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The Sensitivity of High Altitude Lochs in Scotland to Climate Change and Atmospheric Pollution: A Preliminary Analysis Martin Kernan (Environmental Change Research Centre, UCL). - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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The Sensitivity of High Altitude Lochs in Scotland toClimate Change and Atmospheric Pollution:
A Preliminary AnalysisMartin Kernan (Environmental Change Research Centre, UCL)
The objectives of the EU Framework 5 EMERGE (European Mountain Lake Ecosystems: Regionalisation Diagnostics & Socio-Economic Evaluation)are to i) assess the status of remote mountain lakes throughout Europe following the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directives, ii) to providean evaluation of the findings in ecological, environmental and socio-economic terms; iii) to provide decision makers with an overall understanding of
remote mountain lakes so that appropriate policy and management measures can be taken at both European and national scales to ensure the sustainabilityof these ecosystems into the future. Workpackage 4 focuses on the biological response to environmental gradients. The intention is to model mountain species distribution and food web-structure in relation to the main geographical environmental gradients within Europe. The programme will involve a
thorough survey of 30-50 lakes in 12 ‘Lake Districts’ across Europe to assess the distribution of key organisms including those that provide a fossil record allowing changes through time to be inferred. This poster presents preliminary analyses of the data collected from 30 lochs in Scotland. These will be expanded
to provide a more comprehensive assessment of Mountain Lake ecosystems in Scotland and will subsequently feed into to a pan-European study.
Survey Site Selection
Survey sites should to be headwater lakes above the theoretical treeline and greater than 0.5 hectares.
Survey sites should represent- major geological gradients- altitudinal gradient
Secondary considerations - size gradient and geographical distribution
Sampling programmeLittoral and pelagicDiatomsMacro-invertebratesZooplanktonBacteriaChlorophyll aWater ChemistryPhytoplanktonSurface Thermistor (1 year)
Sediment (0-0.5 and 15-17cm)DiatomsChironomidsPigmentsCladoceraSCPsTrace MetalsOrganic Pollutants
CHEMISTRY & CATCHMENT ATTRIBUTES
Altitude
SoilC:NLC17
DepNMS
Dist2C
Ndep
LC9
SoilDept
SoilBD
LC22
L_area
CondMg
NaCl
TOC
Abs250
K
AlkCa
pH
Al-NL
NO3
SiO2
Total P
SO4
TOrgN
Al-L
Altitude 23LC22 7SoilC:N 8SoilBD 7SoilDept 9Total 54
Following Redundancy Analysis with forward selection, Altitude, % bare ground (LC22), soil C:N, soil Bulk Density and Soil Depth explain 54% of the variation in water chemistry.
Zooplankton Species (Quantitative Samples)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Bos
min
a lo
ngis
pina
Cyc
lops
aby
ssor
um
Eud
iapt
omus
gra
cilis
Dap
hnia
long
ispi
na
Acr
oper
us h
arpa
e
Con
ochi
lus
hipp
ocre
pis
Con
ochi
lus
unic
orni
s
Hol
oped
ium
gib
beru
m
Cyc
lopi
dae
Mix
odia
ptom
us la
cini
atus
Acr
oper
us e
long
atus
Alo
nella
nan
a
Asp
lanc
hna
prio
dont
a
Alo
nella
exc
isa
Arc
todi
apto
mus
latic
eps
Cha
obor
us c
ryst
allin
us
Dia
phan
osom
a br
achy
urum
Dia
ptom
idae
Euc
yclo
ps s
erru
latu
s
Meg
acyc
lops
viri
dis
Har
pact
icoi
da
Alo
na r
ustic
a
Chy
doru
s sp
haer
icus
Dap
hnia
gal
eata
Dap
hnia
pul
icar
ia
Dia
cycl
ops
nanu
s
Dre
pano
thrix
den
tata
Rhy
ncho
talo
na fa
lcat
a
No
. o
f la
kes
Scotland: Daily mean water temperature at 5 cm
0
5
10
15
20
1-May-2000
31-May-2000
30-J un-2000
31-J ul-2000
30-Aug-2000
30-Sep-2000
30-Oct-2000
30-Nov-2000
30-Dec-2000
30-J an-2001
1-Mar-2001
31-Mar-2001
1-May-2001
31-May-2001
1-J ul-2001
31-J ul-2001
31-Aug-2001
30-Sep-2001
31-Oct-2001
30-Nov-2001
31-Dec-2001
Date
Tem
pera
ture
[°C
]
DIATOM RESPONSE TO CHEMISTRY
CCA of the diatom data constrained by the water chemistry data shows that 21.3% of the species variation is determined by alkalinity, total phosphorus and chloride. The main gradient is associated with alkalinity.
Chord distance dissimilarity between bottom and top sediment samples
based on diatom assemblages
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
SC0101SC0165SC0330SC0067SC0271SC0191SC0204SC0366SC0002SC0382SC0180SC0189SC0172SC0335SC0124SC0010SC0211SC0068SC0197SC0076SC0084SC0153SC0190SC0029SC0108SC0399SC0349SC0386
Future work
•Further analysis of the distribution of different biological groups (e.g. diatoms, chironomids, zooplankton, invertebrates, bacteria, chlorophyll, phytoplankton etc)•Examine chemical and morphological (altitude, size, geology, soil etc.) variation in Lake District to identify lake types.•Examine variation in metals, POPs, geochemistry from core tops and bottoms.•Direct gradient analysis of environmental gradients to examine how the biological groups respond to these•Decompose variation into the unique variation attributable to key environmental parameters (climate, pollution, geography)•Examination of core tops and bottoms – identify where spatial patterns of difference occur and relate these to changes in environmental drivers.
This work was funded by the Commission of European Communities (EMERGE project -EVK1-CT-1999-00032. The author acknowledges the contribution of Gina Clarke, Ron Harriman, Rachel Helliwell, Mike Hughes, David Livingstone, Gavin Simpson and Evzen Stuchlik
Increasing dissimilarity betweenassemblages in core tops andcore bottoms (15-17cm)
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