https://doi.org/10.4081/jlimnol.2020.1964
Is there a common threshold to subfossil chironomid assemblages at 16 m water depth? Evidence from the Tibetan Plateau
16 m water depth – a chironomid depth threshold?
Submitted: 7 February 2020
Accepted: 5 June 2020
Published: 1 July 2020
Accepted: 5 June 2020
Abstract Views: 984
PDF: 414
Supplementary: 97
HTML: 7
Supplementary: 97
HTML: 7
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Authors
Fluctuating lake levels are an important driver of ecosystem change, and changes in the precipitation/evaporation balance of a region can lead to undesirable changes in ecosystem functioning. Large-scale changes in hydrology will become increasingly more likely as a result of ongoing climate change in the coming century. This is especially true for the Tibetan Plateau, which plays a crucial role as the “Asian water tower” for the surrounding densely populated regions. Chironomids (Diptera: Chironomidae) have proven to be one of the most valuable bioindicators for monitoring and reconstructing the development of aquatic ecosystems. Besides temperature, water depth and salinity are two of the most important environmental factors affecting chironomids. To study the relationship between chironomids and water depth, we analyzed surface sediment samples of two large Tibetan lakes, Selin Co and Taro Co. These lakes have similar environmental conditions (e.g. elevation, temperature and oxygenation) but show strong differences in salinity (7–10 and 0.5 ppt, respectively). Our results show that the chironomid assemblages in both lakes have similar water depths at which the fauna abruptly changes in composition, despite different faunal assemblages. The most important boundaries were identified at 0.8 and 16 m water depth. While the uppermost meter, the “splash zone”, is characterized by distinctly different conditions, resulting from waves and changing water levels, the cause of the lower zone boundary remains enigmatic. Even though none of the measured water depth-related factors, such as water temperature, oxygen content, sediment properties, light intensity or macrophyte vegetation, show a distinct change at 16 m water depth, comparison to other records show that a similar change in the chironomid fauna occurs at 16 m water depth in large, deep lakes around the world. We propose that this boundary might be connected to water pressure influencing the living conditions of the larvae or the absolute distance to the surface that has to be covered for the chironomid larvae to hatch. We conclude that water depth either directly or indirectly exerts a strong control on the chironomid assemblages even under different salinities, resulting in distribution patterns that can be used to reconstruct past fluctuations in water depths.
Alivernini M, Lai Z, Frenzel P, Fürstenberg S, Wang J, Guo Y, Peng P, Haberzettl T, Börner N, Mischke S. 2018. Late quaternary lake level changes of Taro Co and neighbouring lakes, southwestern Tibetan Plateau, based on OSL dating and ostracod analysis. Global Planet Change. 166: 1-18.
Armitage P, Cranston PS, Pinder LCV 2013. Chironomidae. Biology and ecology of non-biting midges. Springer, Heidelberg.
Barley EM, Walker IR, Kurek J, Cwynar LC, Mathewes RW, Gajewski K, Finney BP 2006. A northwest North American training set. Distribution of freshwater midges in relation to air temperature and lake depth. J Paleolimnol. 36: 295-314.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-006-0014-6
Beckett, DC, Aartila, TP, Miller AC 1992. J Freshwater Ecol. 7: 45-57.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02705060.1992.9664669
Bennett, KD 1996. Determination of the number of zones in a biostratigraphical sequence. New Phytol. 132: 155-170.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.1996.tb04521.x
Birks HJB 1998. D.G. Frey and E.S. Deevey Review 1: Numerical tools in palaeolimnology – Progress, potentialities, and problems. J Paleolimnol. 20: 307-332.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008038808690
Bitušík P, Hamerlík L 2014. Prirucka na urcovanie lariev pakomarov (Diptera: Chironomidae) Slovenska. Cast 2. Tanypodinae. (Identification key for Tanypodinae). Belianum, Banska Bystrica.
Blais JM, Kalff J 1995. The influence of lake morphometry on sediment focusing. Limnol Oceanogr 40: 582-588.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4319/lo.1995.40.3.0582
Brodersen KP, Odgaard BV, Vestergaard O, Anderson NJ 2001. Chironomid stratigraphy in the shallow and eutrophic Lake Sobygaard, Denmark: Chironomid-macrophyte co-occurrence. Freshwater Biol. l46: 253-267.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2427.2001.00652.x
Brooks SJ 2006. Fossil midges (Diptera Chironomidae) as palaeoclimatic indicators for the Eurasian region. Quaternary Sci Rev. 25: 1894-1910.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2005.03.021
Brooks SJ, Langdon PG, Heiri O 2007. The identification and use of palaearctic chironomidae larvae in palaeoecology. QRA Technical Guide 10. Quaternary Research Association, London: 275 pp.
Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources of Xizang Autonomous Region 1993. Regional Geology of Xizang Autonomous Region. Geological Publishing House, Beijing.
Chen J, Zhang E, Brooks SJ, Huang X, Wang H, Liu J, Chen F 2014. Relationships between chironomids and water depth in Bosten Lake, Xinjiang, northwest China. J Paleolimnol. 51: 313-323.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-013-9727-5
Cwynar LC, Rees ABH, Pedersen CR, Engels S 2012. Depth distribution of chironomids and an evaluation of site-specific and regional lake-depth inference models: A good model gone bad? J Paleolimnol. 48: 517-533.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-012-9628-z
Dickson TR, Bos DG, Pellatt MG, Walker IR 2014. A midge-salinity transfer function for inferring sea level change and landscape evolution in the Hudson Bay Lowlands, Manitoba, Canada. J Paleolimnol. 51: 325-341.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-013-9714-x
Eggermont H, Heiri O, Verschuren D 2006. Fossil Chironomidae (Insecta: Diptera) as quantitative indicators of past salinity in African lakes. Quaternary Sci Rev. 25: 1966-1994.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2005.04.011
Engels S, Cwynar LC 2011. Changes in fossil chironomid remains along a depth gradient. Evidence for common faunal thresholds within lakes. Hydrobiologia 665. 15-38.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-011-0601-z
Engels S, Cwynar LC, Rees ABH, Shuman BN 2012. Chironomid-based water depth reconstructions: an independent evaluation of site-specific and local inference models. J Paleolimnol. 48: 693-709.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-012-9638-x
Engels S, Medeiros SA, Axford Y, Brooks SJ, Heiri O, Luoto TP, Nazarova L, Porinchu DF, Quinlan R, Self AE 2019. Temperature change as a driver of spatial patterns and long-term trends in chironomid (Insecta: Diptera) diversity. Glob Change Biol.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14862
Everitt B 2011. Cluster analysis, 5. edition. Wiley, Chichester.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470977811
Foote R, Pratt H 1954. The Culicoides of the eastern United States (Diptera, Heleidae). Public Health Monograph No. 18. Publication No. 296. U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Public Health Service.
Guo Y, Zhu L, Frenzel P, Ma Q, Ju J, Peng P, Wang J, Daut G 2016. Holocene lake level fluctuations and environmental changes at Taro Co, southwestern Tibet, based on ostracod-inferred water depth reconstruction. Holocene 26: 29-43.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683615596829
Gyawali AR, Wang J, Ma Q, Wang Y, Xu T, Guo Y, Zhu L 2019. Paleo-environmental change since the Late Glacial inferred from lacustrine sediment in Selin Co, central Tibet. Palaeogeogr Palaeocl. 516: 101-112.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.11.033
Haberzettl T, Henkel K, Kasper T, Ahlborn M, Su Y, Wang J, Appel E, St-Onge G, Stoner J, Daut G, Zhu L, Mäusbacher R 2015. Independently dated paleomagnetic secular variation records from the Tibetan Plateau. Earth Planet Sc Lett. 416: 98-108.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2015.02.007
Hamerlík L, Svitok M, Novikmec M, Veselská M, Bitušík P 2017. Weak altitudinal pattern of overall chironomid richness is a result of contrasting trends of subfamilies in high-altitude ponds. Hydrobiologia. 793: 67-81.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-016-2992-3
van Hardenbroek M, Heiri O, Wilhelm MF, Lotter AF 2011. How representative are subfossil assemblages of Chironomidae and common benthic invertebrates for the living fauna of Lake De Waay, the Netherlands? Aquat Sci. 73: 247-259.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-010-0173-4
Immerzeel WW, van Beek LPH, Bierkens MFP 2010. Climate change will affect the Asian water towers. Science 328: 1382-1385.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1183188
Jiang L, Nielsen K, Andersen OB, Bauer-Gottwein P 2017. Monitoring recent lake level variations on the Tibetan Plateau using CryoSat-2 SARIn mode data. J Hydrol. 544: 109-124.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.11.024
Juggins S 2014. C2 data analysis. Version 1.7.7. Available at: https://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/stephen.juggins/software/C2Home.htm
(accessed 26 January 2020)
Kurek J, Cwynar LC 2009a. The potential of site-specific and local chironomid-based inference models for reconstructing past lake levels. J Paleolimnol. 42: 37-50.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-008-9246-y
Kurek J, Cwynar LC 2009b. Effects of within-lake gradients on the distribution of fossil chironomids from maar lakes in western Alaska: implications for environmental reconstructions. Hydrobiologia 623: 37–52.
Larocque, I. (2001): How many chironomid head capsules are enough? A statistical approach to determine sample size for palaeoclimatic reconstructions. Palaeogeogr Palaeocl172(1–2): 133–142.
Laug, A., Hamerlík, L., Anslan, S., Engels, S., Turner, F., Wang, J., Schwalb, A. (2019): Acricotopus indet. morphotype incurvatus. Description and genetics of a new Orthocladiinae (Diptera: Chironomidae) larval morphotype from the Tibetan Plateau. Zootaxa 4656(3): 535–544. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4656.3.10
DOI: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4656.3.10
Legendre, P., Legendre, L. (1998): Numerical Ecology. 2. edition. Elsevier, Amsterdam and Oxford.
Lei, Y., Yao, T., Bird, B., Yang, K., Zhai, J., Sheng, Y. (2013): Coherent lake growth on the central Tibetan Plateau since the 1970s. Characterization and attribution. J Hydrol. 483: 61–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2013.01.003
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2013.01.003
Linevich, A. A. (1971): The Chironomidae of Lake Baikal. Limnologica 8: 51-52.
Löffler, H. (1969): High altitude lakes in Mt. Everest region. SIL Proceedings, 1922-2010 17(1): 373–385. https://doi.org/10.1080/03680770.1968.11895862
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03680770.1968.11895862
Lorenz, R., Herdendorf, C. (1982): Growth Dynamics of Cladophora Glomerata in Western Lake Erie in Relation to Some Environmental Factors. J Great Lakes Res. 8(1): 42–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0380-1330(82)71941-0
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0380-1330(82)71941-0
Lu, C., Yu, G., Xie, G. (2005): Tibetan Plateau serves as a water tower. International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 2005 – IGARSS 2005: 3120–3123.
Ma Q, Zhu L, Lü X, Guo Y, Ju J, Wang J, Wang Y, Tang L 2014. Pollen-inferred Holocene vegetation and climate histories in Taro Co, southwestern Tibetan Plateau. Chinese Sci Bull. 59: 4101-4114.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-014-0505-1
Meng K, Shi X, Wang E, Liu F 2012. High-altitude salt lake elevation changes and glacial ablation in Central Tibet, 2000–2010. Chinese Sci Bull. 57: 525-534.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-011-4849-5
Mocq J, Hare L 2018. Influence of Acid Mine Drainage, and Its Remediation, on Lakewater Quality and Benthic Invertebrate Communities. Water Air Soil Poll. 229: 1-15.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-017-3671-3
Moller Pillot HKM 2013a. Biology and ecology of the Chironomini, 2. edition, KNNV Publishing, Zeist.
Moller Pillot HKM 2013b. Chironomidae Larvae, Vol. 3: Orthocladiinae. KNNV Publishing, Zeist.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004278059
Motta L, Massaferro J 2019. Climate and site-specific factors shape chironomid taxonomic and functional diversity patterns in northern Patagonia. Hydrobiologia. 839: 131-143.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-019-04001-6
Oksanen J, Blanchet R, Friendly M, Kindt R, Legendre P, McGlinn D, Minchin P, O'Hara R, Simpson G, Solymos P, Stevens M, Szoecs E, Wagner H 2016. Vegan: Community Ecology Package. R Package Vers. 2.4e1. Accessible at: https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=vegan
(accessed at 26 January 2020)
Pearson K 1895. Note on regression and inheritance in the case of two parents. P R Soc London. 58: 240-242.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspl.1895.0041
Plank A 2010. Chironomid-based inference models for Tibetan lakes aided by a newly developed chironomid identification key. PhD Thesis, Freie Universität Berlin, GER.
Quinlan R, Smol JP 2001. Setting minimum head capsule abundance and taxa deletion criteria in chironomid-based inference models. J Paleolimnol. 26: 327342.
R Core Team 2016. R: a Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna
Raposeiro PM, Saez A, Giralt S, Costa AC, Gonçalves V 2018. Causes of spatial distribution of subfossil diatom and chironomid assemblages in surface sediments of a remote deep island lake. Hydrobiologia. 30: 44.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-018-3557-4
Rieradevall M, Brooks SJ 2001. An identification guide to subfossil Tanypodinae larvae (Insecta: Diptera: Chrironomidae) based on cephalic setation. J Paleolimnol 25: 81-99.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008185517959
Rowley DB, Currie BS 2006. Palaeo-altimetry of the late Eocene to Miocene Lunpola basin, central Tibet. Nature. 439: 677-681.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04506
Schäffer M, Hellmann C, Avlyush S, Borchardt D 2019. The key role of increased fine sediment loading in shaping macroinvertebrate communities along a multiple stressor gradient in a Eurasian steppe river (Kharaa River, Mongolia). Int Rev Hydrobiol. 35: 257.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/iroh.201902007
Schwarz A, Turner F, Lauterbach S, Plessen B, Krahn KJ, Glodniok S, Mischke S, Stebich M, Witt R, Mingram J, Schwalb A. 2017. Mid- to late Holocene climate-driven regime shifts inferred from diatom, ostracod and stable isotope records from Lake Son Kol (Central Tian Shan, Kyrgyzstan). Quaternary Sci Rev. 177: 340-356.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.10.009
Shi X, Furlong KP, Kirby E, Meng K, Marrero S, Gosse J, Wang E, Phillips F 2017a. Evaluating the size and extent of paleolakes in central Tibet during the late Pleistocene. Geophys Res Lett. 44: 5476-5485.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL072686
Shi X, Kirby E, Furlong KP, Meng K, Robinson R, Lu H, Wang E 2017b. Rapid and punctuated Late Holocene recession of Siling Co, central Tibet. Quaternary Sci Rev. 172: 15-31.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.07.017
Tarkowska-Kukuryk M 2014. Spatial distribution of epiphytic chironomid larvae in a shallow macrophyte-dominated lake. Effect of macrophyte species and food resources. Limnology. 15: 141-153.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10201-014-0425-4
Tarrats P, Cañedo-Argüelles M, Rieradevall M, Prat N 2018. The influence of depth and macrophyte habitat on paleoecological studies using chironomids. Enol Lake (Spain) as a case study. J Paleolimnol. 60: 97-107.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-018-0026-z
Turner F, Zhu L, Lü X, Peng P, Ma Q, Wang J, Hou J, Lin Q, Yang R, Frenzel P 2016. Pediastrum sensu lato (Chlorophyceae) assemblages from surface sediments of lakes and ponds on the Tibetan Plateau. Hydrobiologia. 771: 101-118.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-015-2620-7
Vallenduuk HJ, Moller Pillot HKM 2013. General ecology and Tanypodinae, 2. edition. KNNV Publishing, Zeist: 144 pp.
Wang S, Dou H 1998. Lakes in China. Science Press, Beijing. (in Chinese)
Wetzel RG 2001. Limnology: lake and river ecosystems. Academic Press, San Diego.
Wu Y, Zhang X, Zheng H, Li J, Wang Z 2017. Investigating changes in lake systems in the south-central Tibetan Plateau with multi-source remote sensing. J Geogr Sci. 27: 337-347.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-017-1380-x
Qiu J 2014. Double threat for Tibet. Climate change and human development are jeopardizing the plateau’s fragile environment. Nature. 712: 240-241.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/512240a
Yu S, Wang J, Li Y, Peng P, Kai J, Kou Q, Laug A 2019. Spatial distribution of diatom assemblages in the surface sediments of Selin Co, central Tibetan Plateau, China, and the controlling factors. J Great Lakes Res. 45: 1069-1079.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2019.09.006
Zhang E, Cao Y, Langdon PG, Wang Q, Shen J, Yang X 2013. Within-lake variability of subfossil chironomid assemblage in a large, deep subtropical lake (Lugu lake, Southwest China). J Limnol. 72: 117-126.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4081/jlimol.2013.e10
Zhang E, Jones R, Bedford A, Langdon PG, Tang H 2007. A chironomid-based salinity inference model from lakes on the Tibetan Plateau. J Paleolimnol. 38: 477-491.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-006-9080-z
Zhang G, Luo W, Chen W, Zheng G 2019. A robust but variable lake expansion on the Tibetan Plateau. Sci Bull. 64: 1306-1309.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2019.07.018
Zhang Y, Yao T, Ma Y 2011. Climatic changes have led to significant expansion of endorheic lakes in Xizang (Tibet) since 1995. Sciences in Cold and Arid Regions. 3: 463-467.
Zheng M, Xiang J, Wei X, Zheng Y 1989: Saline lakes on the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau. Beijing Scientific and Technical Publishing House, Beijing. (in Chinese)
Zhu L, Wang J, Ju J, Ma N, Zhang Y, Liu C, Han B, Liu L, Wang M, Ma Q 2019. Climatic and lake environmental changes in the Serling Co region of Tibet over a variety of timescales. Sci Bull 64: 422-424.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2019.02.016
Edited by
Valeria Lencioni, MUSE-Museo delle Scienze, Trento, ItalySupporting Agencies
German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), German Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), NSFC Research FundHow to Cite
Laug, Andreas, Falko Turner, Stefan Engels, Junbo Wang, Torsten Haberzettl, Jianting Ju, Siwei Yu, Qiangqiang Kou, Nicole Börner, and Antje Schwalb. 2020. “Is There a Common Threshold to Subfossil Chironomid Assemblages at 16 M Water Depth? Evidence from the Tibetan Plateau: 16 M Water Depth – a Chironomid Depth Threshold?”. Journal of Limnology 79 (3). https://doi.org/10.4081/jlimnol.2020.1964.
Similar Articles
- JIN XIANGCAN, Analysis of eutrophication state and trend for lakes in China , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 62 No. s1 (2003): Residence Time in Lakes: Science, Management, Education
- Chantal Audet, Shannon MacPhee, Wendel Keller, Colonization of constructed ponds by crustacean zooplankton: local and regional influences , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 72 No. 3 (2013)
- Roberta Piscia, Simone Tabozzi, Roberta Bettinetti, Liisa Nevalainen, Marina M. Manca, Unexpected increases in rotifer resting egg abundances during the period of contamination of Lake Orta , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 75 No. s2 (2016): Lake Orta: a new lease on life
- Carmen Gabaldón, Miloslav Devetter, Josef Hejzlar, Karel Šimek, Petr Znachor, Jiří Nedoma, Jaromir Seda, Repeated flood disturbance enhances rotifer dominance and diversity in a zooplankton community of a small dammed mountain pond , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 76 No. 2 (2017)
- Sebastian Lenz, Uta Gruenert, Juergen Geist, Michael Stiefel, Maren Lentz, Uta Raeder, Calcite production by the calcifying green alga Phacotus lenticularis , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 77 No. 2 (2018)
- Bogdan Gadek, Mirosław Szumny, Bartłomiej Szypuła, Classification of the Tatra Mountain lakes in terms of the duration of their ice cover (Poland and Slovakia) , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 79 No. 1 (2020)
- Brent G. PARSONS, Shaun A. WATMOUGH, Peter J. DILLON, Keith M. SOMERS, A bioassessment of lakes in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region, Alberta, using benthic macroinvertebrates , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 69 No. s1 (2010): Impacts of sulphur and nitrogen deposition in western Canada
- Michaela M. Salcher, Same same but different: ecological niche partitioning of planktonic freshwater prokaryotes , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 73 No. s1 (2014): Limnology in the 21st Century: celebrating 75 years of ecological research in Pallanza
- Sven E. JØRGENSEN, Experience from ILEC's project on Environmental Education , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 62 No. s1 (2003): Residence Time in Lakes: Science, Management, Education
- Hélène Masclaux, Alexandre Bec, Gilles Bourdier, Trophic partitioning among three littoral microcrustaceans: relative importance of periphyton as food resource , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 71 No. 2 (2012)
<< < 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 > >>
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.
List of Cited By :
