Abstract
The present paper aims at reviewing general knowledge of large European perialpine lakes as provided by sediment studies, and at outlining the contribution, from several lines of evidence, of modern paleolimnology in both interpreting past lake ecological evolution and forecasting lake responses to future human impacts. A literature survey mainly based on papers published in international journals indexed on ISI-Wos and Scopus from 1975 to April 2017 has been conducted on the 20 perialpine lakes with zmax ≥ 100 m and lake area ≥ 10 km2, and on 4 shallower perialpine lakes representing hotspots of extensive neo- and paleo-limnological research. By pinpointing temporal and spatial differences in paleolimnological studies conducted in the Alpine countries, the review identifies knowledge gaps in the perialpine area, and shows how sediment-based reconstructions represent a powerful tool, in mutual support with limnological surveys, to help predicting future scenarios through the “past-forward” principle, which consists in reconstructing past lake responses to conditions comparable to those to come. The most recent methodological developments of sediment studies show the potential to cope with the increasing ecosystem variability induced by climate change, and to produce innovative and crucial information for tuning future management and sustainable use of Alpine waters.
Highlights
16 17 Corresponding author Monica Tolotti, phone: +39 (0)461 615256; fax: +39 (0)461 650956; email: monica.tolotti@fmach.it 20 Kind of contribution: Review paper 21 22 Abstract The present paper aims at reviewing general knowledges of large European perialpine lakes as provided by sediment studies, and at outlining the contribution, from several lines of evidence, of modern paleolimnology in both interpreting past lake ecological evolution and forecasting lake responses to future human impacts
40 41 According to the classification by Timms (1992), large and deep perialpine lakes (LDPL) are distinguished from the other two major categories of alpine lakes based on their piedmont position and their tectonic-glacial origin, which is related to the past dynamics of large Alpine glaciers occupying ancient and deep canyon-valleys (Bini et al, 1978)
The present review paper aims at providing a synthetic summary of the contribution of paleolimnological research to the knowledge of LDPL responses to human stressors at secular scale, and to the assessment of perialpine lake sensitivity to present and future human impacts
Summary
The present paper aims at reviewing general knowledges of large European perialpine lakes as provided by sediment studies, and at outlining the contribution, from several lines of evidence, of modern paleolimnology in both interpreting past lake ecological evolution and forecasting lake responses to future human impacts. By pinpointing temporal and spatial differences in paleolimnological studies conducted in the Alpine countries, the review identifies knowledge gaps in the perialpine area, and shows how sediment-based reconstructions represent a powerful tool, in mutual support with limnological surveys, to help predicting future scenarios through the “past-forward” principle, which consists in reconstructing past lake responses to conditions comparable to those to come. The most recent methodological developments of sediment studies show the potential to cope with the increasing ecosystem variability induced by climate change, and to produce innovative and crucial information for tuning future management and sustainable use of Alpine waters. Key words: perialpine lakes, lake sediments, human impact, eutrophication, paleoclimate, global change.
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