Relationships among recent Alpine Cladocera remains and their environment: implications for climate-change studies

Abstract

Our objective was to assess the potential of Cladocera from mountain lakes for climate reconstruction. We related Cladocera from surface sediments of Alpine lakes (1,502-2,309 m asl) to 29 abiotic environmental variables using statistical methods. The environmental dataset included water chemistry, lake depth, and bi-hourly water-temperature logs, which were used to assess mean monthly water temperatures, dates of freezing and breakup, spring and autumn mixing. We found 14 different Cladocera of the families Bosminidae, Daphniidae, and Chydoridae. Lakes without Cladocera (eight lakes) were cold and/or ultra-oligotrophic, whereas lakes with planktonic and littoral Cladocera (19 lakes) were warmer and/or less oligotrophic. Lakes with only littoral Cladocera (18 lakes) had intermediate water temperatures/trophy. Changes in Cladocera assemblages were related to changes in climate, nutrients, and/or alkalinity. We found a climate threshold at which Bosminidae disappeared in 95% of the lakes. For climate-change research, we propose studying Cladocera along transects that include climatic thresholds.

Younger Dryas Cladocera assemblages from two valley mires in central Poland and their potential significance for climate reconstructions

“…It is not surprising that such taxa persisted in the YD, because these species are known to occur over a wide range of conditions, and they are tolerant of environmental stress (Duigan & Birks, 2000); they are also common in northern and in European mountain lakes (Kamenik et al, 2007;Bjerring et al, 2009). These species were often found to be pioneer taxa, i.e., early immigrants following the retreat of the ice (Szeroczyńska, 1998a).…”

“…This seems to imply that Cladocera records derived from floodplain sediments can be used to reconstruct changes in temperature just as reliably as can records based on cladoceran assemblages from lakes unaffected by fluvial influence. Recent ecological studies also suggest that Cladocera do respond to climate change (Kamenik et al, 2007;Bjerring et al, 2009;Nevalainen et al, 2011) even over a few decades, while their response to temperature is complex and indirect (Kattel et al, 2008).…”

“…One of the ways to illustrate the direction and magnitude of climate change, in addition to the presence of species preferring warm water, may be, as suggested by Kamenik et al (2007), shifts from assemblages with Bosminidae to assemblages without Bosminidae (and vice versa), as well as shifts in Bosminidae, i.e. the replacement of B. longirostris with species from the Eubosmina group.…”

The response of Cladocerans to recent environmental forcing in an Alpine Lake on the SE Tibetan Plateau

“…In these conditions, cladocerans become important as indicator species and for understanding the long-term ecological change of these lakes (Frey, 1986;Alric et al, 2013). Furthermore, the generally good preservation of their remains in lake sediment after death, the associated record of diversity of subfossil cladoceran assemblages, has allowed the reconstruction of long-term environmental forcing in high altitude lakes around the world (Lotter et al, 1997(Lotter et al, , 1998Kamenik et al, 2007;Kattel et al, 2008;Alric & Perga, 2011).…”

Evolution of small valley mire in central Poland as a result of hydroclimatic oscillations

“…pollen). Also correlations between Cladocera frequency and climatic conditions have been previously studied (Lotter et al, 1997;Szeroczyńska, 2006Kamenik et al, 2007. The initial interpretive possibilities for palaeoecological studies of Cladocera in flood records have been recently demonstrated, and tested mostly with young sediment (from the last two hundred years) associated with human activity (Galbarczyk-Gąsiorowska et al, 2009).…”