Invertebrate community response to experimental lime (Ca(OH)2) treatment of an eutrophic pond

Abstract

Calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2), or hydrated lime, has recently been reintroduced in western Canada as a treatment to reduce macrophytes and algae in eutrophic waters. We examined the effects and recovery of aquatic invertebrates of the Ca(OH)2 treatment (250 mg L−1) of one half of a divided eutrophic pond compared to the untreated half. Nine weeks following treatment, total invertebrates on the untreated side were present at 1917 ± 555 individuals m−2, and on the treated side at 822 ± 186 individuals m−2. Notably, Chironomidae represented 13% of invertebrates on the untreated half, but dominated numerically with 72% on the treated half of the pond. The remaining five most abundant taxa in the untreated side were 88%–99% less abundant in the treated half of the pond. Diversity and evenness were twice as high for the untreated half as for the treated half of the pond. Because macrophytes were also extirpated with the Ca(OH)2 treatment, macrophyteassociated taxa were absent or at low numbers in the treated half. The death of organisms on the treated side of the pond may have been caused (directly or indirectly) by the pH shock associated with Ca(OH)2 treatments. Slow recolonization by most invertebrates during the year of treatment was probably due to the lack of heterogeneous macrophyte habitat. Follow-up sampling 3 years later indicated that the pond completely regained the abundance and biological diversity of flora and fauna.