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Assessing the efficacy of chironomid and diatom assemblages in tracking eutrophication in High Arctic sewage ponds

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Abstract

Eutrophication is the most common water quality issue affecting freshwaters worldwide. Paleolimnological approaches have been used in temperate regions to track eutrophication over time, placing changes in historical context. Diatoms (Bacillariophyta) have a direct physiological response to changes in nutrients and are effective indicators of lake trophic status. Chironomids (Diptera) have also been used to track nutrient conditions; however, given that nutrients and oxygen are often tightly linked, it is difficult to disentangle which variable is driving shifts in assemblages. Here, we analyze chironomid and diatom remains in sediments from sewage-impacted ponds in the High Arctic. These ponds have the unusual characteristics of elevated nutrient and oxygen concentrations, unlike those of typical eutrophic lakes where deepwater oxygen is often depleted. Our data show that while diatom assemblages responded to changing nutrients, no concomitant changes in chironomid assemblage composition were recorded. Furthermore, the dominance of oligotrophic, cold stenothermic chironomid taxa, and lack of so-called “eutrophic” species in the eutrophic sewage ponds suggests that oxygen, not nutrients, structures chironomid assemblages at these sites.

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Acknowledgements

This work was made possible because of the logistical and financial support provided by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (NSTP), Natural Resources Canada, the Polar Continental Shelf Program (PCSP), and the W. Garfield Weston Foundation. We would like to thank Xiaowa Wang and the National Laboratory for Environmental Testing (NLET, Burlington, ON) for water chemistry analyses. We would also like to thank our colleagues at the Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Laboratory (Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada) for advice and support. Finally, we would like to thank two anonymous reviewers whose comments strengthened our manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. R. McIver

    Present address: Life Science Centre, Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, B3H 4R2, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

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

    E. M. Stewart, R. McIver, N. Michelutti & J. P. Smol

  2. Canadian Circumpolar Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E3, Canada

    M. S. V. Douglas

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  1. E. M. Stewart
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  2. R. McIver
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Correspondence to E. M. Stewart.

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Handling editor: Jasmine Saros

Electronic supplementary material

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Appendix 1 210Pb, 214Bi, and 137Cs activities for the A. R-12, B. R-13, C. R-1, and D. R-2 sediment cores (DOCX 126 kb)

10750_2013_1667_MOESM2_ESM.docx

Appendix 2 Chironomid species presence (X) or absence in the surface sediments of the years listed at the top of the table for the sewage ponds near Resolute Bay, Cornwallis Island, Nunavut (DOCX 16 kb)

10750_2013_1667_MOESM3_ESM.docx

Appendix 3 Species abbreviations used in Fig. 9 listed alphabetically by proxy (DOCX 14 kb)

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Stewart, E.M., McIver, R., Michelutti, N. et al. Assessing the efficacy of chironomid and diatom assemblages in tracking eutrophication in High Arctic sewage ponds. Hydrobiologia 721, 251–268 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-013-1667-6

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