Oligochaetes and water pollution in two deep Norwegian lakes

Abstract

Analyses of the oligochaete fauna of two of the deepest lakes in Scandinavia — the Norwegian lakes Mjosa (450 m) and Tyrifjorden (295 m), revealed a totally different species composition in the deep profundal compared with the upper profundal — in contact with the nutrient-enriched epilimnion. In both lakes a pronounced thermal stratification develops in the summer, thus the epilimnion receiving gross organic pollution behaves differently from the profundal. The lakes are each effectively divided into two bodies of water with limited water exchange between them, i.e. one major oligotrophic body and one minor more nutrient-rich. Since the 1950s both lakes have been exposed to heavy pollution of various kinds. In Lake Mjosa in 1975 and 1976 unpleasant algal blooms of the blue-green alga Oscillatoria bornetii fa. tenuis occurred. Bottom samples obtained at the same time revealed that the deep central bottoms of the lake were totally dominated by oligotrophic oligochaete indicators, i.e. by Stylodrilus heringianus and Spirosperma ferox, while the fauna of the upper profundal in the vicinity of domestic and agricultural sewage outfalls, wood processing industries, etc. was dominated by Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri and Tubifex tubifex in great abundance, indicating enriched conditions. Several other species indicative of eutrophy, were absent, most of them belonging to the genus Potamothrix. A fairly similar situation exists in Lake Tyrifjorden, where, for instance, in the shallow bay of Steinsfjorden — heavily eutrophied by agricultural wastes — blooms of blue-green algae have caused problems from time to time. The same oligochaete communities as in Lake Mjosa distinguish the central oligotrophic bottoms from the regionally more enriched upper profundal. The likely reasons for an intact profundal oligochaete fauna are great volumes of oxygen-rich hypolimnic water of low temperature and a high bottom/lake surface area ratio.