Long-term patterns in pH and colour in small acidic boreal lakes of varying hydrological and landscape settings

Abstract

Changes in water pH and colour since the late 1980s were studied in 35 small boreal lakes of varying hydrological and landscape settings but similar climate and acid deposition. The data was collected during the autumnal overturn on the annual basis except in lake with weekly sampling during the ice-free period. In addition to the deposition data information about catchment soil types as well as local meteorological and hydrological conditions were used for the long-term data interpretation. The lakes are situated in a small area in southern Finland, 130 km north from Helsinki, where sulphate deposition declined by >60% in one decade since the mid-1980s. The results showed that water colour increased in most lakes while pH did not. In lakes dominated by surface runoff there was a distinct upward shift in colour, with an initial increase after the mid-1990s and a second increase in 2004. The first shift appeared when the sulphate deposition reached a level ca. 25% of that in 1988. However, the upward shift in colour also coincided with a change in hydrological conditions after several dry summers. In contrast, the second shift in colour clearly coincided with a switch in hydrology due to the abnormally wet summer of 2004 after severe drought in 2002–2003. Although the hydrological conditions indisputably had a key role in determining the annual variability in colour, a distinct negative relationship between acid deposition and water colour in 90% of the lakes strongly suggested that reduction in sulphate deposition fostered the leaching of coloured organic substances from the catchment soils. Increase in colour, in turn, strongly influenced lake water pH, and the present day higher organic matter concentrations seemingly depress pH values more than in the 1980s, before the reduction in acid deposition.