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Seasonal water chemistry and diatom changes in six boreal lakes of the Laurentian Mountains (Québec, Canada): impacts of climate and timber harvesting

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Abstract

The physical and chemical variabilities as well as the distribution of diatoms of six boreal lakes in the Laurentian Mountains (southern Québec, Canada) were studied. The lakes are located along an altitudinal gradient and were sampled at a biweekly resolution from May through October, 2002. In general, we found later onset and weaker lake stratification under colder climates. Lake circulation and SiO2 are strongly correlated and together significantly explain the distribution of diatoms of the individual lakes. Diatoms that accumulated in the sediment traps were mostly composed of benthic species, suggesting resuspension. However, diatom flux and lake circulation were not significantly correlated, the diatom assemblages in the sediment traps were similar in two consecutive years, and species–environment relationships were comparable among lakes, which indicates that the effects of resuspension were minimal. In addition, we found that one lake was more productive due to forest logging. The forest in the catchment of Lake Maxi was entirely clear-cut shortly prior to our sampling. Mean total phosphorus, dissolved organic carbon, and chlorophyll a concentrations were significantly higher when compared to the other five study lakes. This study seeks to improve our understanding of how diatoms in boreal lakes respond to climate change and forest clear-cut.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a Leopoldina (# BMBF-LPD 9901) stipend from the Academy of Natural Sciences (Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany), and a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) postdoctoral fellowship to S. Hausmann, and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada grant to R. Pienitz. We are grateful to Centre d’études nordiques of Université Laval for logistic support and thank C. Zimmermann for field and laboratory assistance, and D. Muir and X. Wang for water chemistry analyses. This work could only be realized with the field assistance of T. Menninger, L. Laperrière, I. Laurion, D. Köster, K. Roberge, É. Saulnier-Talbot and M. Touazi. We would like to thank M. Rautio, T. Menninger, R. Keveren and J. Dixon for feedback on the manuscript. The manuscript would not exist in its present form without the valuable comments of J. Black. In addition, we would like to thank the two reviewers for their constructive comments.

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  1. Department of Geosciences, University of Arkansas, 13 Ozark Hall, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA

    Sonja Hausmann

  2. Aquatic Paleoecology Laboratory, Département de Géographie, Centre d’études nordiques, Université Laval, Quebec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada

    Sonja Hausmann & Reinhard Pienitz

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  1. Sonja Hausmann
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Correspondence to Sonja Hausmann.

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Hausmann, S., Pienitz, R. Seasonal water chemistry and diatom changes in six boreal lakes of the Laurentian Mountains (Québec, Canada): impacts of climate and timber harvesting. Hydrobiologia 635, 1–14 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-009-9855-0

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