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20 Years of Global Change on the Limnology and Plankton of a Tropical, High-Altitude Lake. DIVERSITY 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/d14030190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The present long-term (1993–2013) study was aimed at identifying the effects of global change on the environmental characteristics and the plankton community of the tropical, high-altitude Lake Alchichica, Puebla, Mexico. We found no statistically significant increasing trend in air temperature, but an increase from 2002 to 2013, and interannual variability in the meteorological variables. Accordingly, the water temperature rose from 1993 to 2003 and remained similar until 2013. Nonetheless, on a longer-term (1966-2018), longer than the period considered in the present study, air and water temperatures showed an increasing trend in the range considered indicative of climate change. The lake displayed a characteristic warm monomictic thermal pattern but exhibited interannual variability. The planktonic community composition and structure remained similar. The small chlorophytes (e.g., Monoraphidium minutum) dominated the phytoplankton abundance, while the large diatom Cyclotella alchichicana dominated the biomass. The calanoid copepod Leptodiaptomus garciai dominated both the zooplankton abundance and biomass. However, as the temperature increased the large-size phytoplankton (i.e., C. alchichicana) abundance and biomass increased, but the small-size phytoplankton abundance and biomass, as well as the adult copepod abundance and biomass, decreased. The increase in temperature could have favoured the large-size over the small-size phytoplankton. In addition, the temperature increase could have negatively affected the calanoid copepods in two different ways—direct association with the negative effects of higher temperatures on the physiology of the copepods, or indirect association with the negative effects of higher temperatures on the small-size phytoplankton, which diminish the copepods’ food resource.
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Kuefner W, Hofmann AM, Geist J, Dubois N, Raeder U. Algal Community Change in Mountain Lakes of the Alps Reveals Effects of Climate Warming and Shifting Treelines 1. JOURNAL OF PHYCOLOGY 2021; 57:1266-1283. [PMID: 33751611 DOI: 10.1111/jpy.13163] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2020] [Revised: 01/19/2021] [Accepted: 02/04/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
The biological communities of mountain lakes are suspected to be highly sensitive to global warming and associated catchment changes. To identify the parameters determining algal community responses, subfossil pigments from 21 different mountain lakes in the Bavarian-Tyrolean Limestone Alps were investigated. Sediment cores were radio-isotopically dated, and their pigment preservation evaluated. General additive models (GAM) of pigment compositions were calculated with temperature as the explanatory variable and generalized linear models with several lake parameters explaining log-transformed GAM P-values. Lake depth and trophic state were identified as major control variables of the algal community and productivity changes. Shifts in a deep oligotrophic alpine lake (lg(P) = -1.04) were half as strong as in a shallow mesotrophic alpine lake (lg(P) = -1.86) with faster warming and higher productivity forcing the development of biomass. Phytoplankton and macrophyte pigments increased clearly with warming, at lower altitudes, and decreased at the treeline, so that periphytic pigments dominated alpine sediments. This pattern is probably the result of interactions of UV radiation and allochthonous inputs of DOM. Our findings suggest that (sub)alpine shallow lakes with higher nutrient levels are most vulnerable to climate change-driven changes whereas deep, nutrient-poor lakes appear more resilient.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wolfgang Kuefner
- Department for Life Science Systems, Aquatic Systems Biology Unit, Limnological Research Station Iffeldorf, Technical University of Munich, Hofmark 1-3, D-82393, Iffeldorf, Germany
| | - Andrea M Hofmann
- Department for Life Science Systems, Aquatic Systems Biology Unit, Limnological Research Station Iffeldorf, Technical University of Munich, Hofmark 1-3, D-82393, Iffeldorf, Germany
| | - Juergen Geist
- Department for Life Science Systems, Aquatic Systems Biology Unit, Technical University of Munich, Mühlenweg 22, D-85354, Freising, Germany
| | - Natalie Dubois
- Department Surface Waters - Sedimentology, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), Überlandstrasse 133, CH-8600, Dübendorf, Switzerland
| | - Uta Raeder
- Department for Life Science Systems, Aquatic Systems Biology Unit, Limnological Research Station Iffeldorf, Technical University of Munich, Hofmark 1-3, D-82393, Iffeldorf, Germany
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Kuefner W, Hofmann AM, Geist J, Raeder U. Evaluating climate change impacts on mountain lakes by applying the new silicification value to paleolimnological samples. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2020; 715:136913. [PMID: 32007888 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.136913] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2019] [Revised: 01/17/2020] [Accepted: 01/22/2020] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The evaluation of climate change impact on lakes typically relies on statistical methods like the reorganisation of organism communities (beta diversity) or transfer functions. A new method uses the silicification of diatoms that correlates with temperature and nutrients. The so-called silicification value (SiVa) overcomes problems of descriptive statistics or absent indicator species. Averaged over diatom communities, it related inversely to lake surface temperatures in mountain lakes. Hence, its change over time (δ SiVa) in a lake was hypothesised to reflect global change-driven lake warming quantitatively, which supposedly climaxes in shallow lakes. Sixteen different δ SiVa calculation approaches were tested. They (1) included or excluded planktic diatoms, (2) integrated fixed or variable time series referring to climate data or changes in diatom assemblages, (3) employed a top-bottom or regression approach and (4) expressed the δ SiVa as relative or absolute values. Subfossil diatom assemblages from 24 sediment cores from Bavarian and north Tyrolian mountain lakes served as sample set. All possible approaches were evaluated for their explanatory power for lake characteristics using GLMs. The top-bottom benthic approach with fixed climate data-based time series appeared to be the best model based on AIC and the extent of variable integration. In line with the hypothesis, the strongest decrease of δ SiVa was evident in most shallow lakes. Segmented regression further highlighted a positive correlation with depth if shallower than 10 m. By referring to the negative SiVa-summer temperature relation, δ SiVa also enabled the quantification of lake warming within the last decades, which ranged mainly between 0.1 °C and 1.1 °C per decade, consistent with existing literature. Additionally, a 100 year temperature reconstruction from a varved sediment core successfully validated the approach. Further studies may focus and extend its application to deeper lakes, but it can already serve as a powerful tool in palaeolimnological studies of shallow lakes like hard-water mountain lakes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wolfgang Kuefner
- Aquatic Systems Biology Unit, Limnological Research Station Iffeldorf, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Technical University of Munich, Hofmark 1-3, D-82393 Iffeldorf, Germany.
| | - Andrea M Hofmann
- Aquatic Systems Biology Unit, Limnological Research Station Iffeldorf, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Technical University of Munich, Hofmark 1-3, D-82393 Iffeldorf, Germany.
| | - Juergen Geist
- Aquatic Systems Biology Unit, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Technical University of Munich, Mühlenweg 22, D-85354 Freising, Germany.
| | - Uta Raeder
- Aquatic Systems Biology Unit, Limnological Research Station Iffeldorf, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Technical University of Munich, Hofmark 1-3, D-82393 Iffeldorf, Germany.
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Jiang Y, Huang H, Ma T, Ru J, Blank S, Kurmayer R, Deng L. Temperature Response of Planktonic Microbiota in Remote Alpine Lakes. Front Microbiol 2019; 10:1714. [PMID: 31417513 PMCID: PMC6685043 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.01714] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2019] [Accepted: 07/11/2019] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Alpine lakes are considered pristine freshwater ecosystems and sensitive to direct and indirect changes in water temperature as induced by climate change. The bacterial plankton constitutes a key component in the water column and bacterial metabolic activity has direct consequences for water quality. In order to understand bacterial response to global temperature rise in five alpine lakes located in the Austrian Alps (1700-2188 m a.S.L.) water temperature was compared within a decadal period. Depth-integrated samples were characterized in community composition by 16S rDNA deep-amplicon sequencing early [56 ± 16 (SD) days after ice break up] and later (88 ± 16 days) in the growing season. Within the 10 years period, temperature rise was observed through reduced ice cover duration and increased average water temperature. During the early growing season, the average water temperature recorded between circulation in spring until sampling date (WAS), and the day of autumn circulation, as well as chemical composition including dissolved organic carbon influenced bacterial community composition. In contrast, only nutrients (such as nitrate) were found influential later in the growing season. Metabolic theory of ecology (MTE) was applied to explain the dependence of taxonomic richness on WAS in mathematical terms. The calculated activation energy exceeded the frequently reported prediction emphasizing the role of WAS during early growing season. Accordingly, the relative abundance of predicted metabolism related genes increased with WAS. Thus, the dominant influence of temperature after ice break up could be explained by overall climate change effects, such as a more intense warming in spring and an overall higher amplitude of temperature variation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yiming Jiang
- Institute of Virology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
- Institute of Virology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Haiying Huang
- Institute of Virology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
- Institute of Virology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Tianli Ma
- Institute of Virology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
- Institute of Virology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Jinlong Ru
- Institute of Virology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
- Institute of Virology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Stephan Blank
- Research Department for Limnology, Mondsee, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Rainer Kurmayer
- Research Department for Limnology, Mondsee, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Li Deng
- Institute of Virology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
- Institute of Virology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
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Jiménez L, Rühland KM, Jeziorski A, Smol JP, Pérez-Martínez C. Climate change and Saharan dust drive recent cladoceran and primary production changes in remote alpine lakes of Sierra Nevada, Spain. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2018; 24:e139-e158. [PMID: 28833814 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13878] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2017] [Accepted: 08/04/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Recent anthropogenic climate change and the exponential increase over the past few decades of Saharan dust deposition, containing ecologically important inputs of phosphorus (P) and calcium (Ca), are potentially affecting remote aquatic ecosystems. In this study, we examine changes in cladoceran assemblage composition and chlorophyll-a concentrations over the past ~150 years from high-resolution, well-dated sediment cores retrieved from six remote high mountain lakes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Southern Spain, a region affected by Saharan dust deposition. In each lake, marked shifts in cladoceran assemblages and chlorophyll-a concentrations in recent decades indicate a regional-scale response to climate and Saharan dust deposition. Chlorophyll-a concentrations have increased since the 1970s, consistent with a response to rising air temperatures and the intensification of atmospheric deposition of Saharan P. Similar shifts in cladoceran taxa across lakes began over a century ago, but have intensified over the past ~50 years, concurrent with trends in regional air temperature, precipitation, and increased Saharan dust deposition. An abrupt increase in the relative abundance of the benthic cladoceran Alona quadrangularis at the expense of Chydorus sphaericus, and a significant increase in Daphnia pulex gr. was a common trend in these softwater lakes. Differences in the magnitude and timing of these changes are likely due to catchment and lake-specific differences. In contrast with other alpine lakes that are often affected by acid deposition, atmospheric Ca deposition appears to be a significant explanatory factor, among others, for the changes in the lake biota of Sierra Nevada that has not been previously considered. The effects observed in Sierra Nevada are likely occurring in other Mediterranean lake districts, especially in softwater, oligotrophic lakes. The predicted increases in global temperature and Saharan dust deposition in the future will further impact the ecological condition of these ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Jiménez
- Institute of Water Research, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Kathleen M Rühland
- Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Lab (PEARL), Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
| | - Adam Jeziorski
- Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Lab (PEARL), Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
| | - John P Smol
- Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Lab (PEARL), Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
| | - Carmen Pérez-Martínez
- Institute of Water Research, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
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