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Changes in submerged macrophyte abundance altered diatom and chironomid assemblages in a shallow lake

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Abstract

Submerged macrophyte abundance strongly influences aquatic ecosystems. Because of a lack of monitoring data, however, the long-term dynamics of such aquatic plants are poorly understood. Increasingly, paleolimnologists use changes in subfossil algae and invertebrates to infer past submerged macrophyte dynamics and assess how human activities have altered this important primary producer component of aquatic ecosystems. We evaluated the sensitivity of subfossil diatom and chironomid assemblages to historically documented changes in macrophyte abundance in Chenango Lake, New York, USA, where macrophyte cover has been monitored since 1978. We also tested the ability of a semi-quantitative diatom-based macrophyte-abundance inference model to detect the pronounced macrophyte decline that was observed between 1993 and 2001. Diatoms responded to the recent loss of macrophytes, with a decline in the relative abundance of macrophyte-associated taxa. Estimates of macrophyte abundance fluctuated according to the diatom-based inference model. Chironomid changes were coherent with the diatom-inferred macrophyte zones. The largest shifts in subfossil assemblages occurred before the start of the monitoring record and coincided with construction of a ~4.3-m-high dam on the lake, which substantially expanded the littoral habitat. Even in heavily managed systems, large reductions in macrophyte abundance can be detected with paleolimnological approaches.

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this research was provided by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Grant to IGE and a Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies (FQRNT) Postdoctoral Fellowship to ES-T. Thank you to Erika Brown for assisting with the fieldwork. This manuscript is a contribution to the FQRNT funded Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire en Limnologie (GRIL).

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  1. Jesse C. Vermaire

    Present address: Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Carleton University, Loeb Building, Room A422, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

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

    Jesse C. Vermaire, Marie-Hélène Greffard, Émilie Saulnier-Talbot & Irene Gregory-Eaves

  2. Département des Sciences Biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), Succ. Centre-Ville, C.P. 8888, Montreal, QC, H3C 3P8, Canada

    Marie-Hélène Greffard

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Correspondence to Jesse C. Vermaire.

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10933_2013_9737_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Fig. S1 Redundancy analysis (RDA) used to infer macrophyte abundance in Chenango Lake constrained by total phosphorus (TP) and whole-lake macrophyte biomass (BiomEpiV). The Chenango Lake sediment core sites are plotted passively (i.e. unconstrained by environmental variables; numbers shown give depth of sample in cm in the sediment core) whereas the surface sediments from a 41-lake training set are constrained by TP and BiomEpiV. Note that the samples from the 41-lake training set are not shown, to focus on the changes in the Chenango Lake sediment core. Multivariate regression tree (MRT) group divisions are shown by the dashed lines and group labels and the diatom-inferred decline in macrophyte abundance associated with the observed reduction in macrophyte cover in Chenango Lake is highlighted by the red arrow (PDF 41 kb)

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Vermaire, J.C., Greffard, MH., Saulnier-Talbot, É. et al. Changes in submerged macrophyte abundance altered diatom and chironomid assemblages in a shallow lake. J Paleolimnol 50, 447–456 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-013-9737-3

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