Bitušík, Peter, 1957-

From oligotrophy to dystrophy: the ontogeny of a humic lake in an extrazonal boreal taiga in Central Europe / Peter Bitušík, Tímea Chamutiová ... [et al.]. -- While humic lakes are common in northern Europe, in central Europe they are rare and ourunderstanding of their ontogeny is insufficient. Here, we present the reconstruction of the development of a humiclake in the Tatra Mountains (Slovakia) over the last 8000 years using chironomids along with diatoms, pollen andnon‐pollen palynomorphs. The compositional changes in aquatic proxies suggest three developmental stages. Sinceits formation the lake has been oligotrophic (phase 1), and its chemistry was controlled by subsurface waters rich inbase cations buffering the effect of acid humic substances from forest and peat that were already present in thecatchment. The beginning of the transition to phase 2 (~4400 cal a BP ) is marked by simultaneous alterations in allproxies. Climate change combined with the local geochemistry was able to alter the limnological conditionssupporting unique chironomid assemblages that have no analogues in recent Carpathian lakes. At ~3400 cal a BP thelake shifted to a phase when acidophilic/acidotolerant taxa indicate characteristic humic lake conditions (phase 3).Some chironomid taxa appearing ~2000 years ago for the first time indicate a dystrophic state in which the lake hasremained until now. Human activities have been detected in the area since the Aeneolithic but had no directinfluence on the lake.

In Journal of quaternary science. -- New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, 2024. -- ISSN 0267-8179. -- ISSN 1099-1417. -- Vol. 39, no. 3 (2024), pp. 457-472