Acidification and the structure of crustacean zooplankton in mountain lakes: The Tatra Mountains (Slovakia, Poland)

Physicochemical properties of mountain streams in the High and Western Tatras

The aim of this study was to measure the physicochemical properties of 28 mountain streams in Tatra National Park, Slovakia. Sampling sites (119) were selected based on a previous study conducted in 2010. Physical properties (e.g., temperature, conductivity, total dissolved solids, pH, and dissolved oxygen) and chemical components (e.g., nitrogen oxides, ammonia oxides, chloride compounds, and chemical oxygen demand) of the water were determined. Environmental parameters of streams (elevation, slope, aspect, width, depth, flow accumulation, watershed size, bedrock, and presence of mountain lakes) at sampling sites were examined. While comparing results from both periods (2010 and 2017), we found a correlation in data trends, concluding that elevation plays a significant role in almost all investigated parameters. Downstream, streams were more saturated by dissolved solids, CaCO3, and nitrates, increasing the pH level. Despite this well-known trend, we observed significant higher levels of ammonias and chlorides in the alpine zone, especially at sites where higher water temperature and lower values of dissolved oxygen were observed. This occurred in the Eastern Tatras, below mountain lakes, and where watersheds had granite origins. There are indications that denitrification processes were significantly stronger in 2017, but, on the other hand, increased chlorides resulted in stronger inhibition of nitrification processes in alpine zones at sites below mountain lakes.

The role of abiotic variables in an emerging global amphibian fungal disease in mountains

The emergence of the chytridiomycete fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), causing the disease chytridiomycosis, has caused collapse of amphibian communities in numerous mountain systems. The health of amphibians and of mountain freshwater habitats they inhabit is also threatened by ongoing changes in environmental and anthropogenic factors such as climate, hydrology, and pollution. Climate change is causing more extreme climatic events, shifts in ice occurrence, and changes in the timing of snowmelt and pollutant deposition cycles. All of these factors impact both pathogen and host, and disease dynamics. Here we review abiotic variables, known to control Bd occurrence and chytridiomycosis severity, and discuss how climate change may modify them. We propose two main categories of abiotic variables that may alter Bd distribution, persistence, and physiology: 1) climate and hydrology (temperature, precipitation, hydrology, ultraviolet radiation (UVR); and, 2) water chemistry (pH, salinity, pollution). For both categories, we identify topics for further research. More studies on the relationship between global change, pollution and pathogens in complex landscapes, such as mountains, are needed to allow for accurate risk assessments for freshwater ecosystems and resulting impacts on wildlife and human health. Our review emphasizes the importance of using data of higher spatiotemporal resolution and uniform abiotic metrics in order to better compare study outcomes. Fine-scale temperature variability, especially of water temperature, variability of moisture conditions and water levels, snow, ice and runoff dynamics should be assessed as abiotic variables shaping the mountain habitat of pathogen and host. A better understanding of hydroclimate and water chemistry variables, as co-factors in disease, will increase our understanding of chytridiomycosis dynamics.

Diverse effects of accelerating climate change on chemical recovery of alpine lakes from acidic deposition in soil-rich versus scree-rich catchments

The current recovery of mountain lakes from atmospheric acidification is increasingly affected (both accelerated and/or delayed) by climate change. We evaluated long-term trends in the ionic composition of 30 lakes situated in the alpine zone of the Tatra Mountains, and compared the rates of their recovery with model (MAGIC) simulations done 20 years ago for the 2003-2020 period. The observed recovery was faster than the model forecast, due to greater reductions in acidic deposition than projected. Trends in water composition were further modified by climate change. Rising temperatures increased the length of the growing season and retention of inorganic N and SO₄^2- more in soil-rich compared with soil-poor catchments. In contrast, elevated precipitation and an increase in rainfall intensity reduced water residence time in soils, and consequently reduced N retention, especially in soil-poor catchments. It is likely that increases in rainfall intensity and annual number of days without snow, along with air temperatures fluctuating around the freezing point elevated the physical erosion of rocks, especially in high-elevation, steep, and scree-rich areas where rocks are not thermally insulated and stabilized by soils. Weathering of exposed accessory calcite in the eroded granodiorite bedrock was a source of Ca²⁺ and HCO₃^-, while S-bearing minerals likely contributed to lake water SO₄^2- and partly mitigated its deposition-related decrease in scree-rich catchments. The extent of climate effects on changes in the water composition of alpine lakes recovering from acidic deposition thus depended on elevation and cover of soil and scree in catchments. Our results highlight the need for incorporating dominant climate-related process into existing process-based models to increase their reliability in predicting the future development of lake water composition.

Chloromonas nivalis subsp. tatrae, subsp. nov. (Chlamydomonadales, Chlorophyta): re-examination of a snow alga from the High Tatra Mountains (Slovakia)

Melting snow fields populated by aplanozygotes of the genus Chloromonas (Chlamydomonadales, Chlorophyta) are found in polar and alpine habitats. In the High Tatra Mountains (Slovakia), cells causing blooms of brownish-red snow designated as Scotiella tatrae kol turned out to be genetically (18S, ITS1 and ITS2 rDNA, rbcL) very closely related to Chloromonas nivalis (Chodat) Hoham et Mullet from the Austrian Alps. Therefore, Sc. tatrae is transferred into the latter taxon and reduced to a subspecies as Cr. nivalis subsp. tatrae. Both exhibit a similar photosynthetic performance, thrive in similar habitats at open sites above timberline, but differ in astaxanthin accumulation and number of aplanozygote cell wall flanges. In a field sample of Cr. nivalis subsp. tatrae, polyunsaturated fatty acids formed nearly 50 % of total lipids, dominating in phospholipids and glycolipids. Cr. nivalis subsp. tatrae represents likely a variation of a common cryoflora species with distinct morphology.

Limited acid deposition inferred from diatoms during the 20th century - A case study from lakes in the Tatra Mountains

Mountain lakes are usually sensitive to the effects of global and regional environmental changes. Since the second half of the 20th century, surface-water acidification has become a significant ecological problem, and many lakes in Europe and North America have anthropogenically acidified. Additionally, following reduction in emissions of sulfur (S) and nitrogen (N) compounds, recovery from acidification has been observed in many lakes. In this study, we used changes in diatom communities to reconstruct the pH histories based on changes recorded in nine Tatra lakes (Western Carpathians, Poland) since approximately 1850AD. Overall, results indicate that acidic precipitation had little influence on lake-water pH in the Tatra Mountain lakes. Changes in diatom-inferred pH (DI-pH) generally were small and showed little evidence of acidification during the time of the highest air pollution (since the 1960s), and have shown little change since the reduction of acidic deposition since the 1990s. Lakes that showed some evidence of acidification included dystrophic lakes with low acid neutralizing capacity. However, as illustrated by the PCA trajectories of the diatom assemblages, the majority of the lakes currently contain diatom assemblages that are unlike the diatom floras that existed ca. 1850.

Effects of acidic deposition on in-lake phosphorus availability: a lesson from lakes recovering from acidification

Lake water concentrations of phosphorus (P) recently increased in some mountain areas due to elevated atmospheric input of P rich dust. We show that increasing P concentrations also occur during stable atmospheric P inputs in central European alpine lakes recovering from atmospheric acidification. The elevated P availability in the lakes results from (1) increasing terrestrial export of P accompanying elevated leaching of dissolved organic carbon and decreasing phosphate-adsorption ability of soils due to their increasing pH, and (2) decreasing in-lake P immobilization by aluminum (Al) hydroxide due to decreasing leaching of ionic Al from the recovering soils. The P availability in the recovering lakes is modified by the extent of soil acidification, soil composition, and proportion of till and meadow soils in the catchment. These mechanisms explain several conflicting observations of the acid rain effects on surface water P concentrations.

Strong differences in the clonal variation of two Daphnia species from mountain lakes affected by overwintering strategy

BACKGROUND

The population structure of cyclical parthenogens such as water fleas is strongly influenced by the frequency of alternations between sexual and asexual (parthenogenetic) reproduction, which may differ among populations and species. We studied genetic variation within six populations of two closely related species of water fleas of the genus Daphnia (Crustacea, Cladocera). D. galeata and D. longispina both occur in lakes in the Tatra Mountains (Central Europe), but their populations show distinct life history strategies in that region. In three studied lakes inhabited by D. galeata, daphnids overwinter under the ice as adult females. In contrast, in lakes inhabited by D. longispina, populations apparently disappear from the water column and overwinter as dormant eggs in lake sediments. We investigated to what extent these different strategies lead to differences in the clonal composition of late summer populations.

RESULTS

Analysis of genetic variation at nine microsatellite loci revealed that clonal richness (expressed as the proportion of different multilocus genotypes, MLGs, in the whole analysed sample) consistently differed between the two studied species. In the three D. longispina populations, very high clonal richness was found (MLG/N ranging from 0.97 to 1.00), whereas in D. galeata it was much lower (0.05 to 0.50). The dominant MLGs in all D. galeata populations were heterozygous at five or more loci, suggesting that such individuals all represented the same clonal lineages rather than insufficiently resolved groups of different clones.

CONCLUSIONS

The low clonal diversities and significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in D. galeata populations were likely a consequence of strong clonal erosion over extended periods of time (several years or even decades) and the limited influence of sexual reproduction. Our data reveal that populations of closely related Daphnia species living in relatively similar habitats (permanent, oligotrophic mountain lakes) within the same region may show strikingly different genetic structures, which most likely depend on their reproductive strategy during unfavourable periods. We assume that similar impacts of life history on population structures are also relevant for other cyclical parthenogen groups. In extreme cases, prolonged clonal erosion may result in the dominance of a single clone within a population, which might limit its microevolutionary potential if selection pressures suddenly change.