Over recent decades, palaeolimnological records from remote sites have provided convincing evidence for the onset and development of several facets of global environmental change. Remote lakes, defined here as those occurring in high latitude or high altitude regions, have the advantage of not being overprinted by local anthropogenic processes. As such, many of these sites record broad-scale environmental changes, frequently driven by regime shifts in the Earth system. Here, we review a selection of studies from North America and Europe and discuss their broader implications. The history of investigation has evolved synchronously with the scope and awareness of environmental problems. An initial focus on acid deposition switched to metal and other types of pollutants, then climate change and eventually to atmospheric deposition-fertilising effects. However, none of these topics is independent of the other, and all of them affect ecosystem function and biodiversity in profound ways. Currently, remote lake palaeolimnology is developing unique datasets for each region investigated that benchmark current trends with A celebration of Prof. Rick Battarbee's contributions to palaeolimnology, edited by Holmes et al.This paper has been written as a contribution to celebrating Rick Battarbee's influence on palaeolimnology. Some of us have benefitted from his leadership (and friendship) in transnational European projects during the last decade (e.g., ALPE, ALPE2, MOLAR, CHILL-10000, EMERGE, EUROLIMPACS), which together with some other initiatives spawned pan-European remote lake research. Others have respected Rick as a teacher, colleague and a friend. To some extent, this review follows the chronological order of topics addressed in these projects, which also respond to the growing social awareness about each issue. Rick also facilitated bridges between North American and European schools, and beyond. We expect his attitude towards collaboration will pervade and persist through the palaeolimnological community for years to come, and global change will certainly provide stimulating and challenging questions with which to do so.

Global warming is one of the major issues with which mankind is being confronted, having vital ecological and economic consequences. Ice-cover, snow-cover and water temperatures in alpine catchments are controlled by air temperatures, and so are very susceptible to shifts in climate. Local factors such as wind exposure, shading, and snow patches that persist during cold summers can, however, modify the sensitivities of the relationships to air temperature. Thermistors exposed in 45 mountain lakes of the central Austrian Alps (Niedere Tauern) measured water temperatures during 1998 – 2003 at two or four hourly intervals. Degree-day and exponential smoothing models tuned with this data suggest we can anticipate extremely large temperature rises in some of the Niedere Tauern lakes in the coming century. Lakes at around 1500 to 2000 m altitude are found to be ultra-sensitive as they lie in the elevation range where changes in both ice-cover and snow-cover duration will be particularly pronounced. In the more extreme cases, our impact models predict a summer-epilimnion water-temperature rise of over 10 degrees. One example of a lake most at risk to future climate change is Moaralmsee. This lake is located at 1825 m a.s.l. on the northern slopes of the Niedere Tauern; its water temperature is likely to rise by 12 degrees. The projected water discharge, ice-cover duration and water temperature changes for the Tauern catchments in the coming century far exceed the variations experienced at any stage during the last ten thousand years

The percentage distributions of Fragilaria and Staurosira taxa in surface sediment samples from 40 oligo- to ultra-oligotrophic, pH neutral to alkaline, mountain lakes of the central Austrian Alps (Niedere Tauern) were studied in relation to environmental variables using multivariate statistics. Selected taxa that were of uncertain taxonomy or that might be difficult to distinguish were illustrated in LM or SEM. The same statistics as they were applied to the total diatom data set were run on a Fragilariaceae subset with Fragilaria and Staurosira. These analyses emphasized on the high sensitivity of these genera to climate-driven environmental variables in mountain lakes. Canonical Correspondence Analyses (CCA) indicated that the pH, mean July water temperature (TJuly), length of ice cover, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) made significant contributions to explain the variation in the diatom assemblages. In addition, water depth affected the distribution of benthic and planktonic taxa. Differences or similarities in ecological preferences of taxa provided suggestions for taxonomy. Correlations between the mean valve length and summer water temperatures increase the overall high potential of Fragilaria and Staurosira for palaeoclimatological reconstructions in mountain lakes

R. 2005 (November): Chrysophyte resting stages: a tool for reconstructing winter/ spring climate from Alpine lake sediments. Boreas, Vol. 34, Chrysophyte algae produce siliceous resting stages (stomatocysts) that are indicators of past environmental conditions. The objective of this study was to assess their strength for climate reconstructions. Stomatocysts were collected using sediment traps exposed in 45 mountain lakes (1502-2309 m a.s.l., Austrian Alps). Bihourly water-temperature measurements were used to determine dates of freezing and break-up, spring and autumn mixing. Canonical correspondence analyses revealed that the stomatocyst assemblages were related to the dates of ice break-up and spring mixing. The two dates are controlled by winter/spring air temperature. We developed a weighted averaging-partial least squares (WA-PLS) stomatocyst/date-of-spring-mixing regression and calibration model (R 2 boot = 0.85), and reconstructed 'dates of spring mixing' for Jezero v Ledvici (1824 m a.s.l., Slovenian Alps) from AD 1842 to 1996. Sample-specific standard errors of prediction corresponded to 0.6 C -1.0 C. Despite dating uncertainties and poor fits of fossil assemblages with the training set, reconstructed 'dates of spring mixing' were significantly correlated with the mean March-April air temperature, which is known to drive break-up dates. Furthermore, the record was in agreement with glacier advances during the Little Ice Age.