TY - JOUR
T1 - Diatom evidence of 20th century ecosystem change in Lake Baikal, Siberia
AU - Roberts, S.L.
AU - Swann, G.E.A.
AU - McGowan, S.
AU - Panizzo, V.N.
AU - Vologina, E.G.
AU - Sturm, M.
AU - Mackay, A.W.
N1 - CODEN: POLNC
Funding details: Natural Environment Research Council, NERC, NE/J007765/1, NE/J00829X/1, NE/J010227/1
Funding text 1: This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (grants NE/ J00829X/1, NE/J010227/1, and NE/J007765/1), (NERC) Standard Grants. The authors are indebted to Nikolaj M. Budnev (Irkutsk State University), the captain and crew of the Geolog research boat, and Dmitry Gladkochub (IEC) in facilitating and organizing all Russian fieldwork. The authors would also like to thank Prof. Stephanie Hampton for providing summer water temperature monitoring and zooplankton abundance datasets for the south basin of Lake Baikal. We finally thank Prof. Luo Wang and one reviewer who provided very useful comments to improve the manuscript.
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - Lake Baikal has been experiencing limnological changes from recent atmospheric warming since the 1950s, with rising lake water temperatures, reduced ice cover duration and reduced lake surface-water mixing due to stronger thermal stratification. This study uses lake sediment cores to reconstruct recent changes (c. past 20 years) in Lake Baikal’s pelagic diatom communities relative to previous 20th century diatom assemblage records collected in 1993 and 1994 at the same locations in the lake. Recent changes documented within the core-top diatom records agree with predictions of diatom responses to warming at Lake Baikal. Sediments in the south basin of the lake exhibit clear temporal changes, with the most rapid occurring in the 1990’s with shifts towards higher abundances of the cosmopolitan Synedra acus and a decline in endemic species, mainly Cyclotella minuta and Stephanodiscus meyerii and to a lesser extent Aulacoseira baicalensis and Aulacoseira skvortzowii. The north basin, in contrast, shows no evidence of recent diatom response to lake warming despite marked declines in north basin ice cover in recent decades. This study also shows no diatom-inferred evidence of eutrophication from deep water sediments. However, due to the localised impacts seen in areas of Lake Baikal’s shoreline from nutrient pollution derived from inadequate sewage treatment, urgent action is vital to prevent anthropogenic pollution extending into the open waters. © 2018 Roberts et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
AB - Lake Baikal has been experiencing limnological changes from recent atmospheric warming since the 1950s, with rising lake water temperatures, reduced ice cover duration and reduced lake surface-water mixing due to stronger thermal stratification. This study uses lake sediment cores to reconstruct recent changes (c. past 20 years) in Lake Baikal’s pelagic diatom communities relative to previous 20th century diatom assemblage records collected in 1993 and 1994 at the same locations in the lake. Recent changes documented within the core-top diatom records agree with predictions of diatom responses to warming at Lake Baikal. Sediments in the south basin of the lake exhibit clear temporal changes, with the most rapid occurring in the 1990’s with shifts towards higher abundances of the cosmopolitan Synedra acus and a decline in endemic species, mainly Cyclotella minuta and Stephanodiscus meyerii and to a lesser extent Aulacoseira baicalensis and Aulacoseira skvortzowii. The north basin, in contrast, shows no evidence of recent diatom response to lake warming despite marked declines in north basin ice cover in recent decades. This study also shows no diatom-inferred evidence of eutrophication from deep water sediments. However, due to the localised impacts seen in areas of Lake Baikal’s shoreline from nutrient pollution derived from inadequate sewage treatment, urgent action is vital to prevent anthropogenic pollution extending into the open waters. © 2018 Roberts et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0208765
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0208765
M3 - Article
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 13
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 12
ER -