Impact of recent climate change on Lake Kanas, Altai Mountains (NW China) inferred from diatom and geochemical evidence

Glacier shrinkage and melting of snow patches caused by the current phase of warming is having a profound impact on lake ecosystems located in glacierized environments at high altitude and/or latitude because it alters the hydrology and the physico-chemistry of the river discharges and catchment runoff. These changes, in turn, have a major impact on the biota of these lakes. In this study, we combined geochemical and diatom analyses of a sediment core retrieved from Lake Kanas (N.W. China) to assess how climate change has affected this ecosystem over the past similar to 100 years. Our results show that the aquatic ecosystem of Lake Kanas was sensitive to changes in the regional climate over that period of time. The lake has been affected by change in hydrology (e.g. influx of glacier meltwater, variations in precipitation) and change in hydrodynamics (water column stability). The variations in abundance and composition of the diatom assemblages observed in the sedimentary record have been subtle and are complex to interpret. The principal changes in the diatom community were: (1) a rise in diatom accumulation rates starting in the AD 1970s that is coeval with changes observed in temperate lakes of the Northern Hemisphere and (2) an increase in species diversity and assemblage turnover and a faster rate-of-change since similar to AD 2000. The diatom community is expected to change further with the projected melting of the Kanas glacier throughout the twenty-first century.