Ken G. Beaty

Eutrophication of lakes cannot be controlled by reducing nitrogen input: Results of a 37-year whole-ecosystem experiment

Lake 227, a small lake in the Precambrian Shield at the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA), has been fertilized for 37 years with constant annual inputs of phosphorus and decreasing inputs of nitrogen to test the theory that controlling nitrogen inputs can control eutrophication. For the final 16 years (1990–2005), the lake was fertilized with phosphorus alone. Reducing nitrogen inputs increasingly favored nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria as a response by the phytoplankton community to extreme seasonal nitrogen limitation. Nitrogen fixation was sufficient to allow biomass to continue to be produced in proportion to phosphorus, and the lake remained highly eutrophic, despite showing indications of extreme nitrogen limitation seasonally. To reduce eutrophication, the focus of management must be on decreasing inputs of phosphorus.

EFFECTS OF CLIMATIC WARMING ON LAKES OF THE CENTRAL BOREAL FOREST

Twenty years of climatic, hydrologic, and ecological records for the Experimental Lakes Area of northwestern Ontario show that air and lake temperatures have increased by 2�C and the length of the ice-free season has increased by 3 weeks. Higher than normal evaporation and lower than average precipitation have decreased rates of water renewal in lakes. Concentrations of most chemicals have increased in both lakes and streams because of decreased water renewal and forest fires in the catchments. In Lake 239, populations and diversity of phytoplankton also increased, but primary production showed no consistent trend. Increased wind velocities, increased transparency, and increased exposure to wind of lakes in burned catchments caused thermoclines to deepen. As a result, summer habitats for cold stenothermic organisms like lake trout and opposum shrimp decreased. Our observations may provide a preview of the effects of increased greenhouse warming on boreal lakes.

Whole-ecosystem study shows rapid fish-mercury response to changes in mercury deposition

Methylmercury contamination of fisheries from centuries of industrial atmospheric emissions negatively impacts humans and wildlife worldwide. The response of fish methylmercury concentrations to changes in mercury deposition has been difficult to establish because sediments/soils contain large pools of historical contamination, and many factors in addition to deposition affect fish mercury. To test directly the response of fish contamination to changing mercury deposition, we conducted a whole-ecosystem experiment, increasing the mercury load to a lake and its watershed by the addition of enriched stable mercury isotopes. The isotopes allowed us to distinguish between experimentally applied mercury and mercury already present in the ecosystem and to examine bioaccumulation of mercury deposited to different parts of the watershed. Fish methylmercury concentrations responded rapidly to changes in mercury deposition over the first 3 years of study. Essentially all of the increase in fish methylmercury concentrations came from mercury deposited directly to the lake surface. In contrast, <1% of the mercury isotope deposited to the watershed was exported to the lake. Steady state was not reached within 3 years. Lake mercury isotope concentrations were still rising in lake biota, and watershed mercury isotope exports to the lake were increasing slowly. Therefore, we predict that mercury emissions reductions will yield rapid (years) reductions in fish methylmercury concentrations and will yield concomitant reductions in risk. However, a full response will be delayed by the gradual export of mercury stored in watersheds. The rate of response will vary among lakes depending on the relative surface areas of water and watershed.

Climate-induced changes in the dissolved organic carbon budgets of boreal lakes

During 20 years of climatic warming, drought and increased forest firesbetween 1970 and 1990, DOC concentrations declined by 15--25%in lakesof the Experimental Lakes Area, northwestern Ontario, allowing increasedpenetration of both UV and photosynthetically-active radiation (PAR), andcausing deeper euphotic zones and thermoclines. Decreased input to thelakes of DOC from terrestrial catchments and upstream lakes was theprimary reason for the decline, although in-lake removal also increasedslightly. Decreased streamflow caused by drought was more important thanforest fires in affecting DOC exports from catchments. Experimentalacidification of lakes caused even greater losses in DOC, by enhancing ratesof in-lake removal. DOC in Lake 302S, acidified to pH 4.5 during the1980’s, declined to less than 10% of preacidificationvalues.

Effects of forest fire and drought on acidity of a base-poor boreal forest stream: similarities between climatic warming and acidic precipitation

In a boreal forest catchment in the Experimental Lakes Area in northwestern Ontario, wildfire caused an increase in the concentrations of strong acid anions and base cations of the stream. In the naturally base-poor Northwest (NW) Subbasin, a 1980 wildfire caused exports of strong acid anions to increase more than export of base cations, causing a 2.5 fold increase in the acidity of the stream. Mean annual stream pH declined from 5.15 prior to fire to 4.76 two years after fire. Acid-neutralizing capacity (ANC), calculated as the difference between total base cations and strong acid anions, decreased to 20% of pre-fire values. Sulfate and chloride were the strong acid anions responsible for the decline in ANC, increasing four-fold. While nitrate increased eleven-fold, concentrations were too low to significantly affect ANC. There was a significant correlation between weekly sulfate concentration and base cation concentration (r2 = 0.83) in the two years after fire. Recovery of ANC was caused by the more rapid decline in concentration of sulfate than by changes in base cations. Drought produced a similar but weaker response than fire, with increased sulfate concentrations and decreased stream pH. Climatic warming that increases drought and fire frequency would have effects that mimic the impacts of acidic precipitation (i.e. higher sulfate concentrations and acidic stream waters). Areas which have higher concentrations of stored S from past acid precipitation or have large areas of peatlands in the watershed may have aggravated losses of S and H+ after drought and fire.

Long-Term Responses of Nutrient Budgets to Concurrent Climate-Related Stressors in a Boreal Watershed

The climate of the circumpolar Boreal forest is changing rapidly, resulting in a growing frequency of wildfires and changing precipitation patterns. These climate-related stressors may influence the cycling of nutrients within, and overall ecosystem condition of, Boreal watersheds. However, long-term perspectives of concurrent climate-related impacts on the cycling of nutrients in watersheds are rare. We present multi-decadal terrestrial and lake mass budgets of nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon within a headwater Boreal Shield watershed that was recovering from an extensive wildfire while experiencing measureable increases in annual precipitation. We used these budgets to quantify associations between nutrient retention in each ecosystem and changes in metrics defining landscape recovery after wildfire or precipitation. The terrestrial watershed retained over half of all nitrogen and phosphorus delivered to it by the atmosphere. Strong nutrient retention occurred despite ongoing landscape recovery from wildfire, measurable increases in precipitation, a forest tent caterpillar defoliation and rising atmospheric deposition. A downstream headwater lake was also a strong and consistent sink of nitrogen and phosphorus, highlighting a whole-watershed resistance to environmental disturbances. However, carbon was strongly lost downstream from the terrestrial ecosystem in close and positive association with precipitation, resulting in a darkening of the headwater lake over time with implications for the functioning of its ecosystem. Long-term mass budget monitoring of a Boreal catchment has provided insight into the resistances and dynamic changes within a northern watershed exposed to concurrent wildfire and increasing precipitation conditions.