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Global change revealed by palaeolimnological records from remote lakes: a review

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Abstract

Over recent decades, palaeolimnological records from remote sites have provided convincing evidence for the onset and development of several facets of global environmental change. Remote lakes, defined here as those occurring in high latitude or high altitude regions, have the advantage of not being overprinted by local anthropogenic processes. As such, many of these sites record broad-scale environmental changes, frequently driven by regime shifts in the Earth system. Here, we review a selection of studies from North America and Europe and discuss their broader implications. The history of investigation has evolved synchronously with the scope and awareness of environmental problems. An initial focus on acid deposition switched to metal and other types of pollutants, then climate change and eventually to atmospheric deposition-fertilising effects. However, none of these topics is independent of the other, and all of them affect ecosystem function and biodiversity in profound ways. Currently, remote lake palaeolimnology is developing unique datasets for each region investigated that benchmark current trends with respect to past, purely natural variability in lake systems. Fostering conceptual and methodological bridges with other environmental disciplines will upturn contribution of remote lake palaeolimnology in solving existing and emerging questions in global change science and planetary stewardship.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge project support from GRACCIE (CSD2007-00067), NITROPIR (CGL2010-19373), OCUPA (088/2009), the European Research Council (Starting Grant Project, 239858), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the US Department of the Interior, the Commission for Scientific Research in Greenland, the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF R 29N10, FWF J 1963-Geo), the Alpine Research Programme of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (project DETECTIVE), and the Czech Science Foundation (project GACR 526/09/0567).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193, Catalonia, Spain

    Jordi Catalan & Sergi Pla-Rabés

  2. CSIC-CEAB, Biogeodynamics and Biodiversity group, Accès Cala St Francesc 14, 17300, Blanes, Catalonia, Spain

    Jordi Catalan, Sergi Pla-Rabés & Lluís Camarero

  3. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E3, Canada

    Alexander P. Wolfe

  4. Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Lab (PEARL), Department of Biology, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, Canada

    John P. Smol & Kathleen M. Rühland

  5. Department of Geography, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE12 7NQ, UK

    N. John Anderson

  6. Biology Centre ASCR, Institute of Hydrobiology, Na Sádkách 7, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Jiři Kopáček

  7. Faculty of Science, Institute for Environmental Studies, Charles University in Prague, Hydrobiological station, 38801, Blatná, Czech Republic

    Evžen Stuchlík

  8. Institute for Limnology, pr. Herzog-Odilo- Straße 101, 5310, Mondsee, Austria

    Roland Schmidt

  9. Institute of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 25, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    Karin A. Koinig & Roland Psenner

  10. Environmental Change Research Centre, University College London, Pearson Building, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    Roger J. Flower

  11. Institute of Plant Sciences and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Altenbergrain 21, 3013, Bern, Switzerland

    Oliver Heiri

  12. Institute of Geography and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Erlachstrasse 9a, Building 3, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Christian Kamenik

  13. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 65, (Viikinkari 1), 00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Atte Korhola

  14. Limnology Laboratory, Department of Biology, University of Regina, Regina, SK S4S 0A2, Canada

    Peter R. Leavitt

  15. Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, 901 87, Umea, Sweden

    Ingemar Renberg

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  1. Jordi Catalan
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  2. Sergi Pla-Rabés
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Correspondence to Jordi Catalan.

Additional information

A celebration of Prof. Rick Battarbee’s contributions to palaeolimnology, edited by Holmes et al.

This paper has been written as a contribution to celebrating Rick Battarbee’s influence on palaeolimnology. Some of us have benefitted from his leadership (and friendship) in transnational European projects during the last decade (e.g., ALPE, ALPE2, MOLAR, CHILL-10000, EMERGE, EUROLIMPACS), which together with some other initiatives spawned pan-European remote lake research. Others have respected Rick as a teacher, colleague and a friend. To some extent, this review follows the chronological order of topics addressed in these projects, which also respond to the growing social awareness about each issue. Rick also facilitated bridges between North American and European schools, and beyond. We expect his attitude towards collaboration will pervade and persist through the palaeolimnological community for years to come, and global change will certainly provide stimulating and challenging questions with which to do so.

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Catalan, J., Pla-Rabés, S., Wolfe, A.P. et al. Global change revealed by palaeolimnological records from remote lakes: a review. J Paleolimnol 49, 513–535 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-013-9681-2

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