Intense touristic activities exceed climate change to shape aquatic communities in a mountain lake.

ABSTRACT: Mountain lakes are especially vulnerable to climate change, but are also increasingly exposed to local anthropogenic development through winter and summer tourism. In this study, we aimed to tease apart the influence of tourism from that of climate in a mountain lake located within one of the largest French ski resorts, by combining paleolimnological and present ecological data. The reconstructed long-term ecological dynamics highlighted an increase in lake biological production from the end of the Little Ice Age up to the 1950s, suggesting a historical dominance of climate control. Afterward, a major drop in pelagic production occurred at the same time as the watershed erosion increased and peaked in the 1990s, concomitant with massive digging for the ski resort expansion. The benthic inv

SUBMITTER: Frossard V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10157129 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature