Controls on the contemporary distribution of lake thecamoebians (testate amoebae) within the Greater Toronto Area and their potential as water quality indicators |
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| Authors: | Helen M Roe R Timothy Patterson and Graeme T Swindles |
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| Institution: | (1) School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, UK;(2) Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre and Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6, Canada;(3) Division of Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences (AGES), School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, BD7 1DP, UK |
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| Abstract: | Thecamoebians were examined from 71 surface sediment samples collected from 21 lakes and ponds in the Greater Toronto Area
to (1) elucidate the controls on faunal distribution in modern lake environments; and (2) to consider the utility of thecamoebians
in quantitative studies of water quality change. This area was chosen because it includes a high density of kettle and other
lakes which are threatened by urban development and where water quality has deteriorated locally as a result of contaminant
inputs, particularly nutrients. Fifty-eight samples yielded statistically significant thecamoebian populations. The most diverse
faunas (highest Shannon Diversity Index values) were recorded in lakes beyond the limits of urban development, although the
faunas of all lakes showed signs of sub-optimal conditions. The assemblages were divided into five clusters using Q-mode cluster
analysis, supported by Detrended Correspondence Analysis. Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) was used to examine species-environment
relationships and to explain the observed clusterings. Twenty-four measured environmental variables were considered, including
water property attributes (e.g., pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen), substrate characteristics, sediment-based phosphorus
(Olsen P) and 11 environmentally available metals. The thecamoebian assemblages showed a strong association with phosphorus,
reflecting the eutrophic status of many of the lakes, and locally to elevated conductivity measurements, which appear to reflect
road salt inputs associated with winter de-icing operations. Substrate characteristics, total organic carbon and metal contaminants
(particularly Cu and Mg) also influenced the faunas of some samples. A series of partial CCAs show that of the measured variables,
sedimentary phosphorus has the largest influence on assemblage distribution, explaining 6.98% (P < 0.002) of the total variance. A transfer function was developed for sedimentary phosphorus (Olsen P) using 58 samples from
15 of the studied lakes. The best performing model was based on weighted averaging with inverse deshrinking (WA Inv, rjack2 = 0.33, RMSEP =
102.65 ppm). This model was applied to a small modern thecamoebian dataset from a eutrophic lake in northern Ontario to predict
phosphorus and performed satisfactorily. This preliminary study confirms that thecamoebians have considerable potential as
quantitative water quality indicators in urbanising regions, particularly in areas influenced by nutrient inputs and road
salts. |
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