Assessing water quality changes in the lakes of the northeastern United States using sediment diatoms

Dixit, Sushil S.; Smol, John P.; Charles, Donald F.; Hughes, Robert M.; Paulsen, Steven G.; Collins, Gary B.

doi:10.1139/cjfas-56-1-131

Cited by 73 publications

(114 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

110

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…There are no other paleolimnological surveys based on a probability sample of the population of all U.S. lakes that can be used for comparison with our results; however, there was a similar survey of lakes in the northeastern United States (Dixit et al 1999). That study also used the diatominferred concentrations of TP to compare pre-European settlement concentrations with recent ones in 139 natural lakes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Of the wide variety of data collected on each lake, we have made use of the paleolimnological data collected from short sediment cores from the natural lakes. This approach has been applied in other regional lake surveys (Hall and Smol 1996;Dixit et al 1999), and because the details of the sampling program are discussed in USEPA (2010a,b), we present only a brief summary of the procedure. A short sediment core was taken from each natural lake, and slices of the sediments from the tops and the bottoms of the cores were prepared for microscopic examination of the diatoms.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The extent that natural lakes in the United States of America have been changed by cultural eutrophication

Bachmann

Hoyer

2013

Limnology & Oceanography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We used paleolimnological data for 240 lakes from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) 2007 National Lakes Assessment to estimate the extent that natural lakes in the coterminous United States have been changed by anthropogenic activities. In order to detect cultural eutrophication, we analyzed data on diatominferred concentrations of total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), specific conductance (SC), and pH as determined from lake sediments from the tops and bottoms of sediment cores from 240 natural lakes where the bottom of the core was judged to represent conditions prior to European settlement. We found no statistically significant increases in the average concentrations of TN, while TP decreased by 14% in this population of lakes since the time of European settlement. We also analyzed data from 48 reference lakes used by the USEPA to determine the relative condition of the sample lakes. Paired t-tests showed the TN concentrations were not significantly different between the two time periods (p . 5%), while the average TP concentrations had significantly decreased by 26% since presettlement times (p , 5%). There were statistically significant increases in SC (17%) and pH (0.05 pH units). There were no statistically significant differences between the changes in TP, TN, SC, and pH in the 240 sample lakes and the changes in the 48 reference lakes. The proportions of lakes categorized as oligotrophic, mesotrophic, eutrophic, and hypereutrophic for the presettlement time period were not significantly different from the proportions found in 2007.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The extent that natural lakes in the United States of America have been changed by cultural eutrophication

Bachmann

Hoyer

2013

Limnology & Oceanography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Unfortunately, there are no rigorous transfer functions correlating particular diatom taxa with specific environmental parameters for the SJM. However, low alkalinity lakes from other regions indicate that the pH and TP optima for A. minutissimum and S. pinnata are quite similar, with pH optima between 7 and 8 and TP optima between 8 and 14 µg l −1 (Dixit et al, 1999;Camburn and Charles, 2000). A regional diatom survey in the SJM also found that A. minutissimum was abundant at sites with elevated pH levels between 7.8 and 8.0 (Sgro et al, 2007).…”

Section: Nutrient Mass Balance For Alpine Watershedsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biogeochemical response of alpine lakes to a recent increase in dust deposition in the Southwestern, US

et al. 2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The deposition of dust has recently increased significantly over some regions of the western US. Here we explore how changes in dust deposition have affected the biogeochemistry of two alpine watersheds in Colorado, US. We first reconstruct recent changes in the mass accumulation rate of sediments and then we use isotopic measurements in conjunction with a Bayesian mixing model to infer that approximately 95 % of the inorganic fraction of lake sediments is derived from dust. Elemental analyses of modern dust indicate that dust is enriched in Ca, Cr, Cu, Mg, Ni, and in one watershed, Fe and P relative to bedrock. The increase in dust deposition combined with its enrichment in certain elements has altered the biogeochemisty of these systems. Both lakes showed an increase in primary productivity as evidenced by a decrease in carbon isotopic discrimination; however, the cause of increased primary productivity varies due to differences in watershed characteristic. The lake in the larger watershed experienced greater atmospheric N loading and less P loading from the bedrock leading to a greater N:P flux ratio. In contrast, the lake in the smaller watershed experienced less atmospheric N loading and greater P loading from the bedrock, leading to a reduced N:P flux ratio. As a result, primary productivity was more constrained by N availability in the smaller watershed. N-limited primary productivity in the smaller watershed was partly ameliorated by an increase in nitrogen fixation as indicated by reduced nitrogen isotopic values in more contemporary sediments. This study illustrates that alpine watersheds are excellent integrators of changes in atmospheric deposition, but that the biogeochemical response of these watersheds may be mediated by their physical (i.e. watershed area) and chemical (i.e. underlying geology) properties.

show abstract

“…We found the precision and accuracy of the transfer functions used by Heathcote et al [9] were similar to those used in other regional paleolimnological studies (Table 4). While the bootstrapped root mean squared error of predication of 0.30 log units was greater than that used in a study of Minnesota lakes of 0.25 log units [36], it was smaller than that (0.34 log units) for the transfer functions used in a study of the lakes of the northeastern United States [37] and the natural lakes (0.36 log units) of the United States in the National Lakes Assessment of 2007 [38]. We used the Heathcote et al [11] results in part because Saulnier-Talbot [39] noted that while there are problems with diatom transfer functions, great strides have been made using this approach and that their use at present can hardly be discarded.…”

Section: Diatom-inferred Concentrations Of Total Phosphorusmentioning

confidence: 59%

Possible Sediment Mixing and the Disparity between Field Measurements and Paleolimnological Inferences in Shallow Iowa Lakes in the Midwestern United States

Bachmann

Hoyer

2018

Geosciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Field measurements of water quality in Iowa lakes contradict paleolimnological studies that used 210 Pb dating techniques in 33 lakes to infer accelerating eutrophication and sediment accumulation in recent decades. We tested this hypothesis by analyzing a series of water quality measurements taken in 24 of these lakes during the period 1972-2010. There was little change in the trophic state variables. Total phosphorus and algal chlorophylls did not increase, and Secchi depths did not decrease with no evidence that the lakes had become more eutrophic. Changes in daily sediment loads in the Raccoon River also did not match the paleolimnological inferred rates of soil erosion for the period 1905-2005, and an independent estimate of soil erosion rates showed a decline of 40% in the 1977 to 2012 period rather than an increase. We hypothesized that sediment mixing by benthivorous fish could be responsible for violating the basic assumption of 210 Pb sediment dating that the sediments are not disturbed once they are laid down. We developed a mathematical model that demonstrated that sediment mixing could lead to false inferences about sediment dates and sediment burial rates. This study raises the possibility that sediment mixing in Iowa lakes and similar shallow, eutrophic lakes with benthivorous fish may cause significant sediment mixing that can compromise dating using 210 Pb dating of sediment cores.

show abstract

Assessing water quality changes in the lakes of the northeastern United States using sediment diatoms

Cited by 73 publications

References 0 publications

The extent that natural lakes in the United States of America have been changed by cultural eutrophication

The extent that natural lakes in the United States of America have been changed by cultural eutrophication

Biogeochemical response of alpine lakes to a recent increase in dust deposition in the Southwestern, US

Possible Sediment Mixing and the Disparity between Field Measurements and Paleolimnological Inferences in Shallow Iowa Lakes in the Midwestern United States

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About