Limnology and diatom ecology of shallow lakes in a rapidly thawing discontinuous permafrost peatland ...

Lakes in discontinuous permafrost peatlands are on the front lines of climate change, sensitive to even modest increases in air temperature. The aim of this study was to provide the first limnological characterization of shallow (∼1-2 m depth) lakes in the Scotty Creek basin (Northwest Territories,...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Coleman, Kristen A, Hoskin, Grace N., Chasmer, Laura, Thienpont, Joshua R., Quinton, William L., Korosi, Jennifer B.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Taylor & Francis 2022
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Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21518381.v1
https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/online_resource/Limnology_and_diatom_ecology_of_shallow_lakes_in_a_rapidly_thawing_discontinuous_permafrost_peatland/21518381/1
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Summary:Lakes in discontinuous permafrost peatlands are on the front lines of climate change, sensitive to even modest increases in air temperature. The aim of this study was to provide the first limnological characterization of shallow (∼1-2 m depth) lakes in the Scotty Creek basin (Northwest Territories, Canada), a field site of circumpolar significance due to the existence of long-term ecohydrological monitoring going back decades. We use this as a foundation from which to advance our process-based understanding of the potential drivers of lake ecosystem change. Our results showed that dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and lake color were not correlated, a pattern that appears to be an important driver of diatom (siliceous single-celled algae) assemblages in these lakes. Diatoms in the study lakes tended to fall into one of two assemblage clusters. One cluster, comprised of small benthic Fragilariaceae and small Navicula species ( sensu lato) , was found associated with higher lake color. The second cluster, ...