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The paleolimnology of Haynes Lake, Oak Ridges Moraine, Ontario, Canada: documenting anthropogenic and climatic disturbances

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Abstract

Haynes Lake is a small kettle lake located on the Oak Ridges Moraine, and is within the Greater metropolitan area of Toronto, Ontario; Canada’s most populous region. Lake sedimentation, flux rates, diatoms and thecamoebians extracted from a benthic core were used as biological proxies to evaluate changes in water quality through time as a function of anthropogenic activity and changing climate. There were two periods of disturbance to the Haynes Lake ecosystem from ca 8,500 years before present (YBP) through to ca A.D. 2003, which were significant enough to cause changes in lake sedimentation, the diatom flora, and thecamoebian fauna. The first disturbance was concomitant with the decline in global temperatures following the Hypsithermal Climate Optimum (ca. 4,700 YBP). The most significant disruption to Haynes Lake over the last 8,500 years, however, was the settlement of Europeans and subsequent urban development (ca. A.D. 1875), including the construction of a road immediately adjacent to the lake. Anthropogenic disturbance of inorganic clays in the recent paleosediment record (<5 cm) is indicative of more recent eutrophication events.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Discovery Grant to RTP. Assistance in the field was provided by B. Boudreau, D. Carter, I. Clark, C. Black, H. Roe and T. Ziten.

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  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Center, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6, Canada

    Melissa A. Watchorn & R. Timothy Patterson

  2. Research Division, Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, ON, K1P 6P4, Canada

    Paul B. Hamilton

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  1. Melissa A. Watchorn
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  2. Paul B. Hamilton
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Correspondence to Melissa A. Watchorn.

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Watchorn, M.A., Hamilton, P.B. & Patterson, R.T. The paleolimnology of Haynes Lake, Oak Ridges Moraine, Ontario, Canada: documenting anthropogenic and climatic disturbances. Environ Earth Sci 68, 1823–1834 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-012-1870-1

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