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

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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)