Small lakes in big landscape: Multi-scale drivers of littoral ecosystem in alpine lakes

Zaharescu, Dragos G.; Burghelea, Carmen I.; Hooda, Peter S.; Lester, R. N.; Palanca-Soler, Antonio

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.02.066

Cited by 17 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Research on mountain lake biota has tended to focus on the pelagic zone, but the littoral and deep zones may be very important for different processes including production. Recent findings suggest that the littoral zone of these lakes is more productive and diverse than the pelagic zone (Zaharescu et al, 2016). Paleolimnological research in littoral zones can provide insights into changes in these habitats are often overlooked and may be particularly important in mountain lakes.…”

Section: Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mountain lakes: Eyes on global environmental change

Moser

Baron

Brahney

et al. 2019

Global and Planetary Change

203

103

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Mountain lakes are often situated in protected natural areas, a feature that leads to their role as sentinels of global environmental change. Despite variations in latitude, mountain lakes share many features, including their location in catchments with steep topographic gradients, cold temperatures, high incident solar and ultraviolet radiation (UVR), and prolonged ice and snow cover. These characteristics, in turn, affect mountain lake ecosystem structure, diversity, and productivity. The lakes themselves are mostly small and shallow, and up until recently, have been characterized as oligotrophic. This paper provides a review and update of the growing body of research that shows that sediments in remote mountain lakes archive regional and global environmental changes, including those linked to climate change, altered biogeochemical cycles, and changes in dust composition and deposition, atmospheric fertilization, and biological manipulations. These archives provide an important record of global environmental change that pre-dates typical monitoring windows. Paleolimnological research at strategically selected lakes has increased our knowledge of interactions among multiple stressors and their synergistic effects on lake systems. Lakes from transects across steep climate (i.e., temperature and effective moisture) gradients in mountain regions show how environmental change alters lakes in close proximity, but at differing climate starting points. Such research in particular highlights the impacts of melting glaciers on mountain lakes. The addition of new proxies, including DNAbased techniques and novel stable isotopic analyses, provides a gateway to addressing novel research questions about global environmental change. Recent advances in remote sensing and continuous, high-frequency, limnological measurements will improve spatial and temporal resolution and help to add records to spatial gaps including tropical and southern latitudes.

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Section: Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mountain lakes: Eyes on global environmental change

Moser

Baron

Brahney

et al. 2019

Global and Planetary Change

203

103

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Moreover, compared to the other lakes, they can be considered as young and extreme ecosystems (Zaharescu et al, 2016). The elevated topography, the low ions and nutrients contents and the strong climate control make them particular ecosystems where a limited number of species are able to develop (Magnea et al, 2013;Zaharescu et al, 2016). With more than 50,000 high-altitude lakes across Europe , a number of studies were conducted to understand the functioning of these lakes (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benthic diatom communities in high altitude lakes: a large scale study in the French Alps

Feret¹,

Bouchez²,

Rimet³

2017

Ann. Limnol. - Int. J. Lim.

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-Altitude lakes are weakly impacted by human activities. This makes them choice ecosystems to understand how biological communities are impacted by natural factors. This question was addressed to littoral benthic diatoms, a largely used ecological indicator. We wanted to know if benthic diatoms in lakes are more impacted by local varying factors (altitude, lake depth...) or regional varying factors (geology). The study area takes place in the Northern French Alps. Littoral benthic diatoms of 63 natural lakes situated between 1350 and 2700 m · a.s.l. were sampled. Two categories of communities were observed: one of deep and lower altitude lakes and one of higher altitude and shallower lakes. In each category, communities were characterized and were corresponding to particular lake types: lakes dominated by a particular geology, lakes with a water level fluctuation, turbid lakes,... Communities did not show a spatial structure. We observed that local factors were more important than regional factors. Indeed, the study area displayed a mixed geology even at a local level. On another hand, altitude a local varying factor determines freezing period a determining item of high-altitude lake functioning.

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“…Introduced fish are known to have a considerable predatory impact on the macroinvertebrate communities inhabiting originally fishless mountain lakes (Carlisle and Hawkins, 1998;Knapp et al, 2001;Schilling et al, 2009;Tiberti et al, 2014), reducing the abundance of or extirpating entire ecological groups (epibenthic and nektonic macroinvertebrates), with just a few exceptions (e.g., Zaharescu et al, 2016). At the same time, the impact that introduced fish have on the composition and size structure of stream macroinvertebrates communities can be either lacking or weak (Allan, 1982;Flecker and Allan, 1984;Reice and Edwards, 1986;Culp, 1986;Ruetz et al, 2004;Cheever and Simon, 2009;Nicola et al, 2010), or noticeable and even profound (Bechara et al, 1992(Bechara et al, , 1993Buria et al, 2007;Rodríguez-Lozano et al, 2015;see Wooster, 1994 for a review and Meissner and Muotka, 2006 for a meta-analysis).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do alpine macroinvertebrates recover differently in lakes and rivers after alien fish eradication?

Tiberti

Brighenti

2019

Knowl. Manag. Aquat. Ecosyst.

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Introduced fish can have detrimental effects on native biota inhabiting alpine freshwaters with the extent of their impact depending on variables such as habitat features. The present study aims to compare the recovery of macroinvertebrate communities following a fish eradication campaign in a mountain lake (Lake Dres, 2087 m a.s.l., Western Italian Alps) and its inflowing and outflowing streams. All fish were removed using mechanical methods, not producing side-effects for macroinvertebrates. During eradication, the lake community, which had previously been greatly affected, rapidly recovered to levels typical of never-stocked lakes. Stream communities, however, were apparently not impacted by fish populations and remained relatively stable, proving their greater capacity to withstand fish presence. The abundance of spatial refugia and invertebrate recruitment (via birth or immigration) can explain the observed stability in stream communities. Drifting macroinvertebrates are often called into question to explain the resistance of stream communities as they can partially offset predation via benthic recruitment, but our results show that stream resistance can be high even where drift is low, i.e., in the outflowing stream.

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Small lakes in big landscape: Multi-scale drivers of littoral ecosystem in alpine lakes

Cited by 17 publications

References 35 publications

Mountain lakes: Eyes on global environmental change

Mountain lakes: Eyes on global environmental change

Benthic diatom communities in high altitude lakes: a large scale study in the French Alps

Do alpine macroinvertebrates recover differently in lakes and rivers after alien fish eradication?

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