Developmental Changes in the Historical and Present-Day Trophic Status of Brown Water Lakes. Are Humic Water Bodies a Uniform Aquatic Ecosystem?

Abstract

The long-term development of three humic lake ecosystems in Poland was investigated through palaeoecological analyses of sediment cores. These wetland records spanning the Holocene were analyzed for plant macroremains, degree of peat decomposition, sediment geochemistry along with radiocarbon dating. Morphological characteristics of the catchments and data on contemporary water quality and management approaches were integrated. Our research on the palaeoecology of humic lakes suggests two main states: humic and eutrophic-humic. Of the lakes studied, only one consistently presented features typical of the humic type. The other two showed various states, and dynamic patterns of transformation. The results indicate that these systems can change from humic to eutrophic-humic, and back again, in response to catchment-linked factors, climatic change and human impact. Thus determination of uniform pattern in the development of humic lakes is questionable. This suggests that a reassessment of brown water lakes is necessary.

Reconstructing human impact on peatland development during the past 200 years in CE Europe through biotic proxies and X-ray tomography

“…Various theories and data have been published on the mechanisms of and reasons for Sphagnum mat formation (Ireland and Booth, 2011;Kowalewski and Milecka, 2003;Warner et al, 1989). Nevertheless, the origin of floating mats still needs additional research in Central-Eastern Europe (Drzymulska et al, 2012;Drzymulska and Zieli nski, 2013). According to our results, the appearance of Sphagnum in the Rzecin peatland was most likely of anthropogenic origin.…”

Zooplankton Community Responses to Oxygen Stress

“…Most of the dystrophic lakes were surrounded by a coat of mosses (Sphagnum sp.) and peat, which extended in the lake to a considerable depth and were overgrown by roots of different plants and dwarf trees [15,38]. The harmonic lakes largely differed in trophic conditions and the TSI values ranged from 29.6 to 62.8 (Table 1).…”

A 9000 year record of cyclic vegetation changes identified in a montane peatland deposit located in the Eastern Carpathians (Central-Eastern Europe): Autogenic succession or regional climatic influences?

“…occurrence of S. magellanicum and S. angustifolium is common in modern ombrotrophic peatlands (Daniels and Eddy, 1985;Bragazza et al, 2005;Hölzer, 2010;Laine et al, 2011) and it was also documented in fossil records in northern hemisphere (Kuhry et al, 1993;Novenko et al, 2009;Drzymulska and Zieliński, 2013;Gałka et al, 2013b;.…”