Long-term directional trajectories among lake crustacean zooplankton communities and water chemistry

Understanding community responses to disturbance is a long-standing challenge in ecology and will remain a critical issue as human activity continues to alter environmental conditions. This is particularly concerning for freshwater communities, which are often subject to the effects of multiple disturbances on the landscape. With crustacean zooplankton community composition data and associated water chemistry from 19 Ontario lakes, we quantify the relative magnitude and directionality of change over three decades using distances in multivariate ordinations. The data span a gradient of impact from minimally disturbed reference lakes to lakes with known impacts from experimental acidification trials, atmospheric acidification, and regional land-use changes. Most communities exhibited changes from historical conditions, including previously described reference systems. Zooplankton communities in experimentally acidified lakes showed gradual, directional patterns with a return to historical conditions postmanipulation, but have since deviated again from historical conditions. Most zooplankton communities in atmospherically acidified lakes showed gradual, directional trajectories over time. Overall, our results demonstrate that zooplankton communities are changing among both minimally disturbed lake systems and lakes known to be impacted by human activities.

• Publication year

  2018

• Venue

  Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences

• Publication date

  2018-02-09

• Fields of study

  Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1139/CJFAS-2017-0518
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• ggplot2

  2019cited by this paper
• ggplot2 - Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis (2nd Edition)

  2017cited by this paper
• Utilizing gradient simulations for quantifying community‐level resistance and resilience

  2017cited by this paper
• Climate change alters the quantity and phenology of habitat for lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in small Boreal Shield lakes

  2017cited by this paper
• Climate Change Effects on North American Inland Fish Populations and Assemblages

  2016cited by this paper
• Changing disturbance regimes, ecological memory, and forest resilience

  2016cited by this paper
• Climate Change Impacts on Freshwater Fishes: A Canadian Perspective

  2016cited by this paper
• Dynamics of an upland stream fish community over 40 years: trajectories and support for the loose equilibrium concept.

  2015cited by this paper
• Ontario freshwater fishes demonstrate differing range‐boundary shifts in a warming climate

  2014cited by this paper
• Diatoms indicate that calcium decline, not acidification, explains recent cladoceran assemblage changes in south-central Ontario softwater lakes

  2014cited by this paper
• R: A language and environment for statistical computing.

  2014cited by this paper
• Gauging recovery of zooplankton from historical acid and metal contamination: the influence of temporal changes in restoration targets

  2013cited by this paper
• The influence of calcium decline and climate change on the cladocerans within low calcium, circumneutral lakes of the Experimental Lakes Area

  2013cited by this paper
• Disturbance and trajectory of change in a stream fish community over four decades

  2013cited by this paper
• Effects of multiple stressors on lakes in south-central Ontario: 15 years of change in lakewater chemistry and sedimentary diatom assemblages

  2013cited by this paper
• The role of dispersal levels, Allee effects and community resistance as zooplankton communities respond to environmental change

  2012cited by this paper
• How frequency and intensity shape diversity–disturbance relationships

  2011cited by this paper
• Association Measures and Matrices

  2011cited by this paper
• State of the world's freshwater ecosystems: physical, chemical, and biological changes.

  2011cited by this paper
• Strategic Adaptive Management in freshwater protected areas and their rivers

  2011cited by this paper
• Managing for resilience

  2011cited by this paper
• Water quality changes in south-central Ontario lakes and the role of local factors in regulating lake response to regional stressors

  2011cited by this paper
• The reference condition: predicting benchmarks for ecological and water-quality assessments

  2010cited by this paper
• A stressor-independent test for biodiversity―ecosystem function relationships during a 23-year whole-lake experiment

  2009cited by this paper
• Multispecies crayfish declines in lakes: implications for species distributions and richness

  2009cited by this paper
• Johnson and Vallentyne's legacy: 40 years of aquatic research at the Experimental Lakes Area.

  2009cited by this paper
• Benthic algal communities: recovery from experimental acidification.

  2009cited by this paper
• Life history variation parallels phylogeographical patterns in North American walleye (Sander vitreus) populations

  2008cited by this paper
• Long-term trends in zooplankton of Dorset, Ontario, lakes: the probable interactive effects of changes in pH, total phosphorus, dissolved organic carbon, and predators

  2008cited by this paper
• The Widespread Threat of Calcium Decline in Fresh Waters

  2008cited by this paper
• Long-term changes in phytoplankton composition in seven Canadian Shield lakes in response to multiple anthropogenic stressors

  2008cited by this paper
• Regional climatic drivers of synchronous zooplankton dynamics in north-temperate lakes

  2008cited by this paper
• Spatial analysis of ice phenology trends across the Laurentian Great Lakes region during a recent warming period

  2007cited by this paper
• Recovery of Acidified Lakes: Lessons From Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

  2007cited by this paper
• Implications of climate warming for Boreal Shield lakes: a review and synthesis

  2007cited by this paper
• Distribution and potential effects of water beetles in lakes recovering from acidification

  2006cited by this paper
• Setting expectations for the ecological condition of streams: the concept of reference condition.

  2005cited by this paper
• How many principal components? stopping rules for determining the number of non-trivial axes revisited

  2005cited by this paper
• MULTIVARIATE CONTROL CHARTS FOR ECOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING

  2004cited by this paper
• Recovery of copepod, but not cladoceran, zooplankton from severe and chronic effects of multiple stressors

  2004cited by this paper
• Recovery of Crustacean Zooplankton Communities from Acidification in Killarney Park, Ontario, 1971–2000: pH 6 As a Recovery Goal

  2003cited by this paper
• GIVING MEANINGFUL INTERPRETATION TO ORDINATION AXES: ASSESSING LOADING SIGNIFICANCE IN PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS

  2003cited by this paper
• Resilience of Epilithic Algal Assemblages in Atmospherically and Experimentally Acidified Boreal Lakes

  2003cited by this paper
• Monitoring the results of Canada/U.S.A acid rain control programs: some lake responses

  2003cited by this paper
• Potential impact of forest harvesting on lake chemistry in south-central Ontario at current levels of acid deposition

  2003cited by this paper
• pH 6 as the threshold to use in critical load modeling for zooplankton community change with acidification in lakes of south-central Ontario: accounting for morphometry and geography

  2003cited by this paper
• Crustacean zooplankton communities in lakes recovering from acidification

  2002cited by this paper
• Calcium declines in northeastern Ontario lakes

  2001cited by this paper
• Climatic influences on algal populations of boreal forest lakes in the Experimental Lakes Area

  2001cited by this paper
• Effect of outliers and nonhealthy individuals on reference interval estimation.

  2001cited by this paper
• Climate Change and Forest Disturbances

  2001cited by this paper
• How well do multivariate data sets match? The advantages of a Procrustean superimposition approach over the Mantel test

  2001cited by this paper
• Ecologically meaningful transformations for ordination of species data

  2001cited by this paper
• Disturbance, patchiness, and diversity in streams

  2000cited by this paper
• A method to determine rates and patterns of variability in ecological communities.

  2000cited by this paper
• Detection of Influential Observation in Linear Regression

  2000cited by this paper
• THE ECOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF CHANGES IN BIODIVERSITY: A SEARCH FOR GENERAL PRINCIPLES101

  1999cited by this paper
• Scientists and the Acid Rain Policy in Canada and the United States

  1997cited by this paper
• Restoring the Smelter-Damaged Landscape Near Sudbury, Canada

  1996cited by this paper
• Consequences of climate warming and lake acidification for UV-B penetration in North American boreal lakes

  1996cited by this paper
• The effects of climatic warming on the properties of boreal lakes and streams at the Experimental Lakes Area, northwestern Ontario

  1996cited by this paper
• Recovery of crustacean zooplankton communities from acid and metal contamination: comparing manipulated and reference lakes

  1996cited by this paper
• Contributions of Benthic Algae to Lake Food Webs as Revealed by Stable Isotope Analysis

  1995cited by this paper
• Restoration of the Aurora Trout to Its Acid-Damaged Native Habitat.

  1995cited by this paper
• Assessing the health of a zooplankton community in a small Precambrian Shield lake during recovery from experimental acidification

  1994cited by this paper
• Chemical Responses of Acidic Lakes in the Sudbury, Ontario, Area to Reduced Smelter Emissions, 1981–89

  1992cited by this paper
• Global change and freshwater ecosystems

  1992cited by this paper
• Effects of Climatic Warming on Lakes of the Central Boreal Forest

  1990cited by this paper
• A comparison of the acidification efficiencies of nitric and sulfuric acids by two whole‐lake addition experiments

  1990cited by this paper
• Acid rain since 1985 – times are changing

  1990cited by this paper
• Experimental perturbations of whole lakes as tests of hypotheses concerning ecosystem structure and function

  1990cited by this paper
• Extensions of the Procrustes Method for the Optimal Superimposition of Landmarks

  1990cited by this paper
• Comparisons between experimentally- and atmospherically-acidified lakes during stress and recovery

  1990cited by this paper
• Multiple disturbances in a Spartina alterniflora salt marsh: are they additive?

  1988cited by this paper
• The Role of Disturbance in Stream Ecology

  1988cited by this paper
• Regression by local fitting: Methods, properties, and computational algorithms

  1988cited by this paper
• Phytoplankton Community Responses to Nutrient Addition in Lake 226, Experimental Lakes Area, Northwestern Ontario

  1987cited by this paper
• Phytoplankton community responses to acidification of lake 223, experimental lakes area, northwestern Ontario

  1986cited by this paper
• Long-Term Ecosystem Stress: The Effects of Years of Experimental Acidification on a Small Lake

  1985cited by this paper
• Perturbation Experiments in Community Ecology: Theory and Practice

  1984cited by this paper
• Analysis of an acidic deposition episode at Dorset, Ontario

  1984cited by this paper
• The Role of Disturbance in Natural Communities

  1984cited by this paper
• Percentage Points for a Generalized ESD Many-Outlier Procedure

  1983cited by this paper
• A robust comparison of biological shapes.

  1982cited by this paper
• Acid precipitation in historical perspective.

  1982cited by this paper
• COEFFICIENTS OF ASSOCIATION AND SIMILARITY, BASED ON BINARY (PRESENCE‐ABSENCE) DATA: AN EVALUATION

  1982cited by this paper
• The responses of a community to disturbance: The importance of successional age and species' life histories

  1980cited by this paper
• Pattern, process, and natural disturbance in vegetation

  1979cited by this paper
• The Effects of Precipitation on Aquatic and Terrestrial Ecosystems: A Proposed Precipitation Chemistry Network

  1978cited by this paper
• Diversity in tropical rain forests and coral reefs.

  1978cited by this paper
• Acidification of lakes in Canada by acid precipitation and the resulting effects on fishes

  1976cited by this paper
• Acidification of the La Cloche Mountain Lakes, Ontario, and Resulting Fish Mortalities

  1972cited by this paper
• Zoogeographical Studies on the Soleoid Fishes Found in Japan and its Neighbouring Regions-III

  1957cited by this paper
• Analysis of Extreme Values

  1950cited by this paper
• CIRCULAR CAUSAL SYSTEMS IN ECOLOGY

  1948cited by this paper

• Spatial and temporal dynamics of fish assemblages in a desert reservoir over 38 years

  2021cites this paper
• Comparing Quantitative Methods for Analyzing Sediment DNA Records of Cyanobacteria in Experimental and Reference Lakes

  2021cites this paper
• Linking the ball‐and‐cup analogy and ordination trajectories to describe ecosystem stability, resistance, and resilience

  2019cites this paper
• Aggregation of two imperfectly detected imperilled freshwater fishes: understanding community structure and co-occurrence for multispecies conservation

  2019cites this paper
• Evaluating functional diversity conservation for freshwater fishes resulting from terrestrial protected areas

  2019cites this paper