Present Limnological Conditions and Recent (ca. 340 yr) Palaeolimnology of a Tropical Lake in the Sierra de Los Tuxtlas, Eastern Mexico

Abstract

The Sierra de Los Tuxtlas is a recently active volcanic field, with eruptions in 1664 and 1792. It holds one of the reserves of tropical evergreen forest in Mexico, as well as several maar lakes. One of them, Lago Verde, was chosen for a three-fold study (1) on its present limnological conditions, (2) on the algal community living in the water column and preserved in the surface sediments; and (3) on its recent history (ca. 340 yr). The palaeolimnological study was based on multiproxy analyses on core material dated by 210 Pb, 137 Cs and 14 C. Lago Verde is a small, shallow lake with dilute, slightly alkaline water (CO3 2 +H CO 3 >C l >S O 4 2 , Na + +K + >C a 2+ >M g 2+ ). It is turbid, eutrophic, with high phosphorus levels. It is a warm polymictic lake, with thermal and oxygen stratification establishing by midday during the warm months. The lake does not stratify in winter. Diatoms dominate the phytoplankton community in the cold ‘nortes’ season, Cyanobacteria in summer, and Chlorophyta in autumn. Cyanobacteria (Chroococcales) are not well preserved in the surface sediments while Chlorophyta are better preserved. Sedimentary diatoms are well preserved, dominated by the three most abundant species in the water column: Achnanthidium minutissimum, Fragilaria capucina and Aulacoseira granulata. The base of the studied sequences is constrained by the historic eruption of 1664. The period from 1664 to 1963 is characterised by a meso-eutrophic lake. Tropical Forest vegetation reaches maximum values between ca. 1800 and 1963. Between ca. 1785 and 1885 the lake was slightly shallower than in the rest of the 1664–1963 period, probably recording climatic variability. An early pulse of anthropogenic disturbance was recorded by ca. 1921 and after ca. 1963 intense forest clearance and high erosion rates led to a more turbid, more productive, nutrient-rich lake. The highest anthropogenic impact was reached by ca. 1988; afterwards the lake and its basin reached a new balance, with the establishment of the present modern conditions.