Catchments, Connectivity & CEH Lake Research in

Cumbria

Stephen Maberly & Colleagues Lake Ecosystems Group

Centre for Ecology & Hydrology Lancaster Environment Centre

Lancaster LA1 4AP scm@ceh.ac.uk

Blelham Tarn

FBA ASM, 11 May 2016, Windermere

No lake is an island....

Bott

om-u

p in

tera

ctio

n

Top-down interaction

Hierarchy of external stressors Exte

rnal

stre

ssor

s

Feedbacks from

lake

Global

Regional

Local

Nutrients & toxins

Climate change Acid

& nutrients

Invasion of non-native species

Glynn Gorick

Maberly & Elliott (2012) Freshwater Biology

External stressors & internal interactions Natural variability in weather

Long-term monitoring of Cumbrian lakes

Grasmere (1970)

Blelham Tarn (1945)

Bassenthwaite Lake (1990)

Freshwater Biology (2012) Special Issue 57(2). Ed. Maberly & Elliott

South Basin Windermere (1945)

North Basin Windermere (1945)

Esthwaite Water (1945)

Derwent Water (1990)

Loch Leven (<1968)

Begun by FBA at 5 lakes. Continued by CEH at 7 lakes since 1989. Measure temperature & O2 profiles, Secchi depth, chemistry, algae, zooplankton every 2 weeks & monthly/ annual fish (some lakes).

Nutrient enrichment & phytoplankton response

0

10

20

30

40

50

194

5194

9195

3195

7196

1196

5196

9197

3197

7198

1198

5198

9199

3199

7200

1200

5200

9201

3

[PO

4-P

] (m

g m

-3)

South Basin of Windermere

Installation of WwTWs

Tertiary P-upgrade at WwTW by NWW/UU

0

3

6

9

12

15

18

1978- 1991 1993- 2007

P lo

ad to

Win

derm

ere

(Mg

y-1 )

Tower Wood WwTWAmbleside WwTWOther WwTWDirect rainCatchment

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

1960 1980 2000 2020

Max Chla [JJA] (mg m-3)

SRP TP

Oligotrophic

Eutrophic

Cumbrian limnodiversity

The Lakes Tour Some data collected by FBA

in1950s, 1960s & 1970s

FBA 1984 ‘Tour’ first nearly- standardised tour (but no data on Chla & few on Secchi depth)

Subsequent standardised Tours by IFE/CEH in: - 1991 (CEH & NRA) - 1995 (CEH & EA) - 2000 (CEH & EA) - 2005 (CEH & EA) - 2010 (CEH, EA & LDNPA) - 2015 (CEH, EA & UU)

2015 report has just been published on NERC Open Research Archive

Catchment effects on the structure & function of lakes

Loweswater

Local

Communities, citizens & catchment models

Farm

5 kg P y-1 50 kg P y-1

NUTRIENTS

OUT

NUTRIENTS

IN

NUTRIENT EXCESS

IN – OUT = 400 – 250 =150 kg P y-1

Bedding/feed Bedding/feed

Fertiliser/manure/slurry

Sheep

Cattle

Fertiliser/manure/slurry

Sheep

Cattle

Norton et al. (2012) Env. Mod. Soft.

Total Chlorophyll a

Cyanobacteria

(http://westcumbriariverstrust.org/projects/the-loweswater-care-programme)

PROTECH

Catchments, lakes & global C-cycling Lakes Tour data on Cumbrian lakes

Lakes are important in global C-cycle

Analysis of data from 20 lakes over 26 years

Maberly et al. (2013). Nature Climate Change 3: 391-394.

Air-levels

CEH Land Cover Map

How does connectivity influence the distribution of organisms & nutrients within and between landscapes?

How is this relationship altered by different stressors, singly and in combination?

Upland (Cumbria) Lowland (Norfolk) Urban (Glasgow)

Connectivity: Hydroscape, a 4-year NERC Highlight Topic

Tian’ezhou Oxbow Wetland Reserve on the Yangtze

https://hydroscapeblog.wordpress.com/about/

External partners & data providers: Michigan State University EA, SEPA, SNH, NE, Broads Authority, British Dragonfly Society, Balfour-Browne Club, Norfolk Biodiversity Information Service See article in Spring FBA News & Poster today by Willby & Law

Regional pressures on the structure & function of lakes

Bott

om-u

p in

tera

ctio

n

Top-down interaction

Hierarchy of external stressors Exte

rnal

stre

ssor

s

Feedbacks from

lake

Regional

• Atmospheric deposition of acidity • Atmospheric deposition of

nutrients • Regional weather patterns • Invasion of species from a

regional pool

Coherent changes caused by acid-deposition

0

50

100

150

200

250

1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

Conc

entra

tion

(meq

uiv

m-3

)

Year

Average alkalinityAverage sulphate concentration

a)

Coherent change caused by regional weather patterns

Strong & Maberly (2011) Global Change Biol.

Jet-stream/ Rossby Waves

http://www.metcheck.com/UK/jetstream.asp

Using our long-term data we have also shown teleconnexions linked to the North Atlantic Oscillation and the position of the North Wall of the Gulf Stream

Regional weather patterns can cause large-scale spatial coherence in responses, especially those linked to temperature

Going global… • Climate change

Bott

om-u

p in

tera

ctio

n

Top-down interaction

Hierarchy of external stressors Exte

rnal

stre

ssor

s

Feedbacks from

lake

Global

R.I. Woolway et al. (2016) in press. In: Chapter 2 Global climates, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society state of the climate report

High-frequency, depth-resolved measurements

4-minute data sent by telemetry to a database at CEH (~4M data points per buoy per year)

• Met sensors •Temperature profiles • Oxygen • pH • Conductivity • CO2 • Underwater light • Chla • Phycocyanin

pH in Esthwaite Water (1993-2002)

The high-frequency data can be viewed here….

http://data.ecn.ac.uk/ukleon/results.asp

Analysis of global high-frequency temperature data

GLEON

Average summer diel temperature range

Woolway et al. (2016) PLoS ONE 11(3): e0152466

Priest Pot

Blelham Tarn

Esthwaite Water

Windermere

‘Against the envy of less happier lands’: not all the World’s 117 million lakes can be as well

studied as those in Cumbria!

GloboLakes: A global lakes observatory

www.globolakes.ac.uk

Clustering lake temperature seasonality

We are just starting similar analyses, linked to catchment driving data, for: - chlorophyll a, - cyanobacteria (phycocyanin) - coloured dissolved organic carbon - total suspended matter

Global Runoff database

Koppen-Geiger climate classification

Climate change & loss of food-web synchrony Mismatching of fish reproduction & plankton food peaks

Thackeray et al. (2013) Global Change Biology, 19: 3568-3580 Ohlberger et al (2014), Proc. R. Soc. B, 281, 20140938.

Day

of y

ear

Multiple stressors: Echoes in the ecosystem

Warmer water

Reduction in zooplankton

Increase in roach

Increase in phytoplankton

Reduction in Arctic charr

Reduction in oxygen at depth

Stronger stratification

Increased internal P-

load

Planktivores

Zooplankton

Phytoplankton

Physics

Chemistry

Changes in Pike diet

Carnivores

Climate change

Connectivity & co-operation

Established co-operative research outside Europe

Argentina

Australia

Canada

China

New Zealand

USA

Conclusions: Challenges, Connectivity, Community & Cumbria

• Lakes are sentinels of environmental change, in part because of their connectivity to their catchment, but also to the ‘air-shed’ and planet, and therefore sensitive to multiple stressors that can degrade natural capital and the ecosystem goods and services on which we rely

• Sound management to tackle societal challenges (resource security, environmental hazards & environmental change) relies on robust science to provide the insights and tools that allow good decisions to be made

• The long-term, high-frequency and synoptic monitoring, mechanistic understanding and production of models carried out in Cumbria can help meet those challenges

• Funding for freshwater ecology, and especially for long-term research, is becoming critically scarce which should be a concern to our community.

Acknowledgements

• The FBA- for starting the freshwater research in Cumbria - and for organising this meeting

• Colleagues at the Lake Ecosystems Group, especially those doing the field-research, and colleagues in CEH

• Collaborators in Universities and research institutes

• Our funders

• And you for listening!

I am happy to try to answer any questions