Rock Glacier Outflows May Adversely Affect Lakes: Lessons from the Past and Present of Two Neighboring Water Bodies in a Crystalline-Rock Watershed

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• 作者：Boris P. Ilyashuk ; Elena A. Ilyashuk ; Roland Psenner ; Richard Tessadri ; Karin A. Koinig
• 刊名：Environmental Science & Technology
• 出版年：2014
• 出版时间：June 3, 2014
• 年：2014
• 卷：48
• 期：11
• 页码：6192-6200
• 全文大小：476K
• 年卷期：v.48,no.11(June 3, 2014)
• ISSN：1520-5851

文摘

Despite the fact that rock glaciers are one of the most common geomorphological expressions of mountain permafrost, the impacts of their solute fluxes on lakes still remain largely obscure. We examined water and sediment chemistry, and biota of two neighboring water bodies with and without a rock glacier in their catchments in the European Alps. Paleolimnological techniques were applied to track long-term temporal trends in the ecotoxicological state of the water bodies and to establish their baseline conditions. We show that the active rock glacier in the mineralized catchment of Lake Rasass (RAS) represents a potent source of acid rock drainage that results in enormous concentrations of metals in water, sediment, and biota of RAS. The incidence of morphological abnormalities in the RAS population of Pseudodiamesa nivosa, a chironomid midge, is as high as that recorded in chironomid populations inhabiting sites heavily contaminated by trace metals of anthropogenic origin. The incidence of morphological deformities in P. nivosa of 70% persisted in RAS during the last 2.5 millennia and was 40% in the early Holocene. The formation of RAS at the toe of the rock glacier most probably began at the onset of acidic drainage in the freshly deglaciated area. The present adverse conditions are not unprecedented in the lake鈥檚 history and cannot be associated exclusively with enhanced thawing of the rock glacier in recent years.