped coefficient of determination (r²_{boot-strapped} 0.22–0.38) were produced by the WA inference models of PL-CPUE, SAL and TP, while the inference models of TP produced the lowest boot-strapped root-mean-squared-error of prediction (RMSEP_{boot-strapped} 0.29–0.36 log(TP + 1), g l^–1). Yet, zooplankton TP and SAL optima (WA) were strongly correlated (r² = 0.46), while PL-CPUE optima (WA) were independent of both TP and SAL optima, indicating that only the PL-CPUE inference models are suitable for making reconstructions.     

Paleolimnological records reveal biotic homogenization driven by eutrophication in tropical reservoirs

Biodiversity changes in response to eutrophication, climate variability and species invasions. These pressures have been shown to reduce community heterogeneity at various scales; however, how productivity drives homogenization patterns in a community of primary producers, such as diatoms, has not been studied. Using a dataset with good temporal resolution, obtained from cores collected from seven tropical reservoirs, we evaluated patterns of spatial and temporal homogenization, i.e. the trends in temporal α-diversity and spatial β-diversity (change in community composition), of diatom assemblages over the past 60–100 years. The paleolimnological records allowed us to study biodiversity trends since the initial community (reservoir construction) in those systems with low anthropogenic impact and also those undergoing eutrophication. No clear trend of spatial β-diversity change over time was found when all reservoirs were analyzed together. However, when only eutrophic reservoirs were considered, a marked decrease in the spatial β-diversity occurred, suggesting that eutrophication leads to homogenization of the diatom assemblage. These findings were reinforced by the lack of change in β-diversity when the age of the reservoirs was standardized, indicating that the reservoirs’ ontogeny did not influence the spatial β-diversity trend and β-diversity did not increase even in the reservoirs with low anthropogenic impact. In addition, the results showed a decrease of α-diversity over time for almost all the eutrophic reservoirs, as well as a decrease in the total species pool for the reservoirs, although periphytic diatoms may be favored by the appearance and sometimes mass development of floating macrophytes in warm, shallow eutrophic reservoirs. This study supports the role of eutrophication as one of the main drivers of diatom assemblage homogenization in tropical reservoirs, with a significant loss of species over time.     

Focused groundwater discharge of phosphorus to a eutrophic seepage lake (Lake Væng, Denmark): implications for lake ecological state and restoration

A study on Lake Væng in Denmark demonstrates a high potential for loading of phosphorous via groundwater to seepage lakes. Groundwater discharges are displayed as an important source of phosphorous to a lake due to: (1) high concentrations in the aquifer just below the lake, and (2) the main flow paths through the aquifer–lakebed interface either being overland flow through a seepage face, or focused in zones with very high discharge rates. In-lake springs have measured discharge of up to 7.45 m³ per m² of lakebed per day. These findings were based on seepage meter measurements at 18 locations, stable isotope (δ¹⁸O) analyses, temperature profiles and mapping of ice cover distribution. Groundwater–lake interaction was modelled with a 2D conceptual flow model (MODFLOW) with hydrogeology interpreted from catchment multi electrode profiling, on-lake ground-penetrating radar, well logging and borehole data. Discharge was found to be much focused and opposite to expected increase away from the shoreline. The average total phosphorus concentration in discharging groundwater sampled just beneath the lakebed was 0.162 mg TP/l and thereby well over freshwater ecological thresholds (0.043–0.612, median = 0.117 mg TP/l). The study illustrates a direct link between groundwater and lake chemistry.     

A framework for testing the ability of models to project climate change and its impacts

Models used for climate change impact projections are typically not tested for simulation beyond current climate conditions. Since we have no data truly reflecting future conditions, a key challenge in this respect is to rigorously test models using proxies of future conditions. This paper presents a validation framework and guiding principles applicable across earth science disciplines for testing the capability of models to project future climate change and its impacts. Model test schemes comprising split-sample tests, differential split-sample tests and proxy site tests are discussed in relation to their application for projections by use of single models, ensemble modelling and space-time-substitution and in relation to use of different data from historical time series, paleo data and controlled experiments. We recommend that differential-split sample tests should be performed with best available proxy data in order to build further confidence in model projections.     

Relatedness between contemporary and subfossil cladoceran assemblages in Turkish lakes

Cladocerans are valuable indicators of environmental change in lakes. Their fossils provide information on past changes in lake environments. However, few studies have quantitatively examined the relationships between contemporary and sub-fossil cladoceran assemblages and no investigations are available from Mediterranean lakes where salinity, eutrophication and top-down control of large-bodied cladocerans are known to be important. Here we compared contemporary Cladocera assemblages, sampled in summer, from both littoral and pelagic zones, with their sub-fossil remains from surface sediment samples from 40 Turkish, mainly shallow, lakes. A total of 20 and 27 taxa were recorded in the contemporary and surface sediment samples, respectively. Procrustes rotation was applied to both the principal components analysis (PCA) and redundancy analysis (RDA) ordinations in order to explore the relationship between the cladoceran community and the environmental variables. Procrustes rotation analysis based on PCA showed a significant accord between both littoral and combined pelagic–littoral contemporary and sedimentary assemblages. RDA ordinations indicated that a similar proportion of variance was explained by environmental variation for the contemporary and fossil Cladocera data. Total phosphorus and salinity were significant explanatory variables for the contemporary assemblage, whereas salinity emerged as the only significant variable for the sedimentary assemblage. The residuals from the Procrustes rotation identified a number of lakes with a high degree of dissimilarity between modern and sub-fossil assemblages. Analysis showed that high salinity, deep water and high macrophyte abundance were linked to a lower accord between contemporary and sedimentary assemblages. This low accord was, generally the result of poor representation of some salinity tolerant, pelagic and macrophyte-associated taxa in the contemporary samples. This study provides further confirmation that there is a robust relationship between samples of modern cladoceran assemblages and their sedimentary remains. Thus, sub-fossil cladoceran assemblages from sediment cores can be used with confidence to track long-term changes in this environmentally sensitive group and in Mediterranean lakes, subjected to large inter-annual variation in water level, salinity and nutrients.