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Extreme weather years drive episodic changes in lake chemistry: implications for recovery from sulfate deposition and long-term trends in dissolved organic carbon

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Abstract

Interannual climate variability is expected to increase over the next century, but the extent to which hydroclimatic variability influences biogeochemical processes is unclear. To determine the effects of extreme weather on surface water chemistry, a 30-year record of surface water geochemistry for 84 lakes in the northeastern U.S. was combined with landscape data and watershed-specific weather data. With these data, responses in sulfate (SO4 2−) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations were characterized during an extreme wet year and an extreme dry year across the region. Redundancy analysis was used to model lake chemical response to extreme weather as a function of watershed features. A response was observed in DOC and SO4 2− concentration in response to extreme wet and dry years in lakes across the northeastern U.S. Acidification was observed during drought and brownification was observed during wet years. Lake chemical response was related to landscape characteristics in different ways depending on the type of extreme year. A linear relationship between wetland coverage and DOC and SO4 2− deviations was observed during extreme wet years. The results presented here help to clarify the variability observed in long-term recovery from acidification and regional increases in DOC. Understanding the chemical response to weather variability is becoming increasingly important as temporal variation in precipitation is likely to intensify with continued atmospheric warming.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey and the Senator George J. Mitchell Center at the University of Maine, under Grant No. G11AP20082. The USEPA-USGS LTM/TIME project was funded by EPA ORD and EPA CAMD (IAG 06HQGR0143), processed through Grant/Cooperative Agreement G11AP20128 from the United States Geological Survey. Partial funding was provided by the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station. This is Scientific Contribution Number 2625. This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture McIntire Stennis Project 0225015. Data from the Adirondack Mountain region were collected by the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation (ALSC). The work by the ALSC was performed with funding support from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency Long-Term Monitoring Network. We thank Ivan Fernandez, Brian McGill, and Suzanne McGowan for helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. We thank Brian McGill for his assistance with the statistical analyses. We thank three anonymous reviewers for their comments, which substantially improved this article. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biology and Ecology and Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, 137 Sawyer Environmental Research Center, Orono, ME, 04469, USA

    Kristin E. Strock & Jasmine E. Saros

  2. Environmental Science Department, Dickinson College, P.O. Box 1773, Carlisle, PA, 17013, USA

    Kristin E. Strock

  3. Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA

    Sean D. Birkel

  4. School of Forest Resources and Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA

    Sarah J. Nelson

  5. Resilient Energy Solutions, 16 Loon Lane, Mariaville, ME, USA

    Jeffrey S. Kahl

  6. Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA

    William H. McDowell

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  1. Kristin E. Strock
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  2. Jasmine E. Saros
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  3. Sarah J. Nelson
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  4. Sean D. Birkel
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  5. Jeffrey S. Kahl
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Correspondence to Kristin E. Strock.

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Strock, K.E., Saros, J.E., Nelson, S.J. et al. Extreme weather years drive episodic changes in lake chemistry: implications for recovery from sulfate deposition and long-term trends in dissolved organic carbon. Biogeochemistry 127, 353–365 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-016-0185-9

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