Complexity in the biological recovery of Tatra Mountain lakes from acidification

0479765 - BC 2018 RIV NL eng J - Journal Article
Stuchlík, Evžen - Bitušík, P. - Hardekopf, D.W. - Hořická, Zuzana - Kahounová, M. - Tátosová, J. - Vondrák, Daniel - Dočkalová, Kateřina
Complexity in the biological recovery of Tatra Mountain lakes from acidification.
Water, Air, and Soil Pollution. Roč. 228, č. 5 (2017), č. článku 184. ISSN 0049-6979. E-ISSN 1573-2932
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA14-09231S
Institutional support: RVO:60077344
Keywords : phytoplankton * zooplankton * chironomids * oligotrophication * eutrophication
OECD category: Marine biology, freshwater biology, limnology
Impact factor: 1.769, year: 2017

Alpine lakes of the Tatra Mountains (Slovakia/Poland) were severely affected by anthropogenic acidification, which peaked in the mid-1980s. Since the 1990s, though, a dramatic decrease in the deposition of acidifying compounds has led to a considerable reversal in lake water chemistry. During the periods of acidification and recovery from acidification, changes in the occurrence of planktonic Crustacea and Chironomidae were studied in three categories of 50 lakes (non-acidified, acidified, and strongly acidified, according to their status at the beginning of the 1980s). In acidified and strongly acidified lakes, the planktonic crustaceans completely disappeared by about 1976. A return of the extinct species started already at the beginning of the 1990s in some of these lakes, but the biological recovery was delayed in many other lakes despite the improvement in water chemistry. Similarly, the assemblages of chironomids do not reflect the pre-acidification status of lakes yet. Water residence time and climatic factors (climate change) are discussed as the most probable factors of the delay.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0275795