Abstract
Sewage released from lakeside development can reshape ecological communities. Nearshore periphyton can rapidly assimilate sewage-associated nutrients, leading to increases of filamentous algal abundance, thus altering both food abundance and quality for grazers. In Lake Baikal, a large, ultra-oligotrophic, remote lake in Siberia, filamentous algal abundance has increased near lakeside developments, and localized sewage input is the suspected cause. These shifts are of particular interest in Lake Baikal, where endemic littoral biodiversity is high, lakeside settlements are mostly small, tourism is relatively high (~1.2 million visitors annually), and settlements are separated by large tracts of undisturbed shoreline, enabling investigation of heterogeneity and gradients of disturbance. We surveyed sites along 40 km of Baikal's southwestern shore for sewage indicators—pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) and microplastics—as well as periphyton and macroinvertebrate abundance and indicators of food web structure (stable isotopes and fatty acids). Summed PPCP concentrations were spatially related to lakeside development. As predicted, lakeside development was associated with more filamentous algae and lower abundance of sewage-sensitive mollusks. Periphyton and macroinvertebrate stable isotopes and essential fatty acids suggested that food web structure otherwise remained similar across sites; yet, the invariance of amphipod fatty acid composition, relative to periphyton, suggested that grazers adjust behavior or metabolism to compensate for different periphyton assemblages. Our results demonstrate that even low levels of human disturbance can result in spatial heterogeneity of nearshore ecological responses, with potential for changing trophic interactions that propagate through the food web.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2649-2664 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Limnology and Oceanography |
| Volume | 67 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors would like to thank the faculty, students, staff, and mariners of the Irkutsk State University's Biological Research Institute Biostation for their expert field, taxonomic, and laboratory support; Marianne Moore and Bart De Stasio for helpful advice; the researchers and students of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Limnological Institute for expert taxonomic and logistical assistance; Oleg A. Timoshkin, Tatiana Ya. Sitnikova, Irina V. Mekhanikova, Nina A. Bonderenko, Ekaterina Volkova, Yulia Zvereva, Vadim V. Takhteev, Stephanie G. Labou, Stephen L. Katz, Brian P. Lanouette, John R. Loffredo, Alli N. Cramer, Alexander K. Fremier, Erica J. Crespi, Stephen M. Powers, Daniel L. Preston, Gavin L. Simpson, Reyn M. Yoshioka, and James J. Elser for offering insights throughout the development of this project. The authors appreciate the constructive feedback from Andrew J. Tanentzap and three anonymous reviewers on an earlier version of the manuscript. Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF-DEB-1136637) to S.E.H., a Fulbright Fellowship to M.F.M., a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to M.F.M. (NSF-DGE-1347973), and the Russian Ministry of Science and Education to M.A.T. (N FZZE-2020-0026; N FZZE-2020-0023). This work serves as one chapter of M.F.M.'s doctoral dissertation in Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences at Washington State University.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the faculty, students, staff, and mariners of the Irkutsk State University's Biological Research Institute Biostation for their expert field, taxonomic, and laboratory support; Marianne Moore and Bart De Stasio for helpful advice; the researchers and students of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Limnological Institute for expert taxonomic and logistical assistance; Oleg A. Timoshkin, Tatiana Ya. Sitnikova, Irina V. Mekhanikova, Nina A. Bonderenko, Ekaterina Volkova, Yulia Zvereva, Vadim V. Takhteev, Stephanie G. Labou, Stephen L. Katz, Brian P. Lanouette, John R. Loffredo, Alli N. Cramer, Alexander K. Fremier, Erica J. Crespi, Stephen M. Powers, Daniel L. Preston, Gavin L. Simpson, Reyn M. Yoshioka, and James J. Elser for offering insights throughout the development of this project. The authors appreciate the constructive feedback from Andrew J. Tanentzap and three anonymous reviewers on an earlier version of the manuscript. Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF‐DEB‐1136637) to S.E.H., a Fulbright Fellowship to M.F.M., a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to M.F.M. (NSF‐DGE‐1347973), and the Russian Ministry of Science and Education to M.A.T. (N FZZE‐2020‐0026; N FZZE‐2020‐0023). This work serves as one chapter of M.F.M.'s doctoral dissertation in Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences at Washington State University.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Limnology and Oceanography published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography.
