Brooktrout Lake Case Study: Biotic Recovery from Acid Deposition 20 Years after the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments

Abstract

The Adirondack Mountain region is an extensive geographic area (26,305 km(2)) in upstate New York where acid deposition has negatively affected water resources for decades and caused the extirpation of local fish populations. The water quality decline and loss of an established brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis [Mitchill]) population in Brooktrout Lake were reconstructed from historical information dating back to the late 1880s. Water quality and biotic recovery were documented in Brooktrout Lake in response to reductions of S deposition during the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s and provided a unique scientific opportunity to re-introduce fish in 2005 and examine their critical role in the recovery of food webs affected by acid deposition. Using C and N isotope analysis of fish collagen and state hatchery feed as well as Bayesian assignment tests of microsatellite genotypes, we document in situ brook trout reproduction, which is the initial phase in the restoration of a preacidification food web structure in Brooktrout Lake. Combined with sulfur dioxide emissions reductions promulgated by the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, our results suggest that other acid-affected Adirondack waters could benefit from careful fish re-introduction protocols to initiate the ecosystem reconstruction of important components of food web dimensionality and functionality.

Decoupled trophic responses to long‐term recovery from acidification and associated browning in lakes

“…Interannual variability in Al IN and zooplankton biomass were not positively correlated, as would be expected from a top‐down aluminum‐mediated increase in fish predation. Additionally, while there has been documented recovery of fish populations in some lakes (Josephson et al, ; Sutherland et al, ) there is high cross‐lake variability in recovering fish populations, with many Adirondack lakes showing little evidence of fish recovery (Baldigo, Roy, & Driscoll, ). While we lack comprehensive time series data to understand if fisheries have recovered in our study lakes, a recent study based on fisheries surveys that included 24 of our 28 study lakes (excluding Big Moose, Cascade, G and South) indicate highly variable recovery, with only four lakes that showed increased total fish biomass >10% and most with no or negative change in fish biomass between approximately 1985 and 2010.…”

“…Interannual variability in Al IN and zooplankton biomass were not positively correlated, as would be expected from a top-down aluminum-mediated increase in fish predation. Additionally, while there has been documented recovery of fish populations in some lakes (Josephson et al, 2014;Sutherland et al, 2015) there is high cross-lake variability in recovering fish populations, with many Adirondack lakes showing little evidence of fish recovery (Baldigo, Roy, & Driscoll, 2016 A positive relationship between in-lake DOC and P concentrations forms a central assumption of the unimodal hypothesis (i.e., that DOM-bound nutrients in low DOM, but browning lakes, will fertilize production) and is primarily based on cross-sectional snapshot datasets using space-for-time substitution (Kopáček, Hejzlar, Vrba, & Stuchlík, 2011;Seekell, Lapierre, Ask et al, 2015a;Seekell, Lapierre, & Karlsson, 2015b;Thrane et al, 2014). Predictions of how browning lakes will change over time are thus based on the assumption that DOM is an important source of limiting nutrients (Kissman, Williamson, Rose, & Saros, 2013;Solomon et al, 2015) and that DOC and P both increase over time in browning lakes.…”

Impacts to ecosystem services from aquatic acidification: using FEGS‐CS to understand the impacts of air pollution

“…There has been little research on the relationships between acidification and macrophytes. What research has been conducted has focused on limited locations and species (Sutherland et al 2015). It is possible that, since many macrophytes are rooted in sediments, they may be less susceptible to aquatic acidification than other identified biological Fig.…”

“…Water acidification has been linked with reduced fitness and richness of a broad range of aquatic species and associated changes to aquatic community composition (Sutherland et al. ).…”

“…Biological effects include toxicity of Al i and hydrogen to fish and aquatic invertebrates (Baker et al 1990, Cosby et al 2006, USEPA 2009). Water acidification has been linked with reduced fitness and richness of a broad range of aquatic species and associated changes to aquatic community composition (Sutherland et al 2015). Acid neutralizing capacity is one measure of surface water chemistry that represents the ability of a watershed to neutralize mineral acids contributed from the atmosphere (USEPA 2008).…”