Global spread of hypoxia in freshwater ecosystems during the last three centuries is caused by rising local human pressure

Jenny, Jean‐Philippe; Francus, Pierre; Normandeau, Alexandre; Lapointe, François; Perga, Marie‐Elodie; Ojala, Antti E. K.; Schimmelmann, Arndt; Zolitschka, Bernd

doi:10.1111/gcb.13193

Cited by 314 publications

(213 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Multiple sites need to be investigated to quantify a regional trend, as well as to evaluate local to regional heterogeneities. Only a few studies have interpreted the long-term trajectories of lakes (based on >100-year lake records) in terms of eutrophication on a regional scale by analyzing trends in nutrient and dissolved CO 2 concentrations (13,14), carbon burial rates (15), cyanobacterial dominance (16), and hypoxia development (17). However, only one of these studies (13) considered the temporal dynamics of land cover and use, and only a few studies (16,17) considered modern land cover.…”

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“…Only a few studies have interpreted the long-term trajectories of lakes (based on >100-year lake records) in terms of eutrophication on a regional scale by analyzing trends in nutrient and dissolved CO 2 concentrations (13,14), carbon burial rates (15), cyanobacterial dominance (16), and hypoxia development (17). However, only one of these studies (13) considered the temporal dynamics of land cover and use, and only a few studies (16,17) considered modern land cover. Our current lack of knowledge of the effects arising from cumulative environmental pressures presents the potential for serious underestimation of the long-term impacts of land use changes and hinders our ability to identify the relative importance of P sources to lake ecosystems (18).…”

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“…The spread of hypoxia was best explained by urban expansion and the associated intensification of anthropogenic point sources of phosphorus, whereby changes in lifestyle increased the discharge of nutrients from treated and raw sewage, and ultimately led to enhanced lacustrine biological productivity. (17) to (i) reconstruct the European dynamic of lacustrine hypoxia during the Anthropocene, and (ii) decipher whether P from diffuse sources (agriculture) or point sources (urbanization) is responsible for the spread of lacustrine hypoxia in Europe.…”

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“…Hypoxia can develop naturally, but is more often the result of (i) cultural eutrophication, which enhances biomass production and, ultimately, its decomposition through microbial oxygen respiration (29)(30)(31), and (ii) rising mean temperatures, which decrease oxygen solubility in water (32), stimulate microbial oxygen respiration (30), and/or strengthen thermal stratification (33,34). Among these forcing mechanisms, recent paleolimnological studies identified excess P availability, and not climate, as the main driver for the onset of lacustrine hypoxia during the Anthropocene (17,35). These studies used the presence and environmental signals of varved (i.e., annually laminated) sediments in lakes distributed in the French Alps and worldwide to assess the long-term dynamics of hypoxia.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The onset of sustained lamination (including varves) in modern lake sediments is an unambiguous and independent proxy for the timing of hypoxic, anoxic (i.e., complete absence of oxygen), or even euxinic (i.e., sulfidic) bottom-water conditions on a regional scale. The well-defined geochronology of lacustrine varves provides forensic evidence to quantify the timing, prevalence, and causes of aquatic regime shifts (17).…”

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Urban point sources of nutrients were the leading cause for the historical spread of hypoxia across European lakes

Jenny

Normandeau

Francus

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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108

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Enhanced phosphorus (P) export from land into streams and lakes is a primary factor driving the expansion of deep-water hypoxia in lakes during the Anthropocene. However, the interplay of regional scale environmental stressors and the lack of long-term instrumental data often impede analyses attempting to associate changes in land cover with downstream aquatic responses. Herein, we performed a synthesis of data that link paleolimnological reconstructions of lake bottom-water oxygenation to changes in land cover/use and climate over the past 300 years to evaluate whether the spread of hypoxia in European lakes was primarily associated with enhanced P exports from growing urbanization, intensified agriculture, or climatic change. We showed that hypoxia started spreading in European lakes around CE 1850 and was greatly accelerated after CE 1900. Socioeconomic changes in Europe beginning in CE 1850 resulted in widespread urbanization, as well as a larger and more intensively cultivated surface area. However, our analysis of temporal trends demonstrated that the onset and intensification of lacustrine hypoxia were more strongly related to the growth of urban areas than to changes in agricultural areas and the application of fertilizers. These results suggest that anthropogenically triggered hypoxia in European lakes was primarily caused by enhanced P discharges from urban point sources. To date, there have been no signs of sustained recovery of bottom-water oxygenation in lakes following the enactment of European water legislation in the 1970s to 1980s, and the subsequent decrease in domestic P consumption.Anthropocene | lake hypoxia | land cover/uses | meta-analysis | varves C hanges in land cover and land use have been identified as important drivers of phosphorus (P) transfers from terrestrial to aquatic systems, resulting in significant impacts on water resources (1-3). In post-World War II Europe, changes in land cover, land use, and P utilization caused widespread eutrophication of freshwaters (3). Elevated rates of P release from point sources to surface water bodies increased in step with population increases, with the novel use of P in domestic detergents and with enhanced connectivity of households to sewage systems that generated concentrated effluents (4). The intensification of agriculture and drastic increased use of fertilizers from industrial and manure sources resulted in elevated P concentrations in runoff from diffuse sources (4). These trends have now metastasized from Europe and North America to most nations, which explains the almost global development of eutrophication problems in surface waters (1).Much of our understanding regarding the interactions between changes in land cover/use, climate, and lake eutrophication comes from detailed studies of individual lakes (5), modeling exercises (1), and/or regional-scale syntheses of instrumental data (6, 7); these studies are largely based on relatively short time series (8). Depending on the multitudinous local differences in catchment and lake mor...

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confidence: 99%

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Urban point sources of nutrients were the leading cause for the historical spread of hypoxia across European lakes

Jenny

Normandeau

Francus

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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108

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Quantification of Anoxia and Hypoxia in Water Bodies

Nürnberg¹

2019

Encyclopedia of Water

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Anoxia and hypoxia are wide‐spread in freshwater systems and have been increasing in response to anthropogenic disturbances and climate change with biological and chemical implications. The concept of the anoxic factor to quantify anoxia and of the hypoxic factor for higher levels of dissolved oxygen concentration (DO) in lakes, reservoirs, and river sections has facilitated the exploration of hypoxia in a number of applications. This method condenses information from numerous individual DO profiles into annual values or factors that are comparable between and within lakes and hence invites the formulation and testing of hypotheses related to the DO status in water bodies. Besides the definition of the factors, proven and potential applications are described. They include the description of annual and spatial trend in anoxia or hypoxia, the evaluation of restoration techniques with respect to hypolimnetic oxygen depletion, the determination of internal phosphorus loading in stratified and polymictic lakes, the exploration of habitat constraints of fish due to hypoxia, and the examination of potential effects of climatic change on DO content and internal phosphorus loading.

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Fish carcass deposition to suppress invasive lake trout through hypoxia causes limited, non‐target effects on benthic invertebrates in Yellowstone Lake

Briggs

Albertson

Lujan

et al. 2022

Aquaculture Fish & Fisheries

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Invasive species can have negative effects on native biodiversity and ecosystem function, and suppression is often required to minimize the effects. However, management actions to suppress invasive species may cause negative, unintended effects on non‐target taxa. Across the United States, lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) are invasive in many freshwater ecosystems, reducing native fish abundance and diversity through predation and competition. In an integrated pest management approach, lake trout embryos in Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming, are suppressed by depositing lake trout carcasses onto spawning sites; the carcasses reduce dissolved oxygen concentrations as they decay, causing embryo mortality. We conducted a field experiment during one ice‐free season at four sites in Yellowstone Lake to investigate the non‐target effects of carcass treatment on benthic invertebrates, which could have consequences for native fish diets. While overall invertebrate density and biomass did not respond to carcass treatment, Chironomidae midges and Sphaeriidae fingernail clams decreased in abundance. Carcass treatment altered invertebrate community structure based on density, but not biomass. Carcass treatment to suppress invasive fish embryos has spatially localized, non‐target effects on some benthic invertebrate taxa. Given the small spatial extent of carcass treatment within the lake, we conclude it is unlikely that carcass treatment will alter food availability for native fishes.

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Global spread of hypoxia in freshwater ecosystems during the last three centuries is caused by rising local human pressure

Cited by 314 publications

References 51 publications

Urban point sources of nutrients were the leading cause for the historical spread of hypoxia across European lakes

Urban point sources of nutrients were the leading cause for the historical spread of hypoxia across European lakes

Quantification of Anoxia and Hypoxia in Water Bodies

Fish carcass deposition to suppress invasive lake trout through hypoxia causes limited, non‐target effects on benthic invertebrates in Yellowstone Lake

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