Climate-driven regime shifts in the biological communities of arctic lakes.
Fifty-five paleolimnological records from lakes in the circumpolar Arctic reveal widespread species changes and ecological reorganizations in algae and invertebrate communities since approximately anno Domini 1850. The remoteness of these sites, coupled with the ecological characteristics of taxa involved, indicate that changes are primarily driven by climate warming through lengthening of the summer growing season and related limnological changes. The widespread distribution and similar character of these changes indicate that the opportunity to study arctic ecosystems unaffected by human influences may have disappeared.
Smol
John P
JP
Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Laboratory, Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6. smolj@biology.queensu.ca
Wolfe
Alexander P
AP
Birks
H John B
HJ
Douglas
Marianne S V
MS
Jones
Vivienne J
VJ
Korhola
Atte
A
Pienitz
Reinhard
R
Rühland
Kathleen
K
Sorvari
Sanna
S
Antoniades
Dermot
D
Brooks
Stephen J
SJ
Fallu
Marie-Andrée
MA
Hughes
Mike
M
Keatley
Bronwyn E
BE
Laing
Tamsin E
TE
Michelutti
Neal
N
Nazarova
Larisa
L
Nyman
Marjut
M
Paterson
Andrew M
AM
Perren
Bianca
B
Quinlan
Roberto
R
Rautio
Milla
M
Saulnier-Talbot
Emilie
E
Siitonen
Susanna
S
Solovieva
Nadia
N
Weckström
Jan
J
D000818:Animals; D001110:Arctic Regions; D044822:Biodiversity; D003081:Cold Climate; D017753:Ecosystem; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005618:Fresh Water; D017752:Greenhouse Effect; D007448:Invertebrates; D013997:Time Factors; D014871:Water Microbiology
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