Late-Holocene environmental history of two New England ponds: natural dynamics versus human impacts

Abstract

Analyses of sedimentary diatoms in two New England ponds reveal limnological changes during the past 2500 years that are related to climatic change, anthropogenic activities and natural disturbance. Deforestation in the lake catchments during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries temporarily affected diatom assemblages, with subsequent recovery. However, algal communities did not return completely to presettlement conditions as a result of long-term trends in climatic change, small-scale natural disturbances and delayed watershed recovery from acidification. A short-term rise in diatominferred dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in Levi Pond was related to partial removal of vegetation by logging in the catchment, and a similar DOC increase at North Round Pond is correlated with a hurricane and increased aquatic productivity. At Levi Pond, increasing diatom-inferred DOC concentrations during the past c. 2000 years likely reflect a long-term increase in allochthonous organic matter and peat development in the watershed related to moister conditions, supported by corresponding patterns in the stable-isotope, chironomid and pollen records. These results correspond with moisture patterns in adjacent areas inferred from pollen and sediment analyses, suggesting that diatoms in Levi Pond recorded a larger regional trend in increasing moisture. This is the first study in a temperate region that links diatom-inferred DOC concentration to past changes in moisture balance, suggesting that fossil diatoms may be a promising proxy for future palaeohydrological studies in temperate regions. However, more studies are necessary to separate the effects of peatland growth and allochthonous organic-matter input on lake-DOC concentrations.