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Contrasting responses of dimictic and polymictic lakes to environmental change: a spatial and temporal study

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Abstract

Although comparative analyses between dimictic and polymictic lakes have noted the key role of mixing regime in governing water quality, limnologists have historically focused on dimictic lakes, leaving polymictic lakes relatively understudied. In this study, we investigated whether the effects of agricultural development on water quality differed between dimictic and polymictic lakes in a naturally nutrient-rich region of Alberta, Canada. Through a spatial limnological analysis of 36 sites, we found that the relationship between surface water total phosphorus concentration and the percent of agriculture (% Agr) in the catchments differed between dimictic and polymictic lakes, where the proportion of variance explained was much more pronounced in the dimictic (79% explained) than in the polymictic systems (7% explained). Paleolimnological analyses of subfossil chironomids in surface sediment samples (0–1 cm) from 18 of the 36 study lakes, and in sediment core profiles from the dimictic and polymictic basins of a eutrophic lake, showed that water quality differed between mixis groups. We found that the surface sediment chironomid assemblages differed significantly between polymictic and dimictic lakes. Detailed analyses of the sediment cores demonstrated that the two basin types differed in their responses to land-use change through time, as only the dimictic basin showed a parallel increase in anoxia with increasing agricultural development. We suggest that in naturally-fertile landscapes, external nutrient loading exerts a more notable effect on dimictic lakes, whereas internal nutrient loading is more important in polymictic systems.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Joshua Kurek for training in chironomid taxonomy. Joanna Hobbins for providing help with the use of Geological Information Systems (GIS). Megan McLean, Amanda Krowski, Mike Bylik, Alberta Environment (AENV) and Alberta Lake Management Society (ALMS) for fieldwork assistance. Elena Bennett, Bronwyn Keatley, Brian Leung, Jesse Vermaire, Émilie Saulnier-Talbot, Dan Selbie, and Guangjie Chen for manuscript revisions. Erika Brown for reference revisions. Lauren McGruthers for her help with chironomid sub-sampling. Funding for this research came from the Lakeland Industry and Community Association of Alberta (LICA), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and McGill University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 Docteur Penfield, Montreal, QC, H3A 1B1, Canada

    Zofia Ecaterina Taranu & Irene Gregory-Eaves

  2. Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada

    Roland I. Hall

  3. Gartner Lee Limited, Bracebridge, ON, P1L 1S6, Canada

    Dörte Köster

  4. Cumulative Environmental Management Association, Edmonton, AB, T5T 1Y1, Canada

    Theo Charette

  5. Worley Parsons Komex, Edmonton, AB, T5N 3W6, Canada

    Francine Forrest

  6. Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, E3B 5A3, Canada

    Les C. Cwynar

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  1. Zofia Ecaterina Taranu
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  7. Irene Gregory-Eaves
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Correspondence to Zofia Ecaterina Taranu.

Appendix

Appendix

See Figs. 9, 10, 11

Fig. 9
figure 9

Chironomid relative abundances of the complete community from the top core intervals of 18 Albertan Basins. Taxa listed comprise at least 2% of the assemblage in at least two basins

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Fig. 10
figure 10

Relative abundances of the complete community from downcore chironomid assemblages of the dimictic basin (Moose V) of Moose Lake. Taxa listed comprise at least 2% of the assemblage in at least two sample intervals

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Fig. 11
figure 11

Relative abundances of the complete community from downcore chironomid assemblages of the polymictic basin (Moose M) of Moose Lake. Taxa listed comprise at least 2% of the assemblage in at least two sample intervals

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Taranu, Z.E., Köster, D., Hall, R.I. et al. Contrasting responses of dimictic and polymictic lakes to environmental change: a spatial and temporal study. Aquat. Sci. 72, 97–115 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-009-0120-4

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