Zooplankton (Cladocera) species turnover and long-term decline of Daphnia in two high mountain lakes in the Austrian Alps

Solar and atmospheric forcing on mountain lakes

“…In lakes across Europe, higher NAO values have been found to correlate with earlier timing of limnoecological events, such as thermal stratification, peaks in zooplankton (microcrustaceans such as cladocerans) abundance, and a clear water phase caused by microcrustacean grazing, which in turn is related to the direct effect of increased spring water temperatures on microcrustacean growth and development (Straile, 2000(Straile, , 2002. Some of these effects are well represented in the OBLAN record, which has experienced significant changes in its thermal structure and zooplankton grazing (Nevalainen et al, 2014). In addition, microcrustacean (cladoceran) predators have been found to respond to the NAO via climate-linked changes in the duration of a refuge from fish predation (Manca and DeMott, 2009).…”

Impacts of Climate Warming on Alpine Lake Biota Over the Past Decade

“…Here we aim to assess changes in some main constituents of the planktic and benthic communities (diatoms, chrysophytes, chironomids) of a set of mid-Alpine lakes in the Niedere Tauern region in Austria in relation to climatic warming by comparing community and environmental data from 1998-1999 to data from 2010-2011. Although many paleolimnological studies on Alpine climate change over centennial to millennial timescales exist (e.g., Lotter et al, 1997;Heiri et al, 2003;Huber et al, 2010;Larocque-Tobler et al, 2010;Ilyashuk et al, 2011;Nevalainen et al, 2014), data on recent community changes in Alpine lakes are rare, despite their indisputable value for environmental quality and conservation programs, and for better understanding the effects of global climate change on lake ecosystems.…”

The effect of fish stocking on mountain lake plankton communities identified using palaeobiological analyses of bottom sediment cores

“…This pressure created a free niche for small-bodied grazers such as B. longirostris. The occurrence of B. longirostris in the last decades was not observed in other lakes in the Tatra Mountains, so a regional trend triggered by climate warming (Nevalainen et al 2014), for example, may be excluded. Similar to Cladocera, fish stocking in Przedni Staw Polski was also clearly reflected by the phytoplankton in the early 1970s (Table 3).…”