Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Development of diatom-based salinity models for paleoclimatic research from lakes in British Columbia (Canada)

  • Marine diatoms, climatic change
  • Published:
Hydrobiologia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Diatoms were identified and enumerated from the surface sediments of 65 lakes located on the Cariboo and Chilcotin Plateaux (British Columbia, Canada). These lakes span a large gradient in lakewater ionic concentration (fresh through hypersaline) and composition, as well as other physical/chemical variables. Almost all of the study lakes had higher salinities in the late-summer than in the spring. The lakes with spring salinities >8 g l−1 showed the largest seasonal increases in salinity. Ionic composition was similar in the spring and late-summer for most lakes. Both ionic concentration (i.e. salinity) and composition were important environmental variables that could account for the different diatom floras in the lakes. Diatom assemblages characteristic of carbonate-dominated and sulfate-dominated waters were identified. Other variables such as water depth and phosphorus concentration were also important.

The majority (87%) of diatom taxa had estimated salinity optima < 3 g l−1 Halophilic diatom taxa had broader tolerances to salinity when compared to the fresh water taxa, however taxa with narrow and broad tolerances could be identified across the salinity gradient. Species diversity was weakly but significantly correlated to lakewater salinity (r 2 = 0.18 to 0.3, P < 0.05).

Salinity inference models were developed based on the relationship between the diatom assemblages and the spring, late-summer and average salinity. The correlations between the measured and diatominferred salinity, based on the spring (r = 0.95), late-summer (r = 0.94) and average (r = 0.95) salinity data, are high because there was an extremely strong correlation (r = 0.98) between the log transformed spring and late-summer measured salinities. These salinity reconstruction models provide a tool that can be used to infer past climatic changes as part of paleolimnological studies from appropriate closed-basin lakes in British Columbia.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • American Public Health Association, 1980. Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 15th edn. Washington, D.C.

  • Birks, H.J.B., S. Juggins & J.M. Line, 1990a. Lake surface-water chemistry reconstructions from palaeolimnological data. In B.J. Mason (ed.), The Surface Waters Acidification Programme. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 301–313.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birks, H.J.B., J.M. Line, S. Juggins, A.C. Stevenson & C.J.F. ter Braak, 1990b. Diatoms and pH reconstruction. Phil. Trans. r. Soc. Lond. B 327: 263–278.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradbury, J.P., R.M. Forester & R.S. Thompson, 1989. Late Quaternary paleolimnology of Walker Lake, Nevada. J. Paleolimnol. 1: 249–267.

    Google Scholar 

  • Camburn, K.E., J.C. Kingston & D.F. Charles (eds), 1984–1986. PIRLA Diatom Iconograph. Report No. 3. PIRLA Unpublished Report Series, 53 photographic plates, 1059 figures. Dept. of Biology, Indiana Univ., Bloomington, IN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cumming, B.F, J.P. Smol & H.J.B. Birks, 1992. Scaled chrysophytes (Chrysophyceae and Synurophyceae) from Adirondack drainage lakes and their relationship to measured environmental variables. J. Phycol. 28: 162–178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eugster, H.P. & L.A. Hardie, 1978. Saline Lakes. In A. Lerman (ed.), Lakes: Chemistry, Geology, Physics. Springer-Verlag, New York: 237–293.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fontes, J. C. & F. Gasse, 1991. PALHYDAF (Palaeohydrology in Africa) program: objectives, methods, major results. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 84: 191–215.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fritz, S.C., 1990. Twentieth-century salinity and water-level fluctuations in Devils Lake, North Dakota: Test of a diatom based transfer function. Limnol. Oceanogr. 35: 1771–1781.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fritz, S.C. & R.W. Battarbee, 1988. Sedimentary diatom assemblages in freshwater and saline lakes of the Northern Great Plains, North America: preliminary results. In F.E. Round (ed.), Proceedings of the 9th International Diatom Symposium. Koeltz Scientific Books, Koenigstein: 265–271.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fritz, S.C., S. Juggins, R.W. Battarbee & D.R. Engstrom, 1991. Reconstruction of past changes in salinity and climate using a diatom-based transfer function. Nature 352: 706–708.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fritz, S.C., S. Juggins, & R.W. Battarbee. 1993. Diatom assemblages and ionic characterization of lakes of the northern Great Plains, N.A.: A tool for reconstructing past salinity and climatic fluctuation. Can. J. Fish. aquat. Sci. (in press).

  • Gasse, F., 1983. Diatom assemblages in East Africa: classification, distribution, and ecology. Revue. Hydrobiol. trop. 16: 3–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gasse, F., J.C. Fontes, J.C. Plaziat, P. Carbonel, I. Kaczmarska, P. De Decker, I. Soulié-Märsche, Y. Callot & P.A. Dupeuble, 1987. Biological remains, geochemistry and stable isotopes for the reconstruction of environmental and hydrological changes in the Holocene lakes from North Sahara. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 60: 1–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Germain, H., 1981. Flore des diatomées: Diatomophycées. Société Nouvelle des Éditions Boubée, Paris, 444 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glew, J. R., 1991. Miniature gravity corer for recovering short sediment cores. J. Paleolimnol. 5: 285–287.

    Google Scholar 

  • Håkansson, H., 1986. A taxonomic reappraisal of some Stephanodiscus species (Bacillariophyta). Br. Phycol. J. 21: 23–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Håkansson, H. & E.F. Stoermer, 1984. Observations on the type material of Stephanodiscus hantzschii Grunow in Cleve & Grunow. Nova Hedwigia 39: 477–495.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, R.I. & J.P. Smol., 1992. A weighted-averaging regression and calibration model for inferring total phosphorus concentration from diatoms in British Columbia (Canada) lakes. Freshwat. Biol. 27: 417–434.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, M.O., 1973. Diversity and evenness: a unifying notation and its consequences. Ecology 54: 427–432.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, M.O. & H.G. Gauch, 1980. Detrended correspondence analysis, an improved ordination technique. Vegetatio 42: 47–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hustedt, F., 1927–1966. Die Kieselalgen Deutschlands, Österreichs und der Schweiz. In Dr. L. Rabenhorst's Kryptogamen-Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz, Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, Leipzig 3 Vols.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeffery, D.A., 1989. Laboratory Quality Assurance Manual. Zenon Environmental Inc., Burnaby, 34 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kolbe, R.W., 1927. Zur Ökologie, Morphologie und Systematik der Brackwasser-Diatomeen. Pflanzenforschung 7: 1–146.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krammer, K. & H. Lange-Bertalot, 1986–1991. Bacillariophyceae. Sü\wasserflora von Mitteleuropa, Band 2 (1–4). Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart 4 Vols.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathews, W.H., 1986. Physiography of the Canadian Cordillera. Geol. Surv. Can., Map. 1701A (1:5,000,000).

  • Patrick, R., & C. Reimer, 1966–1975. The diatoms of the United States exclusive of Alaska and Hawaii. The Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia, Philadelphia, 2 Vols.

    Google Scholar 

  • Renaut, R.W. 1990, Recent carbonate sedimentation and brine evolution in the saline lake basins of the Cariboo Plateau, British Columbia, Canada. Hydrobiologia 197: 67–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Renaut, R.W. & P.R. Long, 1987. Freeze-out precipitation of salts in saline lakes — examples from Western Canada. In G.L. Strathdee, M.O. Klein & L.A. Melis (eds), Crystallization and precipitation. Pergamon, Oxford: 33–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Renaut, R.W. & P.R. Long, 1989. Sedimentology of the saline lakes of the Cariboo Plateau, Interior British Columbia, Canada. Sed. Geol. 64: 239–264.

    Google Scholar 

  • Servant-Vildary, S., 1986. Les diatomées actuelles des Andes de Bolivie (Taxonomie, écologie). Cah. de Micropaléontol., CNRS, 1, 3–4: 99–124.

    Google Scholar 

  • Servant-Vildary, S & M. Roux, 1990. Multivariate analysis of diatoms and water chemistry in Bolivian saline lakes. Hydrobiologia 197: 267–290.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smol, J.P., 1981. Problems associated with the use of ‘species diversity’ in paleolimnological studies. Quat. Res. 15: 209–212.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smol, J.P., 1983. Paleophycology of a high arctic lake near Cape Herschel, Ellesmere Island. Can. J. Bot. 61: 2195–2204.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevenson, A.C., S. Juggins, H.J.B. Birks, D.S. Anderson, N.J. Anderson, R.W. Battarbee, F. Berge, R.B. Davis, R.J. Flower, E.Y. Haworth, V.J. Jones, J.C. Kingston, A.M. Kreiser, J.M. Line, M.A.R. Munro & I. Renberg, 1991. The Surface Water Acidification Project Palaeolimnology Programme: Modern Diatom/Lake-Water Chemistry dataset. ENSIS Publishing, London, 86 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Street-Perrott, F.A. & N. Roberts, 1983. Fluctuations in closed lakes as an indicator of past atmospheric circulation patterns, In F.A. Street-Perrott, M. Berman & R. Ratcliffe (eds), Variation in the global water budget. D. Reidel Publishing Co., Dordrecht: 331–345.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ter Braak, C.J.F., 1986. Canonical correspondence analysis: a new eigenvector technique for multivariate direct gradient analysis. Ecology 67: 1167–1178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ter Braak, C.J.F. 1987a. Ordination. In R.H.G. Jongman, C.J.F. ter Braak & O.F.R. van Tongeren (eds), Data analysis in community and landscape ecology. Pudoc, Wageningen, The Netherlands: 91–173.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ter Braak, C.J.F., 1987b. Calibration. In R.H.G. Jongman, C.J.F. ter Braak & O.F.R. van Tongeren (eds), Data analysis in community and landscape ecology. Pudoc, Wageningen, The Netherlands: 79–90.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ter Braak, C.J.F., 1987c. CANOCO — A FORTRAN program for Canonical Community Ordination. Ithaca, NY, USA: Microcomputer Power.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ter Braak, C.J.F. 1988. CANOCO — A FORTRAN program for canonical community ordination by [partial] [detrended] [canonical] correspondence analysis, principal components analysis, redundancy analysis (version 2.1). Agricultural Mathematics Group, The Netherlands. Technical Report LWA-88–02, Wageningen, 95 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ter Braak, C.J.F., 1990a. Update Notes: CANOCO version 3.10. Agricultural Mathematics Group, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 35 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ter Braak, C.J.F. & C.W.N. Looman, 1987. Regression. In R.H.G. Jongman, C.J.F. ter Braak & O.F.R. van Tongeren (eds), Data analysis in community and landscape ecology. Pudoc, Wageningen, The Netherlands: 29–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ter Braak, C.J.F. & H. van Dam, 1989. Inferring pH from diatoms: a comparison of old and new calibration methods. Hydrobiologia 178: 209–223.

    Google Scholar 

  • Topping, M.S. & G.G. Scudder, 1977. Some physical and chemical features of saline lakes in central British Columbia. Synsis 10: 145–166.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valentine, K.W.G. & A. Schori, 1980. Soils of the Lac la Hache — Clinton area, British Columbia. Repot No. 25 of the British Columbia Soil Survey, Victoria, B.C., 118 pp.

  • Williams, W.D., A.J. Boulton & R.G. Taaffe, 1990. Salinity as a determinant of salt lake fauna: a question of scale. Hydrobiologia 197: 257–266.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Paleoecological Environment Assessment and Research Laboratory (PEARL), Department of Biology, Queen's University, K7L 3N6, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

    Brian F. Cumming & John P. Smol

Authors
  1. Brian F. Cumming
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. John P. Smol
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Cumming, B.F., Smol, J.P. Development of diatom-based salinity models for paleoclimatic research from lakes in British Columbia (Canada). Hydrobiologia 269, 179–196 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00028017

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00028017

Key words

Search

Navigation