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Consensus among multiple trophic levels during high- and low-water stands over the last two millennia in a northwest Ontario lake

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Moumita Karmakar ,
Joshua Kurek ,
Heather Haig  and
Brian F. Cumming
Moumita Karmakar*
Affiliation:
Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Laboratory (PEARL), Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L3N6, Canada
Joshua Kurek
Affiliation:
Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Laboratory (PEARL), Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L3N6, Canada
Heather Haig
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Regina, Laboratory Building, Saskatchewan S4S0A2, Canada
Brian F. Cumming
Affiliation:
Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Laboratory (PEARL), Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L3N6, Canada
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail addresses:[email protected] (M. Karmakar),[email protected] (J. Kurek),[email protected] (H. Haig),[email protected] (B.F. Cumming).
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Abstract

We investigated the modern distribution of fossil midges within a dimictic lake and explored downcore patterns of inferred lake depths over the last 2000 years from previously published proxies. Modern midge distribution within Gall Lake showed a consistent and predictable pattern related to the lake-depth gradient with recognizable assemblages characteristic of shallow-water, mid-depth and profundal environments. Interpretations of downcore changes in midge assemblages, in conjunction with quantitative lake-depth inferences across a priori defined (based on diatom data) ~ 500-yr wet and dry periods, demonstrated that both invertebrate and algal assemblages exhibited similar timing and nature of ecological responses. Midges were quantified by their relative abundance, concentrations and an index of Chaoborus to chironomids, and all showed the greatest differences between the wet and dry periods. During the low lake-level period of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA: AD 900 to 1400), profundal chironomids declined, shallow-water and mid-depth chironomids increased, chironomid-inferred lake level declined and the Chaoborus-to-chironomid index decreased. The coherence between multiple trophic levels provides strong evidence of lower lake levels in Gall Lake during the MCA.

Keywords

Boreal lakesMedieval Climate AnomalyLake levelsChironomidsDiatoms
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 81 , Issue 2 , March 2014 , pp. 251 - 259
Copyright
University of Washington

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