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The structuring role of fish in Greenland lakes: an overview based on contemporary and paleoecological studies of 87 lakes from the low and the high Arctic

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Erik Jeppesen at Aarhus University
Erik Jeppesen
Torben L. Lauridsen at Aarhus University
Torben L. Lauridsen
Kirsten Seestern Christoffersen at University of Copenhagen
Kirsten Seestern Christoffersen
Frank Landkildehus at Aarhus University
Frank Landkildehus
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Abstract and Figures

Lakes in Greenland are species-poor ecosystems and many are fishless. We studied the structuring role of fish in lakes in high- and low-Arctic Greenland. Major differences were observed in the trophic structure of the 87 lakes studied. Pelagic zooplankton biomass was on average 3–4-fold higher in the fishless lakes and dominated by large-bodied taxa such as Daphnia, the phyllopod Branchinecta and the tadpole shrimp Lepidurus. In contrast, small-bodied crustaceans dominated the lakes with fish. Analysis of microcrustacean remains in the surface sediment and contemporary benthic invertebrates also showed a marked influence of fish on community structure and the size of the taxa present. The cascading effect of fish on the microbial communities was modest, and no differences were observed for chlorophyll a. The cascading effect of fish on invertebrates depended, however, on the species present, being largest between fishless lakes and lakes hosting only sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus), while lakes with both Arctic charr (Salvelinus arcticus) and stickleback revealed a more modest response, indicating that presence of charr modulates the predation effect of sticklebacks. It is predicted that more lakes in Greenland will be colonised by fish in a future warmer climate, and this will substantially alter these vulnerable ecosystems.
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TRENDS IN AQUATIC ECOLOGY II
The structuring role of fish in Greenland lakes: an overview
based on contemporary and paleoecological studies of 87
lakes from the low and the high Arctic
Erik Jeppesen .Torben L. Lauridsen .Kirsten S. Christoffersen .
Frank Landkildehus .Peter Geertz-Hansen .Susanne Lildal Amsinck .
Martin Søndergaard .Thomas A. Davidson .Frank Rige
´t
Received: 26 April 2017 / Revised: 19 June 2017 / Accepted: 21 June 2017 / Published online: 19 July 2017
ÓSpringer International Publishing AG 2017
Abstract Lakes in Greenland are species-poor
ecosystems and many are fishless. We studied the
structuring role of fish in lakes in high- and low-Arctic
Greenland. Major differences were observed in the
trophic structure of the 87 lakes studied. Pelagic
zooplankton biomass was on average 3–4-fold higher
in the fishless lakes and dominated by large-bodied
taxa such as Daphnia, the phyllopod Branchinecta and
the tadpole shrimp Lepidurus. In contrast, small-
bodied crustaceans dominated the lakes with fish.
Analysis of microcrustacean remains in the surface
sediment and contemporary benthic invertebrates also
showed a marked influence of fish on community
structure and the size of the taxa present. The
cascading effect of fish on the microbial communities
was modest, and no differences were observed for
chlorophyll a. The cascading effect of fish on inver-
tebrates depended, however, on the species present,
being largest between fishless lakes and lakes hosting
only sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus), while
lakes with both Arctic charr (Salvelinus arcticus)
and stickleback revealed a more modest response,
indicating that presence of charr modulates the
predation effect of sticklebacks. It is predicted that
more lakes in Greenland will be colonised by fish in a
future warmer climate, and this will substantially alter
these vulnerable ecosystems.
Guest editors: Koen Martens, Sidinei M. Thomaz,
Diego Fontaneto & Luigi Naselli-Flores / Emerging
Trends in Aquatic Ecology II
E. Jeppesen (&)T. L. Lauridsen F. Landkildehus
S. L. Amsinck M. Søndergaard T. A. Davidson
Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Silkeborg,
Denmark
e-mail: ej@bios.au.dk
E. Jeppesen T. L. Lauridsen
Arctic Research Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus,
Denmark
E. Jeppesen T. L. Lauridsen M. Søndergaard
Sino-Danish Centre for Education and Research, Beijing,
China
K. S. Christoffersen
Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen,
Copenhagen, Denmark
P. Geertz-Hansen
Department of Inland Fisheries, DTU-AQUA, Silkeborg,
Denmark
F. Rige
´t
Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Roskilde,
Denmark
K. S. Christoffersen
Department of Arctic Biology, University Center in
Svalbard, Longyearbyen, Norway
F. Rige
´t
Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, Nuuk,
Greenland
123
Hydrobiologia (2017) 800:99–113
DOI 10.1007/s10750-017-3279-z
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... pressure in stickleback-only-lakes. This is broadly consistent with previous evidence from other natural systems (Jeppesen et al., 2017;Rudman & Schluter, 2016) and experimental contexts (Best et al., 2017;Harmon et al., 2009;Rudman et al., 2015) demonstrating that stickleback can strongly alter pelagic prey communities. For example, Harmon et al. (2009) found that a limnetic stickleback lineage was able to eliminate calanoid copepods (Diaptomus sp.) in mesocosms, whereas these copepods persisted in the presence of more benthic lineages. ...
... The shift in relative abundance along a water chemistry gradient may therefore arise from increasing primary production associated with higher chlorophyll levels, rather than from changes in conductivity. Bosmina often co-occur with fish, likely because they can evade predation more efficiently than other cladocerans due to their small body size (Brooks & Dodson, 1965;Jeppesen et al., 2017). Thus, char-presence may reduce overall planktivory by stickleback and allow Bosmina to establish populations, in the absence of competing cladocera. ...
... Overall, our analyses highlight the role of stickleback in structuring zooplankton communities, and the role of char in altering top-down effects of stickleback (Jeppesen et al., 2017). Given the notable similarity between fishless and char-only-lakes, it is unlikely that char and zooplankton have strong direct interactions in our study system (but see Jeppesen et al., 2001). ...
The role of fish predators and their foraging traits in shaping zooplankton community structure
Article
Full-text available
  • Feb 2024
  • ECOL LETT
Differentiation of foraging traits among predator populations may help explain observed variation in the structure of prey communities. However, few studies have investigated the phenotypic effects of predators on their prey in natural communities. Here, we use a comparative analysis of 78 Greenlandic lakes to examine how foraging trait variation among threespine stickleback populations can help explain variation in zooplankton community composition among lakes. We find that landscape‐scale variation in zooplankton composition was jointly explained by lake properties, such as size and water chemistry, and the presence and absence of both stickleback and arctic char. Additional variation in zooplankton community structure can be explained by stickleback jaw protrusion, a trait with known utility for foraging on zooplankton, but only in lakes where stickleback co‐occur with arctic char. Overall, our results illustrate how trait variation of predators, alongside other ecosystem properties, can influence the composition of prey communities in nature.
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... Freshwaters contain almost half of the world's fish species, yet only a fraction of aquatic habitats [1], and only few of these species occur in Arctic lakes. The trophic structure, habitat selection, and feeding of fish often depends on the nutrient level, lake size, and habitat heterogeneity [2][3][4][5][6], as well as the fish community composition and interactions [2,7,8]. ...
... Whether this shift towards pelagic feeding reflects an increase in pelagic production is an open question. Large-bodied zooplankton have not shown obvious changes in their population dynamics (unpublished data), but this does not mean that pelagic production did not increase, as the predation pressure on zooplankton is generally high in clear, nutrient-poor Greenlandic lakes with the presence of char and three-spined sticklebacks [8]. In Badesø, the analyses revealed no statistical difference in the diets of the large chars over time, as they relied heavily on sticklebacks as their primary food source in all years. ...
... Among the sticklebacks, the small individuals (<2 cm) caught in Badesø in 2008 had significantly lower δ 15 N values than the larger net-caught sticklebacks and a higher δ 13 C than small chars. This may reflect that large sticklebacks prefer copepods with a higher δ 15 N than other zooplankton [8]. It is likely that three-spined sticklebacks also undergo an ontogenetic shift in their lifecycle, as observed in a similar system with nine-spined sticklebacks [29]. ...
The Importance of Habitat and Lake Morphometry for the Summer Diet Choice of Landlocked Arctic Char in Two West Greenland Lakes
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2023
Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) is a top predator and the most widespread fish in Arctic lakes. The presence of Arctic char affects the predator-prey dynamics of the key species in the food webs in these lakes. This study sought to elucidate the effects of habitat (littoral, pelagic, or profundal) and lake morphometry on the trophic position of this char in the food web. Using stomach content and stable isotope analyses, we investigated the effect of fish length, habitat, and time (individual survey years: 2008, 2013, 2018, and 2019) on the dietary niches of landlocked Arctic char populations during summer in two west Greenland lakes: Badesø (area 0.8 km 2 , mean depth 9.2 m) and Langesø (area 0.3 km 2 , mean depth 5.0 m). The small char (<20 cm fork length) in Badesø generally foraged less littoral macroinvertebrates than those from Langesø. The large chars were mainly piscivorous in both lakes. In Badesø, there was a shift from relying on littoral to pelagic invertebrates by the small char from 2008-2013 to 2018-2019. The proportionally larger size of the littoral habitat in the smaller Langesø led to an increased reliance on littoral-derived macroinvertebrates in the diet of the small char, more so than in the larger Badesø, where the predominant reliance was on pelagic sources.
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... As research on impacts of stocked trout has expanded to systems other than highly vulnerable alpine and oligotrophic lakes, other factors have emerged that may affect the impacts of stocking (Schank et al. 2011). For example, native small-bodied fishes can alter the taxonomic richness, abundance, biomass, and average size of invertebrates (Jeppesen et al. 2017;Laske et al. 2017), and stocked trout in naturally fishless lakes can have stronger effects on invertebrate prey than those in similar lakes with native fishes (Schilling et al. 2009a). This suggests that native fishes may also buffer prey populations against the impacts of trout (Nasmith et al. 2012;Hanisch et al. 2013). ...
... A likely explanation for the weaker effects of fish versus macrophytes in our experiment is that the invertebrate assemblages in Dog Leg Lake had already been influenced by native fishes. Small-bodied fishes can be effective predators of invertebrates (Hornung & Foote 2006;McParland & Paszkowski 2006;Laske et al. 2017;Jeppesen et al. 2017), resulting in pronounced differences in invertebrate assemblages between naturally fishless and fishbearing lakes (Rennie & Jackson 2005;Schilling et al. 2009b;Holmes et al. 2017). Invertebrates in fishless lakes can also show relatively higher use of littoral refuge in the presence of fish compared to naturally fishless conditions in neighboring lakes (Rennie & Jackson 2005). ...
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... In Greenland, which is part of North America but also neighbours the Eurasian Arctic, sticklebacks have expanded their range northwards in the eastern part of the island. They were detected from 1998 to 2010 in the Zackenberg River and several adjacent lakes, about 2.5° north of their previously known northern range limit (Nielsen, Hamerlik, and Christoffersen 2012;Jeppesen et al. 2017). Sticklebacks have also been released into several lakes in Greenland for research purposes (B. ...
Widespread Evidence for Rapid Recent Changes in Global Range and Abundance of Threespine Stickleback ( Gasterosteus aculeatus )
Article
  • Oct 2024
The threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus , has undergone dramatic increases in abundance in parts of its historical native range, and it is also undergoing a major range expansion. We review available information and discuss the vectors and sources of the species' range expansions, the genetic characteristics of recently founded populations and the ecological consequences of both stickleback introductions and increases in abundance. Dramatic range expansions occurred in the Caspian Sea drainage, large rivers in the Black Sea drainage, reservoirs of the Rhine basin, isolated lakes in North America and Japan and remote islands in the Arctic. Likely reasons for these range expansions include canal construction, accidental inclusion with stocking of commercially valuable fish, intentional release by aquarists and fishermen and climate change. In some cases, range expansions of stickleback were likely facilitated by genetic admixture of previously separated lineages, as well as by high‐standing genetic variation that promotes rapid adaptation to new habitats. Accordingly, range expansions are often accompanied by striking increases in abundance, although these are two distinct processes. Notably, population growth within the species' native range, particularly in the White and Baltic Seas, has been observed alongside expansions into new areas. Where stickleback colonise new habitats or increase in abundance, extensive ecological impacts on ecosystems typically occur. Given these massive and widespread changes, the species has the potential to provide considerable insight into the evolutionary and ecological effects of human impacts on aquatic ecosystems.
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... The lakes were sampled using the snapshot sampling protocol (Jeppesen et al., 2017). As it was not logistically possible to use a boat during the surveys, the surveyor sampled the lake surface water (0-0.5 m) on the shore (at a depth of approximately 1.5 m) using a sampling bucket, with proper care to not resuspend any lake sediment into the surface water. ...
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Phenotypic divergence associated with genomic changes suggest local adaptation in obligate asexuals
Preprint
Full-text available
  • Aug 2024
Local adaptation is a key evolutionary process that generates global biodiversity and is promoted by environmental heterogeneity. Most of the existing knowledge on adaptive capacity is focused on sexual organisms, while the adaptation potential of asexually reproducing eukaryotes as well as their vulnerability to environmental change remains unclear. Cyclical parthenogens of the keystone freshwater grazer Daphnia are known to be locally adapted with genetic differentiation related to environmental conditions even between neighbouring ponds. Similar patterns have been found in obligate parthenogenetic congeners, however studies on their local adaptation potential are rare. Here, we use respiration rate and whole genome sequencing to test the local adaptation of Arctic asexual polyploid Daphnia from lakes with contrasting oxygen environments. The genomic data revealed the presence of two genetic clusters which differed significantly in respiration rates, suggesting molecular evolution as an adaptive mechanism. Functional enrichment pointed to differences in metabolic processes between the two genetic clusters. Our results, combining phenotypic and whole genome sequencing data, suggest that these clones are locally adapted to low oxygen concentrations and provide support for local adaptation by evolution in an obligate parthenogen.
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Cross‐border dimensions of Arctic climate change impacts and implications for Europe
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The Arctic has warmed almost four times faster than the rest of the globe during the past four decades. This has led to multiple impacts in the Arctic such as the melting of glaciers and the Greenland ice sheet, sea ice retreat, permafrost thaw, altered species distribution and abundance, changes in hydrology and snow conditions, and altered wildfire regimes. These documented and projected impacts in the region can also propagate across borders, creating risks and opportunities requiring adaptation responses well beyond the Arctic. By undertaking a systematic literature review that uses a conceptual framework for cross‐border climate change impacts, we demonstrate how local impacts of the type described above, which are often analyzed separately in the literature, may initiate knock‐on effects that can be transmitted and transformed across borders. We illustrate examples of six categories of cross‐border risks resulting from this impact transmission and potentially requiring adaptation. These concern biophysical impacts, trade, infrastructure, finance, geopolitical relationships and human security and social justice. We examine potential adaptation options for responding to such cross‐border risks that are of relevance for Europe. The systemic approach taken in this paper promotes improved understanding of trade‐offs between potential benefits and risks, assists priority‐setting for targeting adaptation interventions, and can account for the important role of non‐climatic drivers in amplifying or dampening the cross‐border risks of climate change impacts in the Arctic. This article is categorized under: Trans‐Disciplinary Perspectives > Regional Reviews Assessing Impacts of Climate Change > Observed Impacts of Climate Change Assessing Impacts of Climate Change > Evaluating Future Impacts of Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change > Learning from Cases and Analogies
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Long-term phytoplankton dynamics in two High Arctic lakes (north-east Greenland)
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  • Jan 2024
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Primary producers form the base of lake ecosystems and, due to their often short lifecycles, respond rapidly to changing conditions. As the Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the global average, we see major shifts in environmental conditions, which impacts lake ecosystem functioning. Previous studies have found a general increase in primary productivity due to climate warming. However, few long‐term studies have included changes in phytoplankton community composition and biomass in relation to warming in Arctic lakes and it therefore remains unclear how different algal taxa and thus the community respond. We investigated how climate warming affects phytoplankton community composition, taxon richness and biomass in High Arctic lakes, using a unique 23‐year data series on phytoplankton in two shallow lakes at Zackenberg, north‐east Greenland, one with Arctic charr ( Salvelinus alpinus ) and one without fish. We further elucidated the role of physico‐chemical variables and zooplankton grazers in the changes observed. Few major changes were observed in phytoplankton community composition over time, but the year‐to‐year variation was large. Taxon richness did, however, increase throughout the monitoring period, and in both lakes there was a significant increase in diatom biomass coinciding with increasing conductivity. Additionally, phytoplankton biomass was greater during warmer years with earlier ice melt. We further found that nutrient levels were positively associated with the total phytoplankton biomass in both lakes, indicating that expected increased nutrient levels, due to climate change, may lead to a greater phytoplankton biomass in High Arctic lakes in the future. The large year‐to‐year variability, in both climate and environmental conditions, makes it difficult to predict weather patterns and their consequences for lake ecosystems in the Arctic region. This underlines the importance of long‐term monitoring programmes across the circumpolar Arctic and collaboration across regions and institutes within large scale studies.
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Integrating hydrological connectivity and zooplankton composition in Arctic ponds and lakes
Article
Full-text available
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Arctic landscapes are characterised by their numerous ponds and lakes. With increased climate warming and consequent changes in hydrological connectivity, the ecology of many of these waterbodies is expected to change. We sampled 13 ponds and 22 lakes for zooplankton and various limnological and physical environmental variables in the vicinity of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut (69.1169° N, 105.0597° W), with the aim of testing how well the degree of hydrological connectivity explained patterns in species composition and abundance and contributed to crustacean production. Ponds were hydrologically isolated while the lakes were arranged in four lake chains and ranged from the headwaters to highly inter‐connected lakes receiving water from one to 768 upstream lakes. In all sites combined, 77 zooplankton species were found, including 56 rotifers, six copepods, 11 cladocerans, two fairy shrimp species, a mysid, and a tadpole shrimp. We show that the zooplankton communities differed between hydrologically isolated (ponds) and connected (lakes) systems, with 17 species unique to ponds and 20 to lakes. Furthermore, the communities were more similar within lake chains and hence in lakes closer to each other. In ponds, distances between waterbodies had no impact on community similarity. Zooplankton abundance was higher in lakes (255 ind/L) than in ponds (65 ind/L) due to the higher number of rotifers that accounted for nearly 80% of the zooplankton abundance in lakes. In ponds, rotifers, cladocerans, and copepods were equally abundant. In terms of biomass, cladocerans represented 65% of total biomass in all waterbodies except for a chain of deep lakes that had abundant fish communities. In these lakes, cladoceran abundance and biomass were low and probably limited by fish predation. Zooplankton production was higher in ponds (4.6 mgC m ⁻³ day ⁻¹ ) than in lakes (1.7 mgC m ⁻³ day ⁻¹ ), and within lakes was lowest in the chain composed of large lakes (1.3 mgC m ⁻³ day ⁻¹ ). The high production in ponds was closely linked to high zooplankton biomass and further explained by high gross primary production supported by relatively high nutrient concentrations in these shallow systems. Our study emphasises that hydrological connectivity is key to shaping zooplankton communities, although fish presence also appears to affect them. It shows that isolated ponds (that currently account for c 83% of all waterbodies on southern Victoria Island) are hotspots of aquatic biological productivity that probably play an essential role in Arctic freshwater landscapes. Finally, our study provides critical baseline information on the current composition of Arctic zooplankton communities important for estimating climate change impacts.
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Polar limnology.
Article
  • Jan 1984
The inland waters of the polar regions are diverse, including very dilute and very salty lakes, hot springs, deep lakes and shallow ponds, rivers and streams. Throughout, however, ice is very important, and there is both continuous light during a part of summer and continuous darkness during a part of winter. Attention is drawn to the origins of polar lakes and ponds; physical limnology (ice, water temperatures, light, circulation, hydrology); chemical limnology (inorganic ions, nutrients and trace metals, dissolved organic matter, dissolved gases); biological limnology (phytoplankton, benthic algae and macrophytes, zooplankton, fish, benthic animals, bacteria and decomposition, ecosystem analysis); and flowing water limnology. -P.J.Jarvis
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Food-web relationships and community structures in high-latitude lakes
Chapter
  • Sep 2008
Lakes at high latitudes represent a range of biotic complexity imposed by strong abiotic limitations that are differentially ameliorated by biogeographic factors between the northern and southern latitudes. However, the communities in these lakes are simpler than those typically found in more temperate environments and represent a range of declining biocomplexity as conditions approach the limits to life in these extreme environments. This includes the relative importance of keystone predators and higher trophic levels (e.g., fish and birds) as well as the benthic-pelagic coupling in structuring the food webs. This chapter uses examples and case studies to explore food web interactions between microbial and classic food webs, the importance of autochthonous versus allochthonous carbon, and the implications of a changing climate.
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