Regime shifts between clear and turbid water in New Zealand lakes: Environmental correlates and implications for management and restoration

Abstract We reviewed lakes in New Zealand reported to have undergone regime shifts between macrophyte‐dominated clear water states and de‐vegetated, turbid states. Regime‐shifting lakes (RSLs) occurred along a wide latitudinal gradient. We obtained catchment land‐use data as well as data on the occurrences of introduced (non‐indigenous) macrophytes and herbivorous and benthivorous fish for the 37 RSLs and for 58 lakes with similar maximum depths and climates, but which had not been reported to have undergone regime shifts. All RSLs had a maximum depth <20 m and mean annual surface air temperature between 9 and 16°G Regime shifts were positively related to the percentage of the catchment in pasture and negatively related to the percentage of the catchment in forest. The occurrences of the introduced macrophyte Egeria densa and the introduced fish, Ameiurus nebulosus (catfish), Carassius auratus (goldfish), Scardinius erythrophthalmus (rudd), Cyprinus carpio (koi carp), and Tinca tinca (tench), were significantly correlated to regime shifts in lakes. Although the presence of other introduced aquatic macrophytes was not significantly correlated with RSLs, the number of exotic fish taxa present in lakes was strongly positively correlated with increasing prevalence of regime shifts. The strength of the correlations between land use and introduced species versus regime shifts illustrates a number of factors which could be managed to reduce the susceptibility of lakes to regime shifts and to restore lakes that have become de‐vegetated. Our findings also suggests that regime shifts in lakes were unlikely to have been common in New Zealand lakes before anthropogenic deforestation and introductions of introduced aquatic taxa.

[1]  C. Burns.  New Zealand lakes research, 1967–91 , 1991 .

[2]  D. Simberloff,et al.  Now you See them, Now you don't! – Population Crashes of Established Introduced Species , 2004, Biological Invasions.

[3]  B. Moss.  Engineering and biological approaches to the restoration from eutrophication of shallow lakes in which aquatic plant communities are important components , 1990, Hydrobiologia.

[4]  D. Rowe.  Exotic fish introductions and the decline of water clarity in small North Island, New Zealand lakes: a multi-species problem , 2007, Hydrobiologia.

[5]  L. Carvalho,et al.  Determination of phytoplankton crops by top-down and bottom-up mechanisms in a group of English lakes, the West Midland meres , 1994 .

[6]  S. F. Mitchell.  Primary production in a shallow eutrophic lake dominated alternately by phytoplankton and by submerged macrophytes , 1989 .

[7]  Petr Šmilauer,et al.  CANOCO 4.5 Reference Manual and CanoDraw for Windows User's Guide: Software for Canonical Community Ordination , 2002 .

[8]  David P. Hamilton,et al.  Interrelations between phytoplankton, submerged macrophytes, black swans (Cygnus atratus) and zooplankton in a shallow New Zealand lake , 1988 .

[9]  J. Eaton,et al.  The influence of nutrient loading, dissolved inorganic carbon and higher trophic levels on the interaction between submerged plants and periphyton , 2002 .

[10]  Jan Köhler,et al.  Lake responses to reduced nutrient loading - an analysis of contemporary long-term data from 35 case studies , 2005 .

[11]  Ole Vestergaard,et al.  Macrophyte decline in Danish lakes and streams over the past 100 years , 2000 .

[12]  Erik Jeppesen,et al.  Shallow lake restoration by nutrient loading reduction—some recent findings and challenges ahead , 2007, Hydrobiologia.

[13]  Ton H. Snelder,et al.  MULTISCALE RIVER ENVIRONMENT CLASSIFICATION FOR WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT 1 , 2002 .

[14]  Erik Jeppesen,et al.  Fish manipulation as a lake restoration tool in shallow, eutrophic temperate lakes 1: cross-analysis of three Danish case-studies , 1990 .

[15]  R. Davies‐Colley.  Mixing depths in New Zealand lakes , 1988 .

[16]  Søren E. Larsen,et al.  Does resuspension prevent a shift to a clear state in shallow lakes during reoligotrophication? , 2003 .

[17]  Stefan Sandrock,et al.  Restoration of submerged vegetation in shallow eutrophic lakes – A guideline and state of the art in Germany , 2006 .

[18]  J. Eaton,et al.  Do submerged aquatic plants influence their periphyton to enhance the growth and reproduction of invertebrate mutualists? , 1999, Oecologia.

[19]  J. Clayton,et al.  The impact of invasive submerged weed species on seed banks in lake sediments , 1996 .

[20]  J. Davies,et al.  The invasion of Lake Taupo by the submerged water weed Lagarosiphon major and its impact on the native flora , 1988 .

[21]  Engineering and biological approaches to the restoration from eutrophication of shallow lakes in which aquatic plant communities are important components , 1990 .

[22]  J. Eaton,et al.  The influence of periphyton on boundary layer conditions: a pH microelectrode investigation , 2000 .

[23]  R. McDowall.  New Zealand freshwater fishes: A natural history and guide , 1990 .

[24]  Judit Padisák,et al.  Shallow lakes: the absolute, the relative, the functional and the pragmatic , 2003, Hydrobiologia.

[25]  E. Jeppesen,et al.  Impact of Submerged Macrophytes on Fish-Zooplankton Interactions in Lakes , 1998 .

[26]  D. Rowe,et al.  BIOMANIPULATION OF PLANTS AND FISH TO RESTORE LAKE PARKINSON: A CASE STUDY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS , 1994 .

[27]  S. Hilt,et al.  Can allelopathically active submerged macrophytes stabilise clear-water states in shallow lakes? , 2008 .

[28]  E. Jeppesen,et al.  Fish manipulation as a lake restoration tool in shallow, eutrophic, temperate lakes 2: threshold levels, long-term stability and conclusions , 1990, Hydrobiologia.

[29]  M. Meijer,et al.  Development of fish communities in lakes after biomanipulation , 1995, Netherland Journal of Aquatic Ecology.

[30]  K. Sand‐Jensen,et al.  Microprofiles of oxygen in epiphyte communities on submerged macrophytes , 1985 .

[31]  P. Boon,et al.  Alternative stable states in the aquatic vegetation of shallow urban lakes. II. Catastrophic loss of aquatic plants consequent to nutrient enrichment , 2003 .

[32]  Ellen van Donk,et al.  Can macrophytes be useful in biomanipulation of lakes? The Lake Zwemlust example , 1990, Hydrobiologia.

[33]  David P. Hamilton,et al.  Wave‐induced shear stresses, plant nutrients and chlorophyll in seven shallow lakes , 1997 .

[34]  David P. Hamilton,et al.  An empirical model for sediment resuspension in shallow lakes , 2004, Hydrobiologia.

[35]  S. F. Mitchell,et al.  GRAZING BY BLACK SWANS (CYGNUS ATRATUS LATHAM), PHYSICAL FACTORS, AND THE GROWTH AND LOSS OF AQUATIC VEGETATION IN A SHALLOW LAKE , 1996 .

[36]  A. Reins,et al.  The macrophytes in the Loosdrecht Lakes: a story of their decline in the course of eutrophication , 1984 .

[37]  M. Schallenberg,et al.  Effects of sediment resuspension on phytoplankton production: teasing apart the influences of light, nutrients and algal entrainment , 2004 .

[38]  P. Chow-Fraser,et al.  Primary determinants of macrophyte community structure in 62 marshes across the Great Lakes basin: latitude, land use, and water quality effects , 2001 .

[39]  B. Hicks,et al.  Consumption of submerged aquatic macrophytes by rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus L.) in New Zealand , 2002, Hydrobiologia.

[40]  L. Hansson,et al.  Shifts between clear and turbid states in a shallow lake: multi-causal stress from climate, nutrients and biotic interactions , 2004 .

[41]  Stephen R. Carpenter,et al.  EUTROPHICATION DUE TO PHOSPHORUS RECYCLING IN RELATION TO LAKE MORPHOMETRY, TEMPERATURE, AND MACROPHYTES , 2005 .

[42]  L. J. Jackson.  Macrophyte-Dominated and Turbid States of Shallow Lakes: Evidence from Alberta Lakes , 2003, Ecosystems.

[43]  I. Blindow,et al.  Long- and short-term dynamics of submerged macrophytes in two shallow eutrophk lakes , 1992 .

[44]  M. Scheffer.  Ecology of Shallow Lakes , 1997, Population and Community Biology Series.

[45]  J. Kalff,et al.  Water Flow and Clay Retention in Submerged Macrophyte Beds , 1992 .

[46]  Marten Scheffer,et al.  THE ROLE OF CHARACEAN ALGAE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF EUTROPHIC SHALLOW LAKES , 1998 .

[47]  M. Scheffer,et al.  Alternative equilibria in shallow lakes. , 1993, Trends in ecology & evolution.