Journal
LAKE AND RESERVOIR MANAGEMENT
Volume 21, Issue 3, Pages 316-329Publisher
NORTH AMER LAKE MANAGEMENT SOC
DOI: 10.1080/07438140509354437
Keywords
meromixis; nutrient dynamics; NT ratios; productivity; road salt inputs; sediment core; snow melt; spring turnover
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We studied the winter to spring transition in Third Sister Lake (TSL), a small glacial lake in southeastern Michigan, to determine the effect of mixing regime on nutrient dynamics and community structure in an urban temperate lake. After ice-off, the oxycline was mixed downward from 3 to 6 m depth, resulting in addition of 5 mg m(-2) P-SRP, 857 mg m(-2) N-NH4+, and 400 mg m(-2) N-NO3- to the epilimnion, but trapping 299 mg m(-2) P-SRP, 7877 mg m-(2) N-NH4+ and 36 mg m-2 N-NO3 in the bottom waters. Nutrients supplied by snow melt runoff (138 mg m(-2) P-SRP, 430 mg m(-2) N-NH4+, 596 mg m(-2) N-NO3-) were an order of magnitude greater than rain event loads (0.13 mg m(-2) P-SRP, 0.17 mg m(-2) N-NH4+, and 1.05 mg m(-2) N-NO3-) during the transition time from ice cover to open water. Reduced spring mixing did not have a large impact on N:P molar ratios, because external N:P ratios were low (7.5) compensating for reduced supply of P from the bottom waters. Bacterial production was greater in the hypolimnion than in the epilimnion, and mesocosm experiments showed that bacteria were P limited in the epilimnion but not in the hypolimnion. Total algal and zooplankton densities increased after ice-out, while Daphnia and Bosmina densities decreased. Increases in zooplankton grazing rates after ice-off were most dramatic in small-bodied zooplankton. Sediment core analysis showed that Asterionella relative abundance continues to increase, suggesting that the lake has become more brackish and oligotrophic. Our findings suggest that TSL has undergone a transition from dimictic to meromictic conditions, and that continued salt inputs have altered the structure and function of this ecosystem.
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