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Evaluating diatom community composition in the absence of marked limnological gradients in the high Arctic: a surface sediment calibration set from Cornwallis Island (Nunavut, Canada)

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Abstract

Fossil diatom assemblages preserved within the sedimentary record in Arctic lakes provide the potential to reconstruct past changes in important limnological variables. During the summers of 1992 and 1993, we examined previously unstudied freshwater ecosystems on Cornwallis Island, Arctic Canada, with the specific objectives of (1) documenting the limnology and modern diatom assemblages from this region, and (2) determining which environmental variables most influence diatom species distributions. The Cornwallis Island study sites displayed the least amount of variance in measured water chemistry variables in comparison to nearly all of our labs’ previous freshwater surveys in the Arctic. The small limnological gradients precluded the development of a statistically robust diatom inference model, but perhaps more importantly, allowed us to explore variations in diatom composition in the absence of marked variations in water chemistry. Diatom species turnover was minimal, with the most common diatom taxa being Achnanthidium minutissima, Nitzschia perminuta, N. frustulum, with lesser percent abundances of Chaemaepinnularia soehrensis, Navicula chiarae, Psammothidium marginulata, and A. kryophila. A small number of study sites differed from the majority with respect to water chemistry (e.g., coastal sites with high specific conductivities) and habitat availability (e.g., ephemeral ponds with extensive moss habitats), and these sites had markedly different diatom assemblages. These data reinforce previous observations that water chemistry and other climate-related factors are the primary environmental controls influencing diatom distributions at high latitudes.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) grants awarded to JPS and MSVD. We are grateful to the Polar Continental Shelf Project (PCSP) for logistical and financial support for fieldwork. We thank T. Laing for assisting in the fieldwork. The comments from three anonymous reviewers greatly improved the quality of this manuscript. This is PCSP contribution # 039-06.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Lab, Department of Biology, Queen’s University, K7L 3N6, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Neal Michelutti & John P. Smol

  2. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, T6G 2E3, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Marianne S. V. Douglas

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  1. Neal Michelutti
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Correspondence to Neal Michelutti.

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300_2007_307_MOESM1_ESM.xls

Complete taxa list for diatom assemblages from Cornwallis Island surface sediments, showing relative abundances for all study sites. Note that unknown taxa have been removed and therefore relative abundances do not always add up to 100% (XLS 96 kb)

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Michelutti, N., Douglas, M.S.V. & Smol, J.P. Evaluating diatom community composition in the absence of marked limnological gradients in the high Arctic: a surface sediment calibration set from Cornwallis Island (Nunavut, Canada). Polar Biol 30, 1459–1473 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-007-0307-x

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