Consequences of Fish Kills for Long-Term Trophic Structure in Shallow Lakes: Implications for Theory and Restoration

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dc.contributor.authorSayer, Carl D.
dc.contributor.authorDavidson, Thomas A.
dc.contributor.authorRawcliffe, Ruth
dc.contributor.authorLangdon, Peter G.
dc.contributor.authorLeavitt, Peter R.
dc.contributor.authorCockerton, Georgina
dc.contributor.authorRose, Neil, L.
dc.contributor.authorCroft, Toby
dc.date.accessioned2023-06-30T15:06:06Z
dc.date.available2023-06-30T15:06:06Z
dc.date.issued2016-07-22
dc.descriptionCopyright 2016 The Author(s). This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.en_US
dc.description.abstractFish kills are a common occurrence in shallow, eutrophic lakes, but their ecological consequences, especially in the long term, are poorly understood. We studied the decadal-scale response of two UK shallow lakes to fish kills using a palaeolimnological approach. Eutrophic and turbid Barningham Lake experienced two fish kills in the early 1950s and late 1970s with fish recovering after both events, whereas less eutrophic, macrophyte-dominated Wolterton Lake experienced one kill event in the early 1970s from which fish failed to recover. Our palaeo-data show fish-driven trophic cascade effects across all trophic levels (covering benthic and pelagic species) in both lakes regardless of pre-kill macrophyte coverage and trophic status. In turbid Barningham Lake, similar to long-term studies of biomanipulations in other eutrophic lakes, effects at the macrophyte level are shown to be temporary after the first kill (c. 20 years) and non-existent after the second kill. In plant-dominated Wolterton Lake, permanent fish disappearance failed to halt a long-term pattern of macrophyte community change (for example, loss of charophytes and over-wintering macrophyte species) symptomatic of eutrophication. Important implications for theory and restoration ecology arise from our study. Firstly, our data support ideas of slow eutrophication-driven change in shallow lakes where perturbations are not necessary prerequisites for macrophyte loss. Secondly, the study emphasises a key need for lake managers to reduce external nutrient loading if sustainable and long-term lake restoration is to be achieved. Our research highlights the enormous potential of multi-indicator palaeolimnology and alludes to an important need to consider potential fish kill signatures when interpreting results.en_US
dc.description.authorstatusFacultyen_US
dc.description.peerreviewyesen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis research was funded by a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant to Carl Sayer and Thomas Davidson (Grant Code: NE/D008344/1).en_US
dc.identifier.citationSayer, C.D., Davidson, T.A., Rawcliffe, R. et al. Consequences of Fish Kills for Long-Term Trophic Structure in Shallow Lakes: Implications for Theory and Restoration. Ecosystems 19, 1289–1309 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-016-0005-zen_US
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-016-0005-z
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10294/15990
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherSpringeren_US
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/*
dc.subjecten_US
dc.subjectshallow lakesen_US
dc.subjectpalaeolimnologyen_US
dc.subjecttrophic cascadesen_US
dc.subjectmacrofossilsen_US
dc.subjecteutrophicationen_US
dc.subjectbiomanipulationen_US
dc.titleConsequences of Fish Kills for Long-Term Trophic Structure in Shallow Lakes: Implications for Theory and Restorationen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
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