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Precipitation-Induced Alternative Regime Switches in Shallow Lakes of the Boreal Plains (Alberta, Canada)

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Abstract

This study focused on unraveling the natural mechanism for the frequent shifts in alternative regimes in pristine shallow lakes of the Boreal Plains, Alberta, Canada. The lakes tend to be clear and dominated by submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) or turbid and dominated by phytoplankton. We report on the inter-annual response of 23 lakes from 2001 to 2007. We explore the effect of fluctuations in annual precipitation on the lake response including water depth, total phosphorus (TP) concentration, turbidity, phytoplankton biomass, SAV biomass, and the proportion of clear and turbid lakes. The regime switches appear driven by the transient dynamics of phytoplankton, and dilution of nutrients, phytoplankton biomass, and turbidity during wet years, and evapoconcentration during dry years. Increased precipitation was correlated with decreased phytoplankton biomass, TP concentration, chloride concentration, and turbidity. In 2005, the wettest year, no phytoplankton-dominated lakes were observed. During the driest year (2002), the phytoplankton-dominant regime (>18 μg chl-a L−1) occurred in 22% of lakes, which was higher than the study period average. SAV biomass was not directly affected by precipitation, but was negatively associated with phytoplankton biomass and positively associated with the previous year’s SAV growth. SAV biomass was carried over from year-to-year, and the occurrence of SAV-dominated (>25% cover) lakes was significantly higher in 2007 (90%) following 3 years of high precipitation levels.

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Acknowledgments

Long-term ecological data was collected with assistance from Thorsten Hebben, Ivor Norlin, Joe Van Humbeck, Andre Asselin, Jean Arseneau, Jamie-Lynn Greter, Lavaya Bathini, Raven Beardy, Cory Kremer, and Randi Stead. Megan Robinson provided GIS analysis. Financial support to D. Cobbaert is gratefully received from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Alberta Conservation Association Biodiversity Fund, the Alberta Ingenuity Fund, the C-BAR program of the Circumpolar Institute, and Alberta Environment. Financial support from NSERC to S.E. Bayley is also appreciated. Dr. Wolf Mooij and three anonymous reviewers provided insightful feedback that improved the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E9, Canada

    Danielle Cobbaert, Agnes Wong & Suzanne E. Bayley

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  1. Danielle Cobbaert
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  2. Agnes Wong
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  3. Suzanne E. Bayley
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Correspondence to Danielle Cobbaert.

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DC conceived the study, performed the research, analyzed data and wrote the paper. AW analyzed data and contributed to writing the paper. SEB conceived the study and contributed to writing the paper.

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Cobbaert, D., Wong, A. & Bayley, S.E. Precipitation-Induced Alternative Regime Switches in Shallow Lakes of the Boreal Plains (Alberta, Canada). Ecosystems 17, 535–549 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-013-9741-5

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