Ecosystem responses of shallow thermokarst lakes to climate-driven hydrological change: Insights from long-term monitoring of periphytic diatom community composition at Old Crow Flats (Yukon, Canada) ...

• Main Authors: Mohammed, Wathiq J, MacDonald, Lauren A, Thomas, Kathryn E, McDonald, Ian, Turner, Kevin W, Wolfe, Brent B, Hall, Roland I
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: SAGE Journals 2023
• Subjects: 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified; FOS: Biological sciences; Arctic; Canada; Old Crow Flats; Yukon; Old Crow; Subarctic; Thermokarst
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25384/sage.c.6701267; https://sage.figshare.com/collections/Ecosystem_responses_of_shallow_thermokarst_lakes_to_climate-driven_hydrological_change_Insights_from_long-term_monitoring_of_periphytic_diatom_community_composition_at_Old_Crow_Flats_Yukon_Canada_/6701267

Shallow waterbodies are abundant in Arctic and subarctic landscapes where they provide productive wildlife habitat and hold cultural and socioeconomic importance for Indigenous communities. Their vulnerability to climate-driven hydrological and limnological changes enhances a need for long-term monitoring data capable of tracking aquatic ecosystem responses. Here, we evaluate biological and inferred physicochemical responses associated with a rise in rainfall-generated runoff and increasingly positive lake water balances in Old Crow Flats (OCF), a 5600 km 2 thermokarst landscape in northern Yukon. This is achieved by analyzing periphytic diatom community composition in biofilms accrued on artificial-substrate samplers at 14 lakes collected mostly annually during 2008–2019 CE. Results reveal that diatom communities at 10 of the 14 lakes converged toward a composition typical of lakes with rainfall-dominated input waters. These include six of nine lakes that were not initially dominated by rainfall input. The ...