Abstract
Coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM) modifies the light penetration into water bodies due to stronger absorbance of UV and short wavelengths of light. Therefore, in natural waters with high CDOM concentration, the spectrum of sunlight is shifted towards brown, also referred to as brownification. Here, the relation between the spectrophotometrically measured water colour (CDOM) and landscape properties is examined. These properties explained at best > 40% of the CDOM variability among the study lakes larger than 10 km2. The key “permanent” landscape variables were lake percentage (Lake%) in the uppermost catchment area, and the peat land coverage (Peat%) of the catchment, which indeed was strongly correlated with lake elevation above the sea level. High Lake % indicated low CDOM concentration, while high Peat% indicated the opposite. Relative to the Peat% of the catchment, the CDOM concentrations were, on average, slightly higher in medium-size lakes (area 10–100 km2) than in large lakes (area > 100 km2), while relative to Lake% the concentrations declined more in medium-size lakes.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arst, H., A. Erm, A. Herlevi, T. Kutser, M. Leppäranta, A. Reinart & J. Virta, 2008. Optical properties of boreal lake waters in Finland and Estonia. Boreal Environment Research 13: 133–158.
Arvola, L., 1999. The load of organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus from two large drainage basins (River Kitka and River Oulanka) in NE Finland. Fennia 177: 17–25.
Arvola, L., K. Salonen & M. Rask, 1990. Chemical budgets for a small dystrophic lake in southern Finland. Limnologica 20: 243–251.
Arvola, L., K. Salonen & M. Rask, 1999. Trophic interactions. In Eloranta, P. & J. Keskitalo (eds), Limnology of Humic Waters. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden: 265–279.
Arvola, L., M. Rask, J. Ruuhijärvi, T. Tulonen, J. Vuorenmaa, T. Ruoho-Airola & J. Tulonen, 2010. Long-term patterns in pH and colour in small acidic boreal lakes of varying hydrological and landscape settings. Biogeochemistry 101: 269–279.
Arvola, L., M. Järvinen & T. Tulonen, 2011. Long-term trends and regional differences of phytoplankton in large Finnish lakes. Hydrobiologia 660: 125–134.
Arvola, L., E. Einola & M. Järvinen, 2015. Landscape properties and precipitation as determinants for high summer nitrogen load from boreal catchments. Landscape Ecology 30: 429–442.
Einola, E., M. Rantakari, P. Kankaala, P. Kortelainen, A. Ojala, H. Pajunen, S. Mäkelä & L. Arvola, 2011. Carbon pools and fluxes in a chain of five boreal lakes: a dry and wet year comparison. Journal of Geophysical Research. doi:10.1029/2010JG001636.
Erlandsson, M., I. Buffam, J. Folster, H. Laudon, J. Temnerud, G. A. Weyhenmeyer & K. Bishop, 2008. Thirty-five years of synchrony in the organic matter concentrations of Swedish rivers explained by variation in flow and sulphate. Global Change Biology 14: 1191–1198.
Evans, C. D., D. T. Monteith & D. M. Cooper, 2005. Long-term increases in surface water dissolved organic carbon: observations, possible causes and environmental impacts. Environmental Pollution 137: 55–71. doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2004.12.031.
Evans, C. D., P. J. Chapman, J. M. Clark, D. T. Monteith & M. S. Cresser, 2006. Alternative explanations for rising dissolved organic carbon export from organic soils. Global Change Biology 12: 1–10.
Freeman, C., C. D. Evans, D. T. Monteith, B. Reynolds & N. Fenner, 2001. Export of organic carbon from peat soils. Nature 412: 785.
Freeman, C., N. Fenner, N. J. Ostle, H. Kang, D. J. Dowrick, B. Reynolds, M. A. Lock, D. Sleep, S. Hughes & J. Hudson, 2004. Export of dissolved organic carbon from peatlands under elevated carbon dioxide levels. Nature 430: 195–198.
Heikkinen, K., 1990. Nature of dissolved organic matter in the drainage basin of a boreal humic river in northern Finland. Journal of Environmental Quality 19: 649–657.
Heikkinen, K., 1994. Organic substances in soil and water: a collection of papers presented at the International Conference on Organic Substances in Soil and Water, Lancaster, UK, 14–17 September 1992. The science of the total environment 152: 81–89.
Hudson, J. J., P. J. Dillon & K. M. Somers, 2003. Long-term patterns in dissolved organic carbon in boreal lakes: the role of incident radiation, precipitation, air temperature, southern oscillation and acid deposition. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 7: 390–398.
Huotari, J., H. Nykänen, M. Forsius & L. Arvola, 2013. Effect of catchment characteristics on aquatic carbon export from a boreal catchment and its importance in regional carbon cycling. Global Change Biology. doi:10.1111/gcb.12333.
Huttunen, I., H. S. Lehtonen, M. Huttunen, V. Piirainen, M. Korppoo & N. Veijalainen, 2015. Effects of climate change and agricultural adaptation on nutrient loading from Finnish catchments to the Baltic Sea. Science of the Total Environment 529: 168–181. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.05.055.
Jones, R. I., 1992. The influence of humic substances on lacustrine planktonic food chains. Hydrobiologia 229: 73–91.
Jones, R. I., 1998. Chapter 7: Phytoplankton, primary production and nutrient cycling. In Hessen, D. O. & L. Tranvik (eds), Aquatic Humic Substances: Ecology and Biogeochemistry. Ecological Studies, Vol. 133. Springer, New York: 145–175.
Kortelainen, P., 1993. Content of total organic carbon in Finnish lakes and its relationship to catchment characteristic. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 50: 1477–1483.
Kortelainen, P., T. Mattsson, L. Finer, M. Ahtiainen, S. Saukkonen & T. Sallantaus, 2006. Controls on the export of C, N, P and Fe from undisturbed boreal catchments, Finland. Aquatic Sciences 68: 453–468. doi:10.1007/s00027-006-0833-6.
Laine, M. P. P., R. Strömmer & L. Arvola, 2014. DOC and CO2-C releases from pristine and drained peat soils in response to water table fluctuations: a mesocosm experiment. Applied and Environmental Soil Science 2014. Article ID 912816. 10 p. doi: 10.1155/2014/912816.
Lepistö, A., K. Granlund, P. Kortelainen & A. Raike, 2006. Nitrogen in river basins: sources, retention in the surface waters and peatlands, and fluxes to estuaries in Finland. Science of the Total Environment 365: 238–259.
Lepistö, A., P. Kortelainen & T. Mattsson, 2008. Increased organic C and N leaching in a northern boreal river basin in Finland. Global Biogeochemical Cycles. doi:10.1029/2007GB003175.
Mattsson, T., P. Kortelainen & A. Räike, 2005. Export of DOM from boreal catchments: impacts of land use cover and climate. Biogeochemistry 76: 373–394.
Montanarella, L., R. J. A. Jones & R. Hiederer, 2006. The distribution of peatland in Europe. Mires and Peat, Vol. 1. http://www.mires-and-peat.net. ISSN 1819-754X
Monteith, D. T., J. L. Stoddard, C. D. Evans, H. A. de Wit, M. Forsius, T. Høgåsen, A. Wilander, B. L. Skjelkvåle, D. S. Jeffries, J. Vuorenmaa, B. Keller, J. Kopácek & J. Vasely, 2007. Dissolved organic carbon trends resulting from changes in atmospheric deposition chemistry. Nature 450: 537–541.
Pennanen, V. & T. Frisk, 1984. A statistical model for conversion of absorbance measurements with significant iron interference into organic carbon in a polyhumic lake. Aqua Fennica 14: 171–178.
Pilke, A. (toim.) 2012. Ohje pintaveden tyypin määrittämiseksi. Verkkojulkaisu. Suomen ympäristökeskus (Finnish Environment Institute; www.ymparisto.fi/download/noname/%7BF9A5855D-032C…/74875). (In English: Instruction to determine the type of a surface water).
Poikane, S., M. van den Berg, J. Ortiz-Casas, G. Phillips, A. Lyche Solheim, D. Tierney, G. Wolfram & P. Nõges, 2009. Lake assessment strategy in European Union (EU): case study of European large lakes. Verhandlungen des Internationalen Verein Limnologie 30: 1007–1012.
Rantakari, M., P. Kortelainen, J. Vuorenmaa, J. Mannio & M. Forsius, 2004. Finnish Lake Survey: the role of catchment attributes in determining nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic carbon concentrations. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution: Focus 4: 683–699.
Räike, A., P. Kortelainen, T. Mattsson & D. N. Thomas, 2012. 36 year trends in dissolved organic carbon export from Finnish rivers to the Baltic Sea. Science of The Total Environment 435–436: 188–201.
Sarkkola, S., H. Koivusalo, A. Laurén, P. Kortelainen, T. Mattsson, M. Palviainen, S. Piirainen, M. Starr & L. Finér, 2009. Trends in hydrometeorological conditions and stream water organic carbon in boreal forested catchments. The Science of the Total Environment 408: 92–101.
Sarkkola, S., M. Nieminen, H. Koivusalo, A. Laurén, P. Kortelainen, T. Mattsson, M. Palviainen, S. Piirainen, M. Starr & L. Finér, 2013. Iron concentrations are increasing in surface waters from forested headwater catchments in eastern Finland. Science of the Total Environment 463–464: 683–689.
Schindler, D. W., S. E. Bayley, P. J. Curtis, B. R. Parker, M. P. Stainton & C. A. Kelly, 1992. Natural and man-caused factors affecting the abundance and cycling of dissolved organic substances in precambrian shield lakes. Hydrobiologia 229: 1–21.
Schindler, D. W., P. J. Curtis, S. E. Bayley, B. R. Parker, K. G. Beaty & M. P. Stainton, 1997. Climate-induced changes in the dissolved organic carbon budgets of boreal lakes. Biogeochemistry 36: 9–28.
Skjelkvåle, B. L., J. Mannio, A. Wilander & T. Andersen, 2001. Chemistry of lakes in the Nordic region – Denmark, Finland with Åland, Iceland, Norway with Svalbard and Bear Island, and Sweden. NIVA Acid Rain Research, Report. 53.
Sobek, S., L. J. Tranvik, Y. T. Prairie, P. Kortelainen & J. J. Cole, 2007. Patterns and regulation of dissolved organic carbon: an analysis of 7,500 widely distributed lakes. Limnology & Oceanography 52: 1208–1219.
Smith, R. C. & K. S. Baker, 1981. Optical properties of the clearest natural waters (200–800 nm). Applied Optics 20: 177–184.
Stevenson, F. J., 1994. Humus Chemistry: Genesis, Composition, Reactions, 2nd Edn. ISBN: 978-0-471-59474-1.
Tattari, S., M. Puustinen, J. Koskiaho, E. Röman & J. Riihimäki, 2015. Vesistöjen ravinnekuormituksen lähteet ja vähentämismahdollisuudet (In English: Sources of nutrient loading to the water bodies and possibilities to reduce it). Suomen ympäristökeskuksen raportteja (Finnish Environment Institute, Reports) 35: 1–73.
Temnerud, J., J. Hytteborn, M. N. Futter & S. J. Köhler, 2014. Evaluating common drivers for color, iron and organic carbon in Swedish watercourses. AMBIO 43: 30–44.
Tranvik, L. J. & M. Jansson, 2002. Climate change - Terrestrial export of organic carbon. Nature 415: 861–862.
Weyhenmeyer, G. A., Y. T. Prairie & L. J. Tranvik, 2014. Browning of boreal freshwaters coupled to carbon-iron interactions along the aquatic continuum. PloS One 9: e88104.
Weyhenmeyer, G. A., R. A. Müller, M. Norman & L. J. Tranvik, 2015. Sensitivity of freshwaters to browning in response to future climate change. Climatic Change. doi:10.1007/s10584-015-1514-z.
Witting, R., 1914. Redogörelse afgiven af arbetsutskottet för undersökning af de finska insjöarnas vatten och plankton. II. Optisk och kemisk undersökning af vattenprofven från sommaren 1913. Fennia 35: 1–41.
Xiao, Y.-H., A. Räike, H. Hartikainen & A. V. Vähätalo, 2015. Iron as a source of color in river waters. Science of the Total Environment 536: 914–923.
Ylitalo, E. (ed.) 2013. Metsätilastollinen vuosikirja 2013 - Skogsstatistisk Årsbok - Finnish Statistical Yearbook of Forestry. SVT Maa-, metsä- ja kalatalous. Metsäntutkimuslaitos, Vantaa. 450 p. ISBN 978-951-40-2450-4 ISBN 978-951-40-2449-8.
Acknowledgments
We thank those Finnish government organizations which helped us in collecting the samples in 2014, primarily the regional centres of Economic Development, Transport and Environment, Konnevesi Research Station of the University of Jyväskylä, and Kokemäenjoki and Saimaa Water Protection Associations. We also thank Ulla Heikkilä, Alpo Hassinen, and Risto Latvanen for their help, and Marja-Leena Vitie for the photometer measurements in 2014. Dr. John Loehr kindly checked the English language.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Guest editors: Paula Kankaala, Tiina Nõges, Martti Rask, Dietmar Straile & Arkady Yu. Terzhevik/European Large Lakes IV. Ecosystem Services and Management in a Changing World
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Arvola, L., Äijälä, C. & Leppäranta, M. CDOM concentrations of large Finnish lakes relative to their landscape properties. Hydrobiologia 780, 37–46 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-016-2906-4
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-016-2906-4