Influences of natural acidity and introduced fish on faunal assemblages in California alpine lakes

Abstract

In an alpine area of the Sierra Nevada of California, naturally acidic waters and introduced fishes both strongly affect the distributions of native amphibians, zooplankton, and macroinvertebrates. The study area in Kings Canyon National Park contains 104 lakes with pH values between 5.0 and 9.3, including 10 lakes with pH < 6.0 (defined here as acidic lakes) and 18 lakes with introduced trout. We surveyed 33 of these lakes (8 acidic, 7 non-acidic with trout, 18 non-acidic without trout) for water chemistry and faunal assemblages. Yellow-legged frog tadpoles (Rana muscosa), common microcrustaceans (Daphnia, Hesperodiaptomus, Diaptomus), and larvae of a caddisfly (Hesperophylax) were rare or absent in acidic lakes but common in non-acidic lakes, and microcrustacean and macroinvertebrate species richness decreased with decreasing pH. Large and (or) mobile, conspicuous taxa, including tadpoles, large-bodied microcrustaceans (Hesperodiaptomus, Daphnia middendorffiana), and many epibenthic or limnetic macroinvertebrates (baetid and siphlonurid mayfly nymphs, notonectids, corixids, limnephilid caddis larvae, and dytiscid beetles), were rare or absent in trout lakes but were relatively common in lakes lacking trout, and the taxon richness of macroinvertebrates was reduced by trout.