Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Regional versus local drivers of water quality in the Windermere catchment, Lake District, United Kingdom: The dominant influence of wastewater pollution over the past 200 years

Moorhouse, Heather L.; McGowan, Suzanne; Taranu, Zofia E.; Gregory-Eaves, Irene; Leavitt, Peter R.; Jones, Matthew D.; Barker, Philip; Brayshaw, Susan A.

Regional versus local drivers of water quality in the Windermere catchment, Lake District, United Kingdom: The dominant influence of wastewater pollution over the past 200 years Thumbnail


Authors

Heather L. Moorhouse

Suzanne McGowan

Zofia E. Taranu

Irene Gregory-Eaves

Peter R. Leavitt

MATTHEW JONES MATTHEW.JONES@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Quaternary Science

Philip Barker

Susan A. Brayshaw



Abstract

© 2018 The Authors. Global Change Biology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd Freshwater ecosystems are threatened by multiple anthropogenic stressors acting over different spatial and temporal scales, resulting in toxic algal blooms, reduced water quality and hypoxia. However, while catchment characteristics act as a ‘filter’ modifying lake response to disturbance, little is known of the relative importance of different drivers and possible differentiation in the response of upland remote lakes in comparison to lowland, impacted lakes. Moreover, many studies have focussed on single lakes rather than looking at responses across a set of individual, yet connected lake basins. Here we used sedimentary algal pigments as an index of changes in primary producer assemblages over the last ~200years in a northern temperate watershed consisting of 11 upland and lowland lakes within the Lake District, United Kingdom, to test our hypotheses about landscape drivers. Specifically, we expected that the magnitude of change in phototrophic assemblages would be greatest in lowland rather than upland lakes due to more intensive human activities in the watersheds of the former (agriculture, urbanization). Regional parameters, such as climate dynamics, would be the predominant factors regulating lake primary producers in remote upland lakes and thus, synchronize the dynamic of primary producer assemblages in these basins. We found broad support for the hypotheses pertaining to lowland sites as wastewater treatment was the main predictor of changes to primary producer assemblages in lowland lakes. In contrast, upland headwaters responded weakly to variation in atmospheric temperature, and dynamics in primary producers across upland lakes were asynchronous. Collectively, these findings show that nutrient inputs from point sources overwhelm climatic controls of algae and nuisance cyanobacteria, but highlights that large-scale stressors do not always initiate coherent regional lake response. Furthermore, a lake's position in its landscape, its connectivity and proximity to point nutrients are important determinants of changes in production and composition of phototrophic assemblages.

Citation

Moorhouse, H. L., McGowan, S., Taranu, Z. E., Gregory-Eaves, I., Leavitt, P. R., Jones, M. D., …Brayshaw, S. A. (2018). Regional versus local drivers of water quality in the Windermere catchment, Lake District, United Kingdom: The dominant influence of wastewater pollution over the past 200 years. Global Change Biology, 24(9), 4009-4022. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14299

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 26, 2018
Online Publication Date Jun 7, 2018
Publication Date 2018-09
Deposit Date Jun 8, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Global Change Biology
Print ISSN 1354-1013
Electronic ISSN 1365-2486
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 24
Issue 9
Pages 4009-4022
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14299
Keywords algal assemblages, climate change, eutrophication, landscape, multiple stressors, synchrony, wastewater
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/936688
Publisher URL https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.14299

Files





You might also like



Downloadable Citations