Tracking Fish Introduction in a Mountain Lake over the Last 200 Years Using Chironomids, Diatoms, and Cladoceran Remains

We analysed a 24 cm long sediment sequence (past ~200 years) from an alpine lake (Tatra Mts., Slovakia) for chironomids, cladocerans, and diatoms to reconstruct the effects of a historically documented fish introduction. Our results indicate that fish introduction predated the age of the sequence, a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water (Basel) 2023-04, Vol.15 (7), p.1372
Main Authors: Slobodníková, Veronika, Hamerlík, Ladislav, Wojewódka-Przybył, Marta, Sochuliaková, Lucia, Szarlowicz, Katarzyna, Buczkó, Krisztina, Chamutiová, Tímea, Sedlačková Přidalová, Marcela, Bitušík, Peter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
20th century
Acidification
Bacillariophyceae
Biodiversity
Chironomidae
Cladocera
climate
Climate change
Cottus poecilopus
Environmental stress
Fish
Fish stocking
Fishes
Global warming
Lakes
Marine microorganisms
Mountain lakes
Mountains
Nonnative species
Pollutants
Salmo trutta
Sediments
Slovakia
Trout
water
watersheds
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We analysed a 24 cm long sediment sequence (past ~200 years) from an alpine lake (Tatra Mts., Slovakia) for chironomids, cladocerans, and diatoms to reconstruct the effects of a historically documented fish introduction. Our results indicate that fish introduction predated the age of the sequence, and thus, we did not cover the lake’s fishless period. The individual proxies coincide in showing two main lake development stages. The first stage lasted until ~1950 CE and was interpreted as the stage when brown trout and alpine bullhead co-occurred. The extremely low concentration of cladocerans, the dominance of small-bodied chydorids, and the low share of daphnids, together with the low proportion/absence of large-bodied tanypod chironomids, suggest a strong effect of both species. The beginning of the next stage is probably related to the ban on fish manipulations and grazing in the catchment. A significant increase in the total abundance of cladocerans and of daphnids may indicate the extirpation of trout. The steep increase in thermally plastic chironomid taxa since the end of the 20th century indicates climate warming. Generally, while cladocerans primarily indicate fish manipulations, chironomids and diatoms mainly reflect other local and global environmental stressors.
ISSN:2073-4441
2073-4441
DOI:10.3390/w15071372