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Aquatic Ecosystem Responses to Rapid Recovery from Extreme Acidification and Metal Contamination in Lakes Near Wawa, Ontario

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Abstract

In the region northeast of Wawa, Ontario (Canada), many circumneutral lakes downwind of a nearby iron-sintering plant were strongly acidified (pH 3–4) in response to the emissions of large amounts of sulfur dioxide from 1939–1998. Following closure of the plant in 1998, lakewater pH has returned to circumneutral conditions due to the high buffering capacity of the local geological substrate. Prior paleolimnological analyses of dated sediment cores have detected some biological recovery among algal communities (diatoms and chrysophytes), although they have not returned to their pre-impact assemblages. Here we take a broader ecosystem approach, and build upon the algal analyses by examining cladoceran sedimentary assemblages, and spectrally-inferred chlorophyll a and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from the same dated sediment cores. Similar to the algal communities, recent cladoceran sedimentary assemblages from three impacted lakes remain in an altered state relative to the pre-impact period (for example, increased relative abundances of Chydorus brevilabris and reduced cladoceran density in sediments). However, trends in the spectrally-inferred chlorophyll a and DOC were mixed, with long-term decreases in the study lake closest to the plant and long-term increases within the other lakes. Collectively, the multi-proxy paleolimnological analyses of these markedly acidified lakes demonstrate the delayed biological recovery from acidification (and differences in timing) across multiple trophic levels, despite the near-elimination of acid deposition almost a decade previously, which led to a striking recovery in lakewater pH and increased food availability.

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Acknowledgments

Support for this project was provided by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, through the Climate Change and Multiple Stressor research program at Laurentian University, as well as through an NSERC grant to JPS. We thank Kim Sontag for performing the sedimentary chlorophyll a analyses, Amy Tropea for her assistance in the field and Don A. Jackson for prompting this work via his general observations of recovery in Wawa lakes.

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Adam Jeziorski, Christine M. Greenaway & John P. Smol

  2. Cooperative Freshwater Ecology Unit, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, P3E 2C6, Canada

    Bill Keller

  3. Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Dorset Environmental Science Centre, 1026 Bellwood Acres Road, P.O. Box 39, Dorset, Ontario, P0A 1E0, Canada

    Andrew M. Paterson

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  1. Adam Jeziorski
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  4. Christine M. Greenaway
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Correspondence to Adam Jeziorski.

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Author Contributions

AJ conceived of or designed research, performed research, analyzed data, wrote paper. BK conceived of or designed research, wrote paper. AMP conceived of or designed research, wrote paper. CMG conceived of or designed research, performed research, wrote paper. JPS conceived of or designed research, wrote paper.

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Jeziorski, A., Keller, B., Paterson, A.M. et al. Aquatic Ecosystem Responses to Rapid Recovery from Extreme Acidification and Metal Contamination in Lakes Near Wawa, Ontario. Ecosystems 16, 209–223 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-012-9603-6

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