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Shallow lake restoration by nutrient loading reduction—some recent findings and challenges ahead

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Abstract

Shallow lakes respond to nutrient loading reductions. Major findings in a recent multi-lake comparison of data from lakes with long time series revealed: that a new state of equilibrium was typically reached for phosphorus (P) after 10–15 years and for nitrogen (N) after <5–10 years; that the in-lake Total N:Total P and inorganic N:P ratios increased; that the phytoplankton and fish biomass often decreased; that the percentage of piscivores often increased as did the zooplankton:phytoplankton biomass ratio, the contribution of Daphnia to zooplankton biomass, and cladoceran size. This indicates that enhanced resource and predator control often interact during recovery from eutrophication. So far, focus has been directed at reducing external loading of P. However, one experimental study and cross-system analyses of data from many lakes in north temperate lakes indicate that nitrogen may play a more significant role for abundance and species richness of submerged plants than usually anticipated when total phosphorus is moderate high. According to the alternative states hypothesis we should expect ecological resistance to nutrient loading reduction and P hysteresis. We present results suggesting that the two alternative states are less stable than originally anticipated. How global warming affects the water clarity of shallow lakes is debatable. We suggest that water clarity often will decrease due to either enhanced growth of phytoplankton or, if submerged macrophytes are stimulated, by reduced capacity of these plants to maintain clear-water conditions. The latter is supported by a cross-system comparison of lakes in Florida and Denmark. The proportion of small fish might increase and we might see higher aggregation of fish within the vegetation (leading to loss of zooplankton refuges), more annual fish cohorts, more omnivorous feeding by fish and less specialist piscivory. Moreover, lakes may have prolonged growth seasons with a higher risk of long-lasting algal blooms and at places dense floating plant communities. The effects of global warming need to be taken into consideration by lake managers when setting future targets for critical loading, as these may well have to be adjusted in the future. Finally, we highlight some of the future challenges we see in lake restoration research.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Danish Natural Science Research Council (research project “CONWOY” on the effects of climate changes on aquatic ecosystems), the EU EUROLIMPACS project (www.eurolimpacs.ucl.ac.uk) on the effects of climate changes on freshwater, and the Finnish CARE and Danish CLEAR research projects. Mariana Meerhoff was supported by the Danish Research Agency. We wish to thank the Danish counties for access to some of the data included in our analyses. Finally thanks to Mark V. Hoyer, Roger W. Bachmann and Daniel E. Canfield for most inspiring discussions on similarities and differences in structure and function of shallow lakes in the temperate zone and the subtropics and for providing the Florida data used in Fig. 6 and Table 1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Freshwater Ecology, National Environmental Research Institute, University of Aarhus, Vejlsøvej 25, 8600, Silkeborg, Denmark

    Erik Jeppesen, Martin Søndergaard, Mariana Meerhoff, Torben L. Lauridsen & Jens Peder Jensen

  2. Department of Plant Biology, University of Aarhus, Ole Worms Allé, Building 135, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Erik Jeppesen & Mariana Meerhoff

  3. Departmento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Iguá 4225, C.P. 11400, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Mariana Meerhoff

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  1. Erik Jeppesen
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  5. Jens Peder Jensen
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Correspondence to Erik Jeppesen.

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Jeppesen, E., Søndergaard, M., Meerhoff, M. et al. Shallow lake restoration by nutrient loading reduction—some recent findings and challenges ahead. Hydrobiologia 584, 239–252 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-007-0596-7

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