Tahoe Environmental Research Center

Significance In lakes, chloride is a relatively benign ion at low concentrations but begins to have ecological impacts as concentrations rise into the 100s and 1,000s of mg L −1 . In this study, we investigate long-term chloride trends in 371 freshwater lakes in North America. We find that in Midwest and Northeast North America, most urban lakes and rural lakes that are surrounded by >1% impervious land cover show increasing chloride trends. Expanding on this finding, thousands of lakes in these regions are at risk of long-term salinization. Keeping lakes “fresh” is critically important for protecting the ecosystem services freshwater lakes provide, such as drinking water, fisheries, recreation, irrigation, and aquatic habitat.

Diatoms contribute to a substantial portion of primary production in the oceans and many lakes. Owing to their relatively heavy cell walls and high nutrient requirements, planktonic diatoms are expected to decrease with climate warming because of reduced nutrient redistribution and increasing sinking velocities. Using a historical dataset, this study shows that diatoms were able to maintain their biovolume with increasing stratification in Lake Tahoe over the last decades; however, the diatom community structure changed. Increased stratification and reduced nitrogen to phosphorus ratios selected for small-celled diatoms, particularly within the Cyclotella genus. An empirical model showed that a shift in phytoplankton species composition and cell size was consistent within different depth strata, indicating that altered nutrient concentrations were not responsible for the change. The increase in small-celled species was sufficient to decrease the average diatom size and thus sinking velocity, which strongly influences energy transfer through the food web and carbon cycling. Our results show that within the diverse group of diatoms, small-sized species with a high surface area to volume ratio were able to adapt to a decrease in mixing intensity, supporting the hypotheses that abiotic drivers affect the size structure of planktonic communities and that warmer climate favours small-sized diatom cells.

Terrestrial plants are powerful climate sentinels because their annual cycles of growth, reproduction and senescence are finely tuned to the annual climate cycle having a period of one year. Consistency in the seasonal phasing of terrestrial plant activity provides a relatively low-noise background from which phenological shifts can be detected and attributed to climate change. Here, we ask whether phytoplankton biomass also fluctuates over a consistent annual cycle in lake, estuarine-coastal and ocean ecosystems and whether there is a characteristic phenology of phytoplankton as a consistent phase and amplitude of variability. We compiled 125 time series of phytoplankton biomass (chlorophyll a concentration) from temperate and subtropical zones and used wavelet analysis to extract their dominant periods of variability and the recurrence strength at those periods. Fewer than half (48%) of the series had a dominant 12-month period of variability, commonly expressed as the canonical spring-bloom pattern. About 20 per cent had a dominant six-month period of variability, commonly expressed as the spring and autumn or winter and summer blooms of temperate lakes and oceans. These annual patterns varied in recurrence strength across sites, and did not persist over the full series duration at some sites. About a third of the series had no component of variability at either the six- or 12-month period, reflecting a series of irregular pulses of biomass. These findings show that there is high variability of annual phytoplankton cycles across ecosystems, and that climate-driven annual cycles can be obscured by other drivers of population variability, including human disturbance, aperiodic weather events and strong trophic coupling between phytoplankton and their consumers. Regulation of phytoplankton biomass by multiple processes operating at multiple time scales adds complexity to the challenge of detecting climate-driven trends in aquatic ecosystems where the noise to signal ratio is high.

Global environmental change has influenced lake surface temperatures, a key driver of ecosystem structure and function. Recent studies have suggested significant warming of water temperatures in individual lakes across many different regions around the world. However, the spatial and temporal coherence associated with the magnitude of these trends remains unclear. Thus, a global data set of water temperature is required to understand and synthesize global, long-term trends in surface water temperatures of inland bodies of water. We assembled a database of summer lake surface temperatures for 291 lakes collected in situ and/or by satellites for the period 1985-2009. In addition, corresponding climatic drivers (air temperatures, solar radiation, and cloud cover) and geomorphometric characteristics (latitude, longitude, elevation, lake surface area, maximum depth, mean depth, and volume) that influence lake surface temperatures were compiled for each lake. This unique dataset offers an invaluable baseline perspective on global-scale lake thermal conditions as environmental change continues.

Climate warming is expected to have large effects on ecosystems in part due to the temperature dependence of metabolism. The responses of metabolic rates to climate warming may be greatest in the tropics and at low elevations because mean temperatures are warmer there and metabolic rates respond exponentially to temperature (with exponents >1). However, if warming rates are sufficiently fast in higher latitude/elevation lakes, metabolic rate responses to warming may still be greater there even though metabolic rates respond exponentially to temperature. Thus, a wide range of global patterns in the magnitude of metabolic rate responses to warming could emerge depending on global patterns of temperature and warming rates. Here we use the Boltzmann-Arrhenius equation, published estimates of activation energy, and time series of temperature from 271 lakes to estimate long-term (1970-2010) changes in 64 metabolic processes in lakes. The estimated responses of metabolic processes to warming were usually greatest in tropical/low-elevation lakes even though surface temperatures in higher latitude/elevation lakes are warming faster. However, when the thermal sensitivity of a metabolic process is especially weak, higher latitude/elevation lakes had larger responses to warming in parallel with warming rates. Our results show that the sensitivity of a given response to temperature (as described by its activation energy) provides a simple heuristic for predicting whether tropical/low-elevation lakes will have larger or smaller metabolic responses to warming than higher latitude/elevation lakes. Overall, we conclude that the direct metabolic consequences of lake warming are likely to be felt most strongly at low latitudes and low elevations where metabolism-linked ecosystem services may be most affected.

Ecology Letters (2010) 13: 453–463 Abstract Environmental variability in space and time is a primary mechanism allowing species that share resources to coexist. Fluctuating conditions are a double edged sword for diversity, either promoting coexistence through temporal niche partitioning or excluding species by stochastic extinctions. The net effect of environmental variation on diversity is largely unknown. We examined the association between zooplankton species richness in lakes and environmental variability on interannual, seasonal and shorter time scales, as well as long‐term average conditions. We analyzed data on physical, chemical and biological limnology in 53 temperate zone lakes in North America and Europe sampled over a combined 1042 years. Large fluctuations in pH, phosphorus and dissolved organic carbon concentration on different time scales were associated with reduced zooplankton species richness. More species were found in lakes that showed greater temperature variation on all time scales. Environmental variability on different time scales showed similar or, in some cases, stronger associations with zooplankton species richness compared with long‐term average conditions. Our results suggest that temporal fluctuations in the chemical environment tend to exclude zooplankton species while temperature variability promotes greater richness. The results indicate that anthropogenic increases in temporal variability of future climates may have profound effects on biodiversity.

Using water column temperature records collected since 1968, we analyzed the impacts of climate change on thermal properties, stability intensity, length of stratification, and deep mixing dynamics of Lake Tahoe using a modified stability index (SI). This new SI is easier to produce and is a more informative measure of deep lake stability than commonly used stability indices. The annual average SI increased at 16.62 kg/m2/decade although the summer (May–October) average SI increased at a higher rate (25.42 kg/m2/decade) during the period 1968–2014. This resulted in the lengthening of the stratification season by approximately 24 d. We simulated the lake thermal structure over a future 100 yr period using a lake hydrodynamic model driven by statistically downscaled outputs of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Model (GFDL) for two different green house gas emission scenarios (the A2 in which greenhouse-gas emissions increase rapidly throughout the 21st Century, and the B1 in which emissions slow and then level off by the late 21st Century). The results suggest a continuation and intensification of the already observed trends. The length of stratification duration and the annual average lake stability are projected to increase by 38 d and 12 d and 30.25 kg/m2/decade and 8.66 kg/m2/decade, respectively for GFDLA2 and GFDLB1, respectively during 2014–2098. The consequences of this change bear the hallmarks of climate change induced lake warming and possible exacerbation of existing water quality, quantity and ecosystem changes. The developed methodology could be extended and applied to other lakes as a tool to predict changes in stratification and mixing dynamics.

The cover shows a cropped image of the warming stripes (seen in full below), as developed by Ed Hawkins (Reading University, UK). Each vertical line shows the global average temperature of a whole year, starting at 1850 on the far left and ending with 2019 on the far right. The underlying data are from the HadCRUT4.6 dataset of the UK Met Office Hadley Centre. To create stripes of other regions and countries visit https://showyourstripes.

The role of dissolved organic matter (DOM) as either a sink for inorganic nutrients or an additional nutrient source is an often-neglected component of nutrient budgets in aquatic environments. Here, we examined the role of DOM in reactive nitrogen (N) storage in Sierra Nevada (California, USA) lakes where atmospheric deposition of N has shifted the lakes toward seasonal phosphorus (P)-limitation. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and isotope analyses performed on DOM isolated from Lake Tahoe reveal the accumulation of refractory proteinaceous material with a 100–200-year residence time. In contrast, smaller lakes in the same watershed contain DOM with typical terrestrial characteristics, indicating that proteins in Lake Tahoe are autochthonously produced. These data support the role of DOM as a possible sink for reactive N in these lake ecosystems and identify a potential role for DOM in affecting the inorganic nutrient stoichiometry of these environments. Some nutrient budgets and fluxes in aquatic environments are poorly constrained. Here, the authors identify a novel pathway of reactive nitrogen sequestration in lakes of the Sierra Nevada, and investigate the relative reactivity of dissolved organic carbon.

Dynamics of prokaryotic and eukaryotic picophytoplankton were investigated over a 2-year time period using flow cytometry and combined with an in situ experiment in Lake Tahoe, USA to better characterize to which extent environmental factors control these communities. Pronounced seasonal patterns and clear temporal and spatial partitioning were observed between picocyanobacteria and picoeukaryotes. Picocyanobacteria dominated in the nutrient deficient upper water column during the stratified season, while picoeukaryotes reached maximum abundance during isothermal conditions and maintained high numbers in deep-water layers during the stratified season. Picocyanobacteria were more sensitive to high solar and UV radiation compared with picoeukaryotes, which were not affected by high solar radiation and nutrient enrichment stimulated their growth. The opposing response of these two populations is consistent with their vertical distribution: picocyanobacteria dominate below the 30% isolume and above the nitrocline depth, whereas picoeukaryotes increase in the vicinity of the nitrocline and thus increased nutrient concentration. This spatial separation of picophytoplankton groups along environmental gradients in Lake Tahoe is consistent with other deep-oligotrophic lakes and the marine environment, suggesting that these marine and freshwater organisms have similar ecophysiological requirements. These results highlight that the smallest photosynthetic communities show taxon-specific responses to mixing and resource availability, which affect the structure and dynamics of picophytoplankton.

Abstract Over water, infrared radiometers on satellites measure radiation leaving from the surface skin layer and therefore the retrieved temperature is representative of the skin layer. This is slightly different from the bulk layer deeper in the water where various floating thermometers take temperature measurements to validate satellite measurements. The difference between the bulk and skin temperature (skin effect) must be understood to properly validate schemes that use surface skin temperature to infer bulk temperatures. Further skin temperatures retrieved over inland waters may show different patterns to those retrieved over oceans due to differences in conditions such as wind speed, aerosols, and elevation. We have analyzed the differences between the skin and bulk temperatures at four permanent monitoring stations (buoys) located on Lake Tahoe since 1999 and compared the results with similar studies over the ocean typically obtained from boat cruises. Skin effect distributions were found to be consistent across the buoys; however, the diurnal behavior of the skin effect was slightly different and shown to be related to wind speed measured at an individual buoy. When wind speed was less than 2 m s −1 , the skin temperature osclillated and greatly increased the uncertainty in the skin effect reported over Lake Tahoe. When downwelling sky radiation was increased from clouds or high humidity, this led to nighttime skin temperatures that were warmer than bulk temperatures by as much as 0.5 K. The size of the warm skin effect is larger than other ocean studies that observed warm nighttime skin values around 0.1 K. The nighttime skin effect was seen to be more consistent with a smaller standard deviation compared to the daytime skin effect. The nighttime skin behavior had a mean and standard deviation that ranged between 0.3 and 0.5 K and between 0.3 and 0.4 K, respectively. In contrast, daytime skin effect was strongly influenced by direct solar illumination and typically had a mean of 0.5 K in the morning that decreased to 0.1 K by midday. The standard deviation of the daytime skin effect ranged from 0.3 in the morning to 0.8 by midday. As the solar heating reduces later in the day the skin effect increases to a 0.3 K mean with a standard deviation of 0.4 K. The results for Lake Tahoe clearly demonstrate that validating satellite‐derived skin measurements or merging multiple satellites data sets together would be most successful when using nighttime data at wind speeds greater than 2 m s −1 with greater uncertainties expected when using daytime measurements. Further, the assumptions used for the skin effect behavior over oceans may not be appropriate over lakes because of the greater range of environmental conditions that affect lakes.

Abstract Below the temperature of maximum density (TMD) in freshwater lakes, heating at the lateral margins produces gravity currents along the bottom slope, akin to katabatic winds in the atmosphere and currents on continental shelves. We describe axisymmetric basin‐scale circulation driven by heat flux at the shorelines in polar Lake Kilpisjärvi. A dense underflow originating near the shore converges toward the lake center, where it produces warm upwelling and return flow across the bulk of lake water column. The return flow, being subject to Coriolis force, creates a lake‐wide anticyclonic gyre with velocities of 2–4 cm s ‐1 . While warm underflows are common on ice‐covered lakes, the key finding is the basin‐scale anticyclonic gyre with warm upwelling in the core. This circulation mechanism provides a key to understanding transport processes in (semi) enclosed basins subject to negative buoyancy flux due to heating (or cooling at temperatures above TMD) at their lateral boundaries.

Lakes are active processors of organic carbon (OC) and play important roles in landscape and global carbon cycling. Allochthonous OC loads from the landscape, along with autochthonous OC loads from primary production, are mineralized in lakes, buried in lake sediments, and exported via surface or groundwater outflows. Although these processes provide a basis for a conceptual understanding of lake OC budgets, few studies have integrated these fluxes under a dynamic modeling framework to examine their interactions and relative magnitudes. We developed a simple, dynamic mass balance model for OC, and applied the model to a set of five lakes. We examined the relative magnitudes of OC fluxes and found that long-term (> 10 year) lake OC dynamics were predominantly driven by allochthonous loads in four of the five lakes, underscoring the importance of terrestrially-derived OC in northern lake ecosystems. Our model highlighted seasonal patterns in lake OC budgets, with increasing water temperatures and lake productivity throughout the growing season corresponding to a transition from burial-to respiration-dominated OC fates. Ratios of respiration to burial, however, were also mediated by the source (autochthonous vs. allochthonous) of total OC loads. Autochthonous OC is more readily respired and may therefore proportionally reduce burial under a warming climate, but allochthonous OC may increase burial due to changes in precipitation. The ratios of autochthonous to allochthonous inputs and respiration to burial demonstrate the importance of dynamic models for examining both the seasonal and inter-annual roles of lakes in landscape and global carbon cycling, particularly in a global change context. Finally, we highlighted critical data needs, which include surface water DOC observations in paired tributary and lake systems, measurements of OC burial rates, groundwater input volume and DOC, and budgets of particulate OC.

Gilroy DJ, Jensen OP, Allen BC, Chandra S, Ganzorig B, Hogan Z, Maxted JT, Vander Zanden MJ. Home range and seasonal movement of taimen, Hucho taimen , in Mongolia. Ecology of Freshwater Fish 2010: 19: 545–554. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S Abstract – Taimen, Hucho taimen , is the world’s largest salmonid and a prized sport fish. We used radio and acoustic telemetry to characterise movements of adult taimen in an extensive river system, the Eg–Uur, in north‐central Mongolia. Forty‐six taimen were tagged with transmitters (27 radio, 17 acoustic and 2 radio‐acoustic combined) and tracked from 2004 to 2008 using mobile surveys and fixed receivers. The mean home range of individual taimen tracked for an average of 2.4 years was 23 km ( N = 41, range = 0.5–93.2 km). Of the fish with over 10 relocations ( N = 16), 90% remained within a range of 38 km. Four distinct movement patterns were observed: (i) restricted core home range, (ii) core range with seasonal departures, (iii) core range with separate seasonal range and (iv) home range transfer. Movement was greatest in May and June (spawning and postspawning period) with another peak period of movement in September and October (water temperature cooling).

Abstract We used a natural experiment to test whether wildfire smoke induced changes in the vertical distribution of zooplankton in Lake Tahoe by decreasing incident ultraviolet radiation (UV). Fires have a variety of effects on aquatic ecosystems, but these impacts are poorly understood and have rarely been observed directly. UV is an important driver of zooplankton vertical migration, and wildfires may alter it over large spatial scales. We measured UV irradiance and the distribution of zooplankton on two successive days. On one day, smoke haze from a nearby wildfire reduced incident UV radiation by up to 9%, but not irradiance in the visible spectrum. Zooplankton responded by positioning themselves, on average, 4.1 m shallower in the lake. While a limited data set such as this requires cautious interpretation, our results suggest that smoke from wildfires can change the UV environment and distribution of zooplankton. This process may be important in drought‐prone regions with increasingly frequent wildfires, and globally due to widespread biomass burning.

Surface water reservoirs trap inorganic mercury delivered from their watersheds, create conditions that convert inorganic mercury to highly toxic methylmercury (MeHg), and host sportfish in which MeHg bioaccumulates. The Santa Clara Valley Water District (District) actively manages and monitors four mercury-impaired reservoirs that help to serve communities in South San Francisco Bay, California. The Guadalupe River watershed, which contains three of those reservoirs, also includes the New Almaden mercury-mining district, the largest historic mercury producer in North America. Monthly vertical profiles of field measurements and grab samples in years 2011–2013 portray annual cycling of density stratification, dissolved oxygen (DO), and MeHg. Monitoring results highlight the role that hypolimnetic hypoxia plays in MeHg distribution in the water column, as well as the consistent, tight coupling between MeHg in ecological compartments (water, zooplankton, and bass) across the four reservoirs. Following the 2011–2013 monitoring period, the District designed and installed hypolimnetic oxygenation systems (HOS) in the four reservoirs in an effort to repress MeHg buildup in bottom waters and attain regulatory targets for MeHg in water and fish tissue. Initial HOS operation in Calero Reservoir in 2014 enhanced bottom water DO and depressed hypolimnetic buildup of MeHg, but did not substantially decrease mercury levels in zooplankton or small fish.

Abstract Laminated sediments in Lake Ohau, Mackenzie Basin, New Zealand, offer a potential high‐resolution climate record for the past 17 kyr. Such records are particularly important due to the relative paucity of detailed palaeoclimate data from the Southern Hemisphere mid‐latitudes. This paper presents outcomes of a study of the sedimentation processes of this temperate lake setting. Hydrometeorological, limnological and sedimentological data were collected over a 14 month period between 2011 and 2013. These data indicate that seasonality in the hydrometeorological system in combination with internal lake dynamics drives a distinct seasonal pattern of sediment dispersal and deposition on a basin‐wide scale. Sedimentary layers that accumulate proximal to the lake inflow at the northern end of the lake form in response to discrete inflow events throughout the year and display an event stratigraphy. In contrast, seasonal change in the lake system controls accumulation of light (winter) and dark (summer) laminations at the distal end of the lake, resulting in the preservation of varves. This study documents the key processes influencing sediment deposition throughout Lake Ohau and provides fundamental data for generating a high‐resolution palaeoclimate record from this temperate lake.

Abstract Strong and sustained winds can drive dramatic hydrodynamic responses in density‐stratified lakes, with the associated transport and mixing impacting water quality, ecosystem function, and the stratification itself. Analytical expressions offer insight into the dynamics of stratified lakes during severe wind events. However, it can be difficult to predict the aggregate response of a natural system to the superposition of hydrodynamic phenomena in the presence of complex bathymetry and when forced by variable wind patterns. Using an array of current, temperature, and water quality measurements at the upwind shore, we detail the hydrodynamic response of deep, rotationally influenced Lake Tahoe to three strong wind events during late spring. Sustained southwesterly winds in excess of 10 m s −1 drove upwelling at the upwind shore (characteristic of non‐rotational upwelling setup), with upward excursions of deep water exceeding 70 m for the strongest event. Hypolimnetic water, with elevated concentrations of chlorophyll a and nitrate, was advected toward the nearshore, but this water rapidly returned to depth with the relaxation of upwelling after the winds subsided. The relaxation of upwelling exhibited rotational influence, highlighted by an along‐shore, cyclonic front characteristic of a Kelvin wave‐driven coastal jet, with velocities exceeding 25 cm s −1 . The rotational front also produced downwelling to 100 m, transporting dissolved oxygen to depth. More complex internal wave features followed the passage of these powerful internal waves. Results emphasize the complexity of these superimposed hydrodynamic phenomena in natural systems, providing a conceptual reference for the role upwelling events may play in lake ecosystems.

Abstract Clear Lake, a medium-sized hypereutrophic, polymictic lake in northern California, has had recurring harmful cyanobacteria blooms (HCBs) for over a century despite reductions in external phosphorus (P) loadings. Internal P loading can alter nutrient availability and limitation supporting HCBs but is rarely quantified or compared with external loads. We have quantified external P loads from 2019 to 2021 for the three main tributaries (accounting for 46% of the flow) and internal loadings using two methods: a P mass balance and modeled release rates of soluble reactive phosphorus from oxic and anoxic sediments. In addition, we combined high-frequency in situ measurements of water temperature and dissolved oxygen, discrete grab sampling for nutrient chemistry, and remote sensing to explore the potential drivers of the observed variability and provide a comprehensive view of the spatiotemporal dynamics of HCBs. By understanding the relative contribution of external and internal nutrient loadings and the relationship between environmental parameters and HCBs, interannual bloom variability can be better predicted. Comparative estimates of external and internal phosphorus loading indicate that internal sources accounted for 70–95% of the total P input into the system during the study period. Contrary to other lakes, the intensity of the summer bloom season was correlated to the timing and duration of anoxia rather than the magnitude of spring runoff. Internally released P shifted the system from phosphorus to nitrogen limitation during the summer, potentially favoring the proliferation of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria.

Abstract This study was motivated by an interest in understanding the potential effects of climate change and glacier retreat on late summer water temperatures in alpine areas. Fieldwork was carried out between July and September 2007 at Place Lake, located below Place Glacier in the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia. Place Lake has an area of 72 000 m 2 , a single inlet and outlet channel, and an approximate residence time of 4 days. Warming between the inlet and outlet of the lake ranged up to 3 °C and averaged 1.8 °C, which exceeds the amount of warming that occurred over the 1 km reach of Place Creek between the lake outlet and tree line. Over a 23‐day period, net radiation totalled about 210 MJ·m –2 , with sensible heat flux adding another 56 MJ m ‐2 . The latent heat flux consumed about 8% of the surface heat input. The dominant heat sink was the net horizontal advection associated with lake inflow and outflow. Early in the study period, temperatures between the surface and 6‐m depth were dominantly at or above 4 °C and were generally neutral to thermally stable, whereas temperatures decreased with depth below 6 m and exhibited irregular sub‐diurnal variations. The maximum outflow temperature of almost 7 °C occurred in this period. We hypothesize that turbidity currents associated with cold, sediment‐laden glacier discharge formed an underflow and influenced temperatures in the deeper portion of the lake but did not mix with the upper layers. Later in the study period, the lake was dominantly well mixed with some near‐surface stability associated with nocturnal cooling. Further research is required to examine the combined effects of sediment concentrations and thermal processes on mixing in small proglacial lakes to make projections of the consequences of glacier retreat on alpine lake and stream temperatures. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.