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Use of artificial-substrate samplers to identify relations between periphytic diatom community composition and hydro-limnological conditions in shallow lakes of Old Crow Flats, Yukon Territory (Canada)

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Abstract

Concern over effects of climate warming on shallow northern lakes elicits need for agency-led, long-term, biomonitoring programs to implement protocols applicable across large, remote landscapes. Here, we analyze composition of periphytic diatom communities accrued on artificial-substrate samplers in 33 and 48 lakes spanning broad hydrological gradients of the lake-rich Old Crow Flats (Yukon, Canada) during ice-free seasons of 2008 and 2009, respectively, to explore the ability of this approach to discern ecological responses to differences in basin hydrology and water chemistry. Multivariate analyses demonstrate water chemistry and periphytic diatom community composition differ among three isotope-defined hydrological lake categories (snowmelt-dominated, rainfall-dominated, intermediate). Some snowmelt-dominated lakes support moderate percent abundances of Rossithidium pusilla, Sellaphora laevissima, Tabellaria flocculosa str. III and T. fenestrata, associated with relatively high concentrations of major nutrients and DOC. Rainfall-dominated lakes have higher pH and ion content, yet diatom composition overlapped extensively with intermediate and snowmelt-dominated lakes. Water chemistry and diatom community composition did not differ between study years, despite almost four-fold greater snowfall in 2009. Thus, periphytic diatom communities on artificial-substrate samplers capture ecological differences across hydro-limnological gradients of Old Crow Flats, but longer time-series of data are required to assess their ability to track temporal responses to hydro-climatic variation.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation and Parks Canada Agency’s Vuntut National Park for their ongoing collaboration and logistical support of the fieldwork. We thank Ann Balasubramaniam, Kevin Turner, Bronwyn Hancock, Matthew Elmes, Chloe Cole, Kathiga Karthiakumar, Nicole Farquharson, Jana Tondu, Shawn Bruce, Dennis Frost, Shel Graupe, and Stephen Frost for field and laboratory assistance. Katie Thomas provided assistance with taxonomic identification of diatoms. Xiaowa Wang and colleagues at the National Laboratory for Environmental Testing (NLET) performed the water chemistry analysis used in this study. Kevin Turner provided the base map in Fig. 1.

Funding

The research was supported by funding from the Government of Canada International Polar Year, Natural Resources Canada’s Polar Continental Shelf Program (Projects 657–08, 600–09), Polar Knowledge Canada’s Northern Scientific Training Program, Parks Canada, and a Government of Iraq Doctoral Scholarship to WJM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue W, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada

    Wathiq J. Mohammed, Lauren A. MacDonald & Roland I. Hall

  2. Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, 75 University Avenue W, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3C5, Canada

    Brent B. Wolfe

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  1. Wathiq J. Mohammed
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Wathiq J. Mohammed and Lauren A. MacDonald. Numerical analyses were performed by Wathiq J. Mohammed, Lauren A. MacDonald and Roland I. Hall. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Wathiq J. Mohammed and all authors contributed to drafting and editing subsequent versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Roland I. Hall.

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Mohammed, W.J., MacDonald, L.A., Wolfe, B.B. et al. Use of artificial-substrate samplers to identify relations between periphytic diatom community composition and hydro-limnological conditions in shallow lakes of Old Crow Flats, Yukon Territory (Canada). Hydrobiologia 848, 4551–4567 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-021-04661-3

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