Suchergebnisse

We compiled a lake-water clarity database using publically available, citizen volunteer observations made between 1938 and 2012 across eight states in the Upper Midwest, USA. Our objectives were to determine (1) whether temporal trends in lake-water clarity existed across this large geographic area and (2) whether trends were related to the lake-specific characteristics of latitude, lake size, or time period the lake was monitored. Our database consisted of >140,000 individual Secchi observations from 3,251 lakes that we summarized per lake-year, resulting in 21,020 summer averages. Using Bayesian hierarchical modeling, we found approximately a 1% per year increase in water clarity (quantified as Secchi depth) for the entire population of lakes. On an individual lake basis, 7% of lakes showed increased water clarity and 4% showed decreased clarity. Trend direction and strength were related to latitude and median sample date. Lakes in the southern part of our study-region had lower average annual summer water clarity, more negative long-term trends, and greater inter-annual variability in water clarity compared to northern lakes. Increasing trends were strongest for lakes with median sample dates earlier in the period of record (1938–2012). Our ability to identify specific mechanisms for these trends is currently hampered by the lack of a large, multi-thematic database of variables that drive water clarity (e.g., climate, land use/cover). Our results demonstrate, however, that citizen science can provide the critical monitoring data needed to address environmental questions at large spatial and long temporal scales. Collaborations among citizens, research scientists, and government agencies may be important for developing the data sources and analytical tools necessary to move toward an understanding of the factors influencing macro-scale patterns such as those shown here for lake water clarity.

Winter conditions are rapidly changing in temperate ecosystems, particularly for those that experience periods of snow and ice cover. Relatively little is known of winter ecology in these systems, due to a historical research focus on summer 'growing seasons'. We executed the first global quantitative synthesis on under-ice lake ecology, including 36 abiotic and biotic variables from 42 research groups and 101 lakes, examining seasonal differences and connections as well as how seasonal differences vary with geophysical factors. Plankton were more abundant under ice than expected; mean winter values were 43.2% of summer values for chlorophyll a, 15.8% of summer phytoplankton biovolume and 25.3% of summer zooplankton density. Dissolved nitrogen concentrations were typically higher during winter, and these differences were exaggerated in smaller lakes. Lake size also influenced winter-summer patterns for dissolved organic carbon (DOC), with higher winter DOC in smaller lakes. At coarse levels of taxonomic aggregation, phytoplankton and zooplankton community composition showed few systematic differences between seasons, although literature suggests that seasonal differences are frequently lake-specific, species-specific, or occur at the level of functional group. Within the subset of lakes that had longer time series, winter influenced the subsequent summer for some nutrient variables and zooplankton biomass. ; National Science Foundation (NSF DEB) [1431428, 1136637]; Washington State University; Russian Science Foundation [14-14-00400]; Ministry of education and science of Russia Gos-Zasanie project [1354-2014/51]; Natural Environment Research Council [NE/J00829X/1, 1230750, NE/G019622/1, NE/J010227/1] ; Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF DEB #1431428; NSF DEB #1136637) and Washington State University. M. Timofeyev and E. Silow were partially supported by Russian Science Foundation project No 14-14-00400 and Ministry of education and science of Russia Gos-Zasanie project No 1354-2014/51. We are grateful to Marianne Moore, Deniz Ozkundakci, Chris Polashenski and Paula Kankaala for discussions that greatly improved this work. We also gratefully acknowledge the following individuals for contributing to this project: John Anderson, Jill Baron, Rick Bourbonniere, Sandra Brovold, Lluis Camarero, Sudeep Chandra, Jim Cotner, Laura Forsstom, Guillaume Grosbois, Chris Harrod, Klaus D. Joehnk, T.Y. Kim, Daniel Langenhaun, Reet Laugaste, Suzanne McGowan, Virginia Panizzo, Giampaolo Rossetti, R.E.H. Smith, Sarah Spaulding, Helen Tammert, Steve Thackeray, Kyle Zimmer, Priit Zingel and two anonymous reviewers. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US Government.