Salinization, warming, and loss of water clarity inhibit vertical mixing of small urban ponds
Date
2024-04
Authors
Jackson, Donald A.
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Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography
Abstract
Urbanization drives multiple environmental changes that influence critical ecosystem processes. Factors such as salinization by deicing road salts, reduced water clarity (and greater light attenuation) from eutrophication and sediment loading, and warming constrain not only the biodiversity of ponds, but also their physical mixing (with consequences for oxygen availability and the provision of ecosystem services). Leveraging an extensive urban gradient in the Greater Toronto Area, we collected summertime depth profiles from 50 stormwater retention ponds to investigate their vertical stratification. We found that water columns were generally stratified but contrary to expectations, we found relatively minor roles of basin area and depth. Instead, we discovered an overwhelming effect of salinity along with significant impacts of temperature and water clarity on water density gradients. Findings extend our fundamental understanding of mixing regimes in small, shallow waterbodies and indicate increasing risks to pond functioning in a warmer and saltier future.
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This article is published as Loewen, Charlie JG, and Donald A. Jackson. "Salinization, warming, and loss of water clarity inhibit vertical mixing of small urban ponds." Limnology and Oceanography Letters 9, no. 2 (2024): 155-164. doi:10.1002/lol2.10367. © 2023 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.