Evidence suggests that boreal-lake ecosystems are changing rapidly, but with variable ecological responses, due to climate warming. Paleolimnological analysis of 27 undeveloped northern forested lakes showed significant and potentially climate-mediated shifts in diatom communities and increased carbon and biogenic silica burial. We hypothesize the sensitivity of northern forested lakes to climate change will vary along two phy...

The spiny water flea ( Bythotrephes cederströmii ), a freshwater crustacean considered to be the world’s best-studied invasive zooplankter, was first recorded in North America in the Laurentian Great Lakes during the 1980s. Its arrival is widely considered to be the result of ocean-going cargo ships that translocated contaminated ballast water from Eurasia to the Great Lakes during the 1970–1980s. The subsequent first discover...

Near‐surface wind speeds have changed over recent decades, raising questions about the extent to which these changes are altering the vertical thermal structure of lakes and affecting lake food webs. Neo‐ and paleolimnological techniques were used to assess wind‐driven changes in lake thermal habitat and resulting effects on primary producers in two lakes in Isle Royale National Park, an island archipelago located in Lake Supe...

Despite the central role of colonization to invasion biology, little is known about the early dynamics of founder populations because this time period is often unobserved and short‐lived. This study documents with high resolution the early population ecology of an invading freshwater zooplankton, Bythotrephes longimanus (Cladocera : Cercopagidae), by measuring accumulation rates of its caudal spine in sediments. Using dated (...

Planted forests are increasing in many upland regions worldwide, but knowledge about their potential effects on algal communities of catchment lakes is relatively unknown. Here, the effects of afforestation were investigated using palaeolimnology at six upland lake sites in the north‐west of Ireland subject to different extents of forest plantation cover (4–64% of catchment area). 210 Pb‐dated sediment cores were analysed for...

Over the 20th century, surface water temperatures have increased in many lake ecosystems around the world, but long‐term trends in the vertical thermal structure of lakes remain unclear, despite the strong control that thermal stratification exerts on the biological response of lakes to climate change. Here we used both neo‐ and paleoecological approaches to develop a fossil‐based inference model for lake mixing depths and the...

The history of mercury (Hg) inputs to 55 Minnesota (U.S.A.) lakes was reconstructed from 210 Pb (lead‐210)‐ dated sediment cores to determine if erosion of soils from agriculture and urbanization contributes a significant loading of Hg to lakes, and whether lakes near Hg‐emitting facilities receive appreciable local atmospheric deposition. Modern (1994–1997) Hg accumulation and Hg flux ratios (modern : preindustrial) increase...

Aim To understand better the representation of arctic tundra vegetation by pollen data, we analysed pollen assemblages and pollen accumulation rates (PARs) in the surface sediments of lakes. Location Modern sediment samples were collected from seventy‐eight lakes located in the Arctic Foothills and Arctic Coastal Plain regions of northern Alaska. Methods For seventy of the lakes, we analysed pollen and spores in the upper 2 cm...