A palaeolimnological assessment of diatom production responses to lake acidification

Abstract

To quantify diatom palaeoproduction responses to lake acidification, a whole-basin diatom accumulation rate was calculated for the small acidified lake Gaffeln, in the Gårdsjön catchment in south-west Sweden. Changes in the relative frequency of diatom assemblages to acidification were typical of other lakes in the area, notably a decline in planktonic diatoms after ∼1900 and increase in acid-tolerant benthic species (e.g. Eunotia spp. and Tabellaria binalis). Single deep-water cores could be used to infer past changes in diatom production because of changed sediment-microfossil deposition patterns, probably due to the development of a benthic algal mat in the littoral zone. The basin mean total diatom accumulation rate (based on eight cores) was approximately constant over the last 150 years, while planktonic diatoms decreased from 0·3 × 10 6 frustules cm −2 year −1 prior to 1900 to trace levels in the 1970s. There was, however, a corresponding increase in the accumulation of benthic diatoms over the same period, from 0·5 to 1 × 10 6 frustules cm −2 year −1 between 1950 and the present, together with changed community structure. The increase in benthic species probably reflects an expansion of the littoral zone as light transparency increased.