Long-term limnological research and monitoring at Crater Lake, Oregon

Larson, Gary L.; Collier, Robert W.; Buktenica, Mark W.

doi:10.1007/s10750-006-0342-6

Cited by 9 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…While we could assess the main effects of lower nutrients on productivity further investigations are necessary in order to fully understand the meteorological, biotic and abiotic factors responsible for the variability of the annual areal production in recent years. This complexity of evolving lake ecology requires a long‐term monitoring of limnological parameters only available for a few lakes such as Lake Tahoe, California‐Nevada [ Goldman , ; Jassby et al ., ], Crater Lake, Oregon [ Larson et al ., ] or Mondsee in Austria [ Dokulil , ] to name a few representative examples.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of oligotrophication on primary production in peri‐alpine lakes

Finger

Wüest

Bossard

2013

Water Resources Research

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[1] During the second half of the 20th century untreated sewage released from housing and industry into natural waters led to a degradation of many freshwater lakes and reservoirs worldwide. In order to mitigate eutrophication, wastewater treatment plants, including Fe-induced phosphorus precipitation, were implemented throughout the industrialized world, leading to reoligotrophication in many freshwater lakes. To understand and assess the effects of reoligotrophication on primary productivity, we analyzed 28 years of 14 C assimilation rates, as well as other biotic and abiotic parameters, such as global radiation, nutrient concentrations and plankton densities in peri-alpine Lake Lucerne, Switzerland. Using a simple productivity-light relationship, we estimated continuous primary production and discussed the relation between productivity and observed limnological parameters. Furthermore, we assessed the uncertainty of our modeling approach based on monthly 14 C assimilation measurements using Monte Carlo simulations. Results confirm that monthly sampling of productivity is sufficient for identifying long-term trends in productivity and that conservation management has successfully improved water quality during the past three decades via reducing nutrients and primary production in the lake. However, even though nutrient concentrations have remained constant in recent years, annual primary production varies significantly from year to year. Despite the fact that nutrient concentrations have decreased by more than an order of magnitude, primary production has decreased only slightly. These results suggest that primary production correlates well to nutrients availability but meteorological conditions lead to interannual variability regardless of the trophic status of the lake. Accordingly, in oligotrophic freshwaters meteorological forcing may reduce productivity impacting on the entire food chain of the ecosystem.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of oligotrophication on primary production in peri‐alpine lakes

Finger

Wüest

Bossard

2013

Water Resources Research

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“…Lake Tahoe is a subalpine, ultra-oligotrophic to oligotrophic, graben lake in the states of California and Nevada, western USA where increasing cultural eutrophication is coupling the flow of energy between the pelagic environment and benthic habitat where invertebrates reside (for a detailed description of the lake see [ 13 , 14 , 15 ]). Crater Lake is an alpine, ultra-oligotrophic, caldera lake in the state of Oregon, western USA (for a detailed description see [ 16 ]). Lake Hövsgöl is a subalpine, ultra-oligotrophic to oligotrophic, graben, lake in the Hövsgöl province in the north central region of Mongolia (for a detailed description of this location see [ 17 , 18 ]).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns in Benthic Biodiversity Link Lake Trophic Status to Structure and Potential Function of Three Large, Deep Lakes

et al. 2015

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Relative to their scarcity, large, deep lakes support a large proportion of the world’s freshwater species. This biodiversity is threatened by human development and is in need of conservation. Direct comparison of biodiversity is the basis of biological monitoring for conservation but is difficult to conduct between large, insular ecosystems. The objective of our study was to conduct such a comparison of benthic biodiversity between three of the world’s largest lakes: Lake Tahoe, USA; Lake Hövsgöl, Mongolia; and Crater Lake, USA. We examined biodiversity of common benthic organism, the non-biting midges (Chironomidae) and determined lake trophic status using chironomid-based lake typology, tested whether community structure was similar between the three lakes despite geographic distance; and tested whether chironomid diversity would show significant variation within and between lakes. Typology analysis indicated that Lake Hövsgöl was ultra-oligotrophic, Crater Lake was oligotrophic, and Lake Tahoe was borderline oligotrophic/mesotrophic. These results were similar to traditional pelagic measures of lake trophic status for Lake Hövsgöl and Crater Lake but differed for Lake Tahoe, which has been designated as ultra-oligotrophic by traditional pelagic measures such as transparency found in the literature. Analysis of similarity showed that Lake Tahoe and Lake Hövsgöl chironomid communities were more similar to each other than either was to Crater Lake communities. Diversity varied between the three lakes and spatially within each lake. This research shows that chironomid communities from these large lakes were sensitive to trophic conditions. Chironomid communities were similar between the deep environments of Lake Hövsgöl and Lake Tahoe, indicating that chironomid communities from these lakes may be useful in comparing trophic state changes in large lakes. Spatial variation in Lake Tahoe’s diversity is indicative of differential response of chironomid communities to nutrient enrichment which may be an indication of changes in trophic state within and across habitats.

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Seasonal patterns of phytoplankton photoacclimation in a dimictic oligotrophic lake over 5 yr: Implications for chlorophyll as an estimate of biomass

Girdner,

Sprague

2024

Limnology & Oceanography

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Chlorophyll a is commonly used as a surrogate for algal biomass in lakes and oceans even though phytoplankton can readily adjust intracellular chlorophyll concentration to changes in the environment through a cellular process termed photoacclimation. Marine studies have documented fluctuations in cellular chlorophyll to year‐round changes in light intensity and nutrients using the chlorophyll : carbon ratio to estimate cellular pigment density. However, similar freshwater studies are almost exclusively limited to chlorophyll : carbon ratios at the summertime deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM) depth in less productive water. This study expands direct estimates of freshwater photoacclimation to all seasons of the year utilizing optically derived estimates of algal carbon and chlorophyll fluorescence from high‐frequency (daily) data. We describe patterns of photoacclimation at daily, seasonal, and interannual time scales over a 5‐yr period. We show that increases in chlorophyll density at the cellular level not only occurred at the DCM depth during summer stratification but were a dominant and recurring feature when the lake was vertically mixing in fall, winter, and spring. Pigment density within the mixed layer was negatively correlated with light level, indicating a photoacclimation driven response to reduced light intensity. Predicting how cellular pigment density is affected by the surrounding environment in a replicated range of lake systems is needed if chlorophyll is to be accurately used as an estimate of algal biomass in freshwaters.

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Long-term limnological research and monitoring at Crater Lake, Oregon

Cited by 9 publications

References 30 publications

Effects of oligotrophication on primary production in peri‐alpine lakes

Effects of oligotrophication on primary production in peri‐alpine lakes

Patterns in Benthic Biodiversity Link Lake Trophic Status to Structure and Potential Function of Three Large, Deep Lakes

Seasonal patterns of phytoplankton photoacclimation in a dimictic oligotrophic lake over 5 yr: Implications for chlorophyll as an estimate of biomass

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