Swann, GEA;
Panizzo, VN;
Piccolroaz, S;
Pashley, V;
Horstwood, MSA;
Roberts, S;
Vologina, E;
... Mackay, AW; + view all
(2020)
Changing nutrient cycling in Lake Baikal, the world's oldest lake.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)
, Article 202013181. 10.1073/pnas.2013181117.
(In press).
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Abstract
Lake Baikal, lying in a rift zone in southeastern Siberia, is the world's oldest, deepest, and most voluminous lake that began to form over 30 million years ago. Cited as the "most outstanding example of a freshwater ecosystem" and designated a World Heritage Site in 1996 due to its high level of endemicity, the lake and its ecosystem have become increasingly threatened by both climate change and anthropogenic disturbance. Here, we present a record of nutrient cycling in the lake, derived from the silicon isotope composition of diatoms, which dominate aquatic primary productivity. Using historical records from the region, we assess the extent to which natural and anthropogenic factors have altered biogeochemical cycling in the lake over the last 2,000 y. We show that rates of nutrient supply from deep waters to the photic zone have dramatically increased since the mid-19th century in response to changing wind dynamics, reduced ice cover, and their associated impact on limnological processes in the lake. With stressors linked to untreated sewage and catchment development also now impacting the near-shore region of Lake Baikal, the resilience of the lake's highly endemic ecosystem to ongoing and future disturbance is increasingly uncertain.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Changing nutrient cycling in Lake Baikal, the world's oldest lake |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1073/pnas.2013181117 |
| Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2013181117 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Siberia, climate, ecosystem, endemic, limnology |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Geography |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10112964 |
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