RUI: Assessing Change in Aquatic Resources Using a Historical Data Base: Effects of Land Use on Lakewater Chemistry and Plankton Biodiversity

这项研究的重点是利用历史信息来检查和记录30个湖泊的土地利用与湖泊水化学特征和浮游植物生物多样性之间的关系。将为30个水体中的每个水体收集三组历史信息。第一组数据将包括对每个湖泊1934年、1970年、1990年以及欧洲之前定居的硅藻浮游植物区系的详细分析。植物群将利用来自铅210年代沉积物岩心的微化石遗骸来确定。第二组数据将由同一时期的湖水化学分析组成，这些分析是根据实际化学记录和/或从古湖泊推断模型推断出来的。第三组数据将包括1934年、1970年和1990年每个周围分水岭的土地使用确定，这些数据来自高分辨率航空照片、历史地图和其他存档的土地使用记录。这三组数据将被用来将每个湖泊的化学和生物状态的变化与三个时期的土地利用测量变化相关联，这三个时期是欧洲人到达20世纪30年代、30年代到70年代和70年代到90年代。人类活动对水生生态系统造成压力的主要原因之一是由于土地利用的变化导致集水流域径流中的溶质含量增加。尽管如此，人们对不断变化的土地覆盖模式对水体接收的影响知之甚少。详细的历史记录，加上从沉积物记录中提取数据的能力，为分析土地利用对水生生态系统的影响提供了难得的机会。从根本上理解一种土地利用类型的变化如何改变附近的水体，将为湖泊管理提供强有力的工具。如本研究概述的那样，历史记录的整合可以作为其他地理区域类似项目的模式。

The focus of this study is to utilize historical information in order to examine and document relationships between land use and the character of lakewater chemistry and phytoplankton biodiversity in a suite of 30 lakes. Three sets of historical information will be assembled for each of the 30 waterbodies. The first set of data will consist of a detailed analysis of the siliceous algal phytoplankton flora for each lake for 1934, 1970, 1990, and for pre-European settlement. The floras will be determined using microfossil remains from lead-210 dated sediment cores. The second set of data will consist of lakewater chemical analyses from the same time periods assembled from actual chemical records and/or inferred from paleolimnological inference models. The third set of data will consist of land use determinations for each surrounding watershed for 1934, 1970 and 1990, derived from high resolution aerial photographs, historical maps and other archived land use records. The three sets of data will be used to correlate changes in the chemical and biological status of each lake with measured alterations in land use for three time periods, the arrival of Europeans to the 1930s, the 1930s to 1970s, and the 1970s to 1990s. %%% One of the primary causes of anthropogenic stress on aquatic ecosystems is the increase in solute content of runoff from catchment basins caused by a change in land use. Despite this fact, the impacts that changing land cover patterns have on receiving waterbodies are poorly understood. The availability of detailed historical records coupled with the ability to extract data from the sediment record offers a rare opportunity to analyze the effects of land use on aquatic ecosystems. A fundamental understanding of how changes from one type of land use to another could alter a nearby waterbody would provide a powerful tool for lake management. The integration of historical records, as outlined in this study, could serve as a model for similar projects in other geographic regions.