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Biological, Chemical and Physical Responses of Lakes to Experimental Acidification

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Long-Range Transport of Airborne Pollutants

Abstract

Changes in physical, chemical and biological factors were observed during a 5-yr experimental acidification study in Lake 223 of the Experimental Lakes Area, and compared to a 2 yr pre-acidification period. Significant changes included increased transparency, rates of hypolimnion heating and rates of thermocline deepening; increased concentrations of Mn, Na, Zn, Al, and chlorophyll; decreased concentrations of suspended C, total dissolved N, Fe and chloride; increases in Chlorophyta but decreases in Chrysophyta; the disappearance of the opossum shrimp Mysis relicta and the fathead minnow Pimephales promelas; the appearance of epidemics of the filamentous alga Mougeotea; decreased fitness and decline in numbers of Orconectes virilis; and increased embryonic mortality of the lake trout Salvelinus namaycush.

Sulfur budgets for two lakes experimentally acidified with sulfuric acid reveal that an average of 1/4 to 1/3 of added sulfate is sedimented, presumably as FeS, reducing the efficiency of acidification. The sedimentation occurs under both oxic and anoxic conditions. The utility of whole-ecosystem mass balance studies of S in ‘experimental’ and ‘observational’ mass balance studies is discussed.

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H. C. Martin

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© 1982 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland

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Schindler, D.W., Turner, M.A. (1982). Biological, Chemical and Physical Responses of Lakes to Experimental Acidification. In: Martin, H.C. (eds) Long-Range Transport of Airborne Pollutants. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7966-6_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7966-6_19

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-009-7968-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-7966-6

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