Nutrients and warming interact to force mountain lakes into unprecedented ecological states.

ABSTRACT: While deposition of reactive nitrogen (N) in the twentieth century has been strongly linked to changes in diatom assemblages in high-elevation lakes, pronounced and contemporaneous changes in other algal groups suggest additional drivers. We explored the origin and magnitude of changes in two mountain lakes from the end of the Little Ice Age at ca 1850, to ca 2010, using lake sediments. We found dramatic changes in algal community abundance and composition. While diatoms remain the most abundant photosynthetic organisms, concentrations of diatom pigments decreased while pigments representing chlorophytes increased 200-300% since ca 1950 and total algal biomass more than doubled. Some algal changes began ca 1900 but shifts in most sedimentary proxies accelerated

SUBMITTER: Oleksy IA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7423480 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature