Rock glacier outflows may adversely affect lakes: lessons from the past and present of two neighboring water bodies in a crystalline-rock watershed.

ABSTRACT: Despite the fact that rock glaciers are one of the most common geomorphological expressions of mountain permafrost, the impacts of their solute fluxes on lakes still remain largely obscure. We examined water and sediment chemistry, and biota of two neighboring water bodies with and without a rock glacier in their catchments in the European Alps. Paleolimnological techniques were applied to track long-term temporal trends in the ecotoxicological state of the water bodies and to establish their baseline conditions. We show that the active rock glacier in the mineralized catchment of Lake Rasass (RAS) represents a potent source of acid rock drainage that results in enormous concentrations of metals in water, sediment, and biota of RAS. The incidence of morphological abnormalities in the RAS p

SUBMITTER: Ilyashuk BP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4045335 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature