Anaerobic duration predicts biogeochemical consequences of oxygen depletion in lakes

LaBrie, Richard; Hupfer, Michael; Lau, Maximilian P.

doi:10.1002/lol2.10324

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Our calculated AF values have substantial uncertainty, particularly with respect to stratification end dates, though we have done our best to minimize these uncertainties through detailed methodological testing (Appendix S5). To standardize across a wide range of lakes and sampling regimes, our analysis considered the entire hypolimnion as one homogenized layer, averaging over potentially meaningful variation in DO dynamics across a depth gradient in the hypolimnion (e.g.,LaBrie et al, 2023). Given the promising results we observed here, further exploration of depth-resolved DO declines across lakes likely has substantial potential to further our understanding of biogeochemical processing in lakes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 55%

“…We used an operational DO threshold to define hypolimnetic anoxia, following other studies on anoxia in lakes (e.g., Elshout et al, 2013;LaBrie et al, 2023;Nürnberg et al, 2019). To identify this threshold, we performed a breakpoint analysis and piecewise regression for hypolimnetic DO and TP using the package segmented in R (Muggeo, 2023; Appendix S6: Text S6.1).…”

Section: Operational Definition Of Anoxiamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Anoxia Begets Anoxia: a positive feedback to the deoxygenation of temperate lakes

Lewis,

Lau,

Jane

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Declining oxygen concentrations in the deep waters of lakes worldwide pose a pressing environmental and societal challenge. Existing theory suggests that low deep-water dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations could trigger a positive feedback through which anoxia (<1 mg/L DO) during a given summer begets increasingly frequent and severe occurrences of anoxia in following summers. Specifically, anoxic conditions can promote nutrient release from sediments, thereby stimulating phytoplankton growth and subsequent decomposition, which in turn fuels heterotrophic respiration and accelerates deep-water DO declines. However, while the individual relationships in this feedback are well established, to our knowledge there has not been a systematic analysis within or across lakes that simultaneously demonstrates all of the necessary mechanisms to produce a positive feedback that reinforces anoxia. Here, we compiled data from 656 widespread temperate lakes and reservoirs to analyze the proposed Anoxia Begets Anoxia (ABA) feedback. Lakes in the dataset span a broad range of surface area (1–126,909 ha), maximum depth (6–370 m), and morphometry, with a median time series length of 30 years at each lake. Using linear mixed models, we found support for each of the feedback relationships between lower DO concentrations, higher phosphorus concentrations, higher chlorophyll-a concentrations, and greater volume-weighted deep-water oxygen demand. Likewise, we found further support for these relationships within time series data at individual lakes. Our results indicate that the strength of these feedback relationships may vary with lake-specific characteristics: for example, we found that surface phosphorus concentrations were more positively associated with chlorophyll-a in high-phosphorus lakes, and oxygen demand had a stronger influence on late-summer DO concentrations in large (high-surface-area) lakes. Taken together, these results support the existence of a positive feedback that could magnify the effects of climate change and other anthropogenic pressures driving the development of anoxia in lakes around the world.

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mentioning

confidence: 55%

Section: Operational Definition Of Anoxiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Anoxia Begets Anoxia: a positive feedback to the deoxygenation of temperate lakes

Lewis,

Lau,

Jane

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Our calculated AF values have substantial uncertainty, particularly with respect to stratification end dates, though we have done our best to minimize these uncertainties through detailed methodological testing (Appendix S5). To standardize across a wide range of lakes and sampling regimes, our analysis considered the entire hypolimnion as one homogenized layer, averaging over potentially meaningful variation in DO dynamics across a depth gradient in the hypolimnion (e.g., LaBrie et al., 2023). Given the promising results we observed here, further exploration of depth‐resolved DO declines across lakes likely has substantial potential to further our understanding of biogeochemical processing in lakes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We used an operational DO threshold to define hypolimnetic anoxia, following other studies on anoxia in lakes (e.g., Elshout et al., 2013; LaBrie et al., 2023; Nürnberg et al., 2019). To identify this threshold, we performed a breakpoint analysis and piecewise regression for hypolimnetic DO and TP using the package segmented in R (Muggeo, 2023; Appendix S6: Text S6.1).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anoxia begets anoxia: A positive feedback to the deoxygenation of temperate lakes

Lewis,

Lau,

Jane

et al. 2023

Global Change Biology

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Declining oxygen concentrations in the deep waters of lakes worldwide pose a pressing environmental and societal challenge. Existing theory suggests that low deep‐water dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations could trigger a positive feedback through which anoxia (i.e., very low DO) during a given summer begets increasingly severe occurrences of anoxia in following summers. Specifically, anoxic conditions can promote nutrient release from sediments, thereby stimulating phytoplankton growth, and subsequent phytoplankton decomposition can fuel heterotrophic respiration, resulting in increased spatial extent and duration of anoxia. However, while the individual relationships in this feedback are well established, to our knowledge, there has not been a systematic analysis within or across lakes that simultaneously demonstrates all of the mechanisms necessary to produce a positive feedback that reinforces anoxia. Here, we compiled data from 656 widespread temperate lakes and reservoirs to analyze the proposed anoxia begets anoxia feedback. Lakes in the dataset span a broad range of surface area (1–126,909 ha), maximum depth (6–370 m), and morphometry, with a median time‐series duration of 30 years at each lake. Using linear mixed models, we found support for each of the positive feedback relationships between anoxia, phosphorus concentrations, chlorophyll a concentrations, and oxygen demand across the 656‐lake dataset. Likewise, we found further support for these relationships by analyzing time‐series data from individual lakes. Our results indicate that the strength of these feedback relationships may vary with lake‐specific characteristics: For example, we found that surface phosphorus concentrations were more positively associated with chlorophyll a in high‐phosphorus lakes, and oxygen demand had a stronger influence on the extent of anoxia in deep lakes. Taken together, these results support the existence of a positive feedback that could magnify the effects of climate change and other anthropogenic pressures driving the development of anoxia in lakes around the world.

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“…Human pressures such as climate change, eutrophication, and browning will likely continue to impact freshwaters, including inducing bottom water hypoxia or anoxia, resulting in major biogeochemical shifts (Bartosiewicz et al 2019;Carey et al 2022), and threaten biota (Coutant 1985;Townsend and Edwards 2003). To better understand these consequences will require estimates of the hypoxic and anoxic duration, which requires an estimation of stratitification onset, oxygen consumption rates, and moment of destratification (LaBrie et al 2023). Nevertheless, we are now able, using simple metrics, to assess which lakes have a hypolimnion and whether lakes become hypoxic.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting the presence of hypoxic hypolimnia in lakes at large spatial scales

LaBrie,

Maranger

2023

Limnology & Oceanography

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Lakes and reservoirs provide multiple essential ecosystem services to humans, and several of these require the presence of a cool, oxygen‐rich hypolimnion. These ecosystem services include supporting habitat for recreational fish species and the maintenance of a non‐eutrophic state by limiting internal nutrient loading. However, changes in land use and global warming are modifying the thermal structure of lakes worldwide, creating episodic or prolonged periods of hypoxia, changing a lakes ability to deliver certain ecosystem services. Here, we used National Lake Assessment data and machine learning approaches to identify which lake or watershed features determined the presence of a hypolimnion and which contributed to the development of hypoxia. A random forest of 1000 trees predicted the presence of a hypolimnion with 85% accuracy using commonly measured morphometric and physicochemical variables as well as land use. Mean and maximum depths had a disproportionate influence, entirely obscuring the influence of variables commonly associated with lake mixing, such as light penetration and fetch. In contrast, depth had a more restrained role to predict the presence of hypoxia; the latter was predicted with an overall accuracy of 85%, from epilimnetic nitrogen and carbon concentrations. Although the nutrient‐color groups had a minor influence in the random forests, there was a clear trend of increased hypoxia with higher turbidity. Our approach allows for the broad‐scale assessment of lakes with hypolimnia and suggests that increasing eutrophication and browning will promote profundal hypoxia, altering the delivery of certain ecosystems services.

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Anaerobic duration predicts biogeochemical consequences of oxygen depletion in lakes

Cited by 7 publications

References 37 publications

Anoxia Begets Anoxia: a positive feedback to the deoxygenation of temperate lakes

Anoxia Begets Anoxia: a positive feedback to the deoxygenation of temperate lakes

Anoxia begets anoxia: A positive feedback to the deoxygenation of temperate lakes

Predicting the presence of hypoxic hypolimnia in lakes at large spatial scales

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