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Food Web Complexity of High Mountain Lakes is Largely Affected by Glacial Retreat

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Abstract

High mountain lakes provide essential ecosystem services and have a high conservation value. Therefore, understanding how glacier retreat will affect their ecological functioning and water quality is crucial. Here, we tested how shallow high mountain lakes having different glacial influences differ in their abiotic main features and food web structure using a multiple ecological indicator approach. We identified 13 functional groups within the planktonic and littoral communities, each one representing a biotic indicator and a node in a simplified food web network. The abiotic environment and most functional groups differed significantly as a consequence of the glacial influence. In general, runoff from glacial meltwaters resulted in highly simplified food webs. Considering that many turbid glacially fed lakes are losing their hydrological connection with disappearing/retreating glaciers and shifting to a clear state, our results suggest that this shift could enhance food web complexity, but at the cost of losing specific habitats. Further, retreat of large glaciers will form new glacially fed lakes, but it remains unclear whether this will buffer the expected habitat and biodiversity loss.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Giuseppe Bogliani (University of Pavia) and Bruno Bassano (Gran Paradiso National Park) for their commitment to research; the Park wardens for the logistic support and hospitality; Fabio Ribelli, Federica Manassero, and Marco Armodi for their help during the field work. Funding for this research was provided by the University of Pavia with the Grant Number 105355 issued to Rocco Tiberti. Additional funding was provided by the IRSA-CNR of Verbania Pallanza for chemical and flow cytometer analyses and by the University of Innsbruck and the Austrian Science Fund (Grant P24442-B25) to Ruben Sommaruga.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DSTA, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e dell’Ambiente, Università di Pavia, Via Ferrata 9, 27100, Pavia, Italy

    Rocco Tiberti & Francesco Buscaglia

  2. CNR Water Research Institute, Largo Tonolli 50, 28922, Verbania, Pallanza, Italy

    Cristiana Callieri, Michela Rogora & Gabriele Tartari

  3. Lake and Glacier Research Group, Department of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 25, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    Ruben Sommaruga

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  1. Rocco Tiberti
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  2. Francesco Buscaglia
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  3. Cristiana Callieri
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  4. Michela Rogora
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  5. Gabriele Tartari
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  6. Ruben Sommaruga
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Correspondence to Rocco Tiberti.

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Author contributions RT, RS and CC conceived the study; RT, FB and RS performed the field work; FB, RT, MR, GT and CC performed the laboratory work; RT and RS made the final data analyses and led the writing of the paper. All authors contributed critically to manuscript drafts.

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Tiberti, R., Buscaglia, F., Callieri, C. et al. Food Web Complexity of High Mountain Lakes is Largely Affected by Glacial Retreat. Ecosystems 23, 1093–1106 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-019-00457-8

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