NETLAKE guidelines for automated monitoring system development. Factsheet 007: Communication options.

The purpose of this fact sheet is to provide some advice on the available methods to communicate with and retrieve data from your automated monitoring system

NETLAKE guidelines for automated monitoring system development. Factsheet 001: options for buoy design.

In this factsheet, we describe some of the options that can be used to house an automatic monitoring station (AMS) on a lake

NETLAKE guidelines for automated monitoring system development. How to deploy a low cost option (Factsheet 003).

In this factsheet, we give an overview of one “low cost” platform system

The palaeolimnology of Lough Murree, a brackish lake in the Burren, Ireland.

Peer-reviewed. This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Biology & Environment: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. To access the final edited and published work see doi: 10.3318/BIOE.2013.23Lough Murree, a rock/karst barrier lagoon, is superficially isolated from the sea and seasonal variations in lake water level reflect precipitation and groundwater variation. Lake salinity is influenced by subsurface saline intrusions, occasional barrier overwash together with precipitation and groundwater inflow, leading to poikilohaline conditions. Palaeolimnological reconstructions in Murree support the supposition that the lagoon was once superficially connected to the sea around the mid-nineteenth century. Physical, chemical and biological proxies suggest an evolution to more freshwater conditions. Uncertainties about the timing of the transition persist because of an unresolved sediment chronology. The isolation of Murree from the Atlantic Ocean has promoted the formation of dense charophyte beds composed of lagoonal specialist species, which are able to tolerate large variations in salinity

Selection and phylogenetics of salmonid MHC class I: wild brown trout (Salmo trutta) differ from a non-native introduced strain

We tested how variation at a gene of adaptive importance, MHC class I (UBA), in a wild, endemic Salmo trutta population compared to that in both a previously studied non-native S. trutta population and a co-habiting Salmo salar population ( a sister species). High allelic diversity is observed and allelic divergence is much higher than that noted previously for cohabiting S. salar. Recombination was found to be important to population-level divergence. The alpha 1 and alpha 2 domains of UBA demonstrate ancient lineages but novel lineages are also identified at both domains in this work. We also find examples of recombination between UBA and the non-classical locus, ULA. Evidence for strong diversifying selection was found at a discrete suite of S. trutta UBA amino acid sites. The pattern was found to contrast with that found in re-analysed UBA data from an artificially stocked S. trutta population

The EC Water Framework Directive and monitoring lakes in the Republic of Ireland

The authors of the article explore and discuss the effects of implementing the EC Water Framework Directive (WFD) in the Republic of Ireland. They also summarise some of the findings from a survey of 31 lakes sampled regularly between March 1996 and December 1997. The lakes were sampled regularly for a range of physico-chemical and biotic variables that probably would be important for monitoring programmes implemented under the WFD. The authors discuss problems of monitoring lake types with varying seasonal patterns

A multi-proxy palaeolimnological study to reconstruct the evolution of a coastal brackish lake (Lough Furnace, Ireland) during the late Holocene

Peer-reviewed. This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Vol 383-384, August 2013, Pages 1-15. To access the final edited and published work see doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.04.016This study examines the evolution of Lough Furnace, a coastal brackish lake in the west of Ireland, using high-resolution sensors in the water column and palaeolimnological examination of the sediment archive. Palaeoenvironmental reconstructions suggest that meromixis formed as a result of sea level rise prior to ca. 4000 cal. yr BP. Increased seawater inflow has progressively led to permanent water stratification, which caused the onset of anoxia, making the monimolimnion a harsh environment for biological life. Diatom floristic interpretations suggest a progressive upcore increase in salinity, which is paralleled by a reduction in cladocera remains. Diagenetic processes have not altered the sediment organic matter signature. Organic matter mainly derives from freshwater DOC and appears to be linked to the presence of peat bogs in the catchment as confirmed by the C/N ratio. Upcore variations in the C/N ratio with a ca. 800-year periodicity have been interpreted as the result of alternating dry and wet climatic phases during the late Holocene, which appear synchronous with the NAO and long-term solar cycles. The current hydrology is largely controlled by freshwater inflow, which determines permanent meromictic conditions. Overturns are rare, requiring a specific combination of factors such as exceptionally dry and warm summers followed by cool autumns. According to the climate projections for the next century in Ireland, permanent meromictic conditions will probably continue

Substantial increase in minimum lake surface temperatures under climate change

The annual minimum of lake surface water temperature influences ecological and biogeochemical processes, but variability and change in this extreme has not been investigated. Here, we analysed observational data from eight European lakes and investigated the changes in annual minimum surface water temperature. We found that, between 1973 and 2014, the annual minimum lake surface temperature has increased at an average rate of +0.35°C decade-1; comparable to the rate of summer average lake surface temperature change during the same period (+0.32°C decade-1). Coherent responses to climatic warming are observed between the increase in annual minimum lake surface temperature and the increase in winter air temperature variations. As a result of the rapid warming of annual minimum lake surface temperatures, some of the studied lakes no longer reach important minimum surface temperature thresholds that occur in winter, with complex and significant potential implications for lakes and the ecosystem services that they provide

Contrasting pelagic plankton in temperate Irish lakes: the relative contribution of heterotrophic, mixotrophic, and autotrophic components, and the effects of extreme rainfall events

The mobilisation of energy from allocthonous carbon by heterotrophic bacterioplankton can be proportionally more important than autotrophic production in humic lakes. Moreover, increasing levels of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in many aquatic systems linked to increases in precipitation, which in turn may be related to changing climate, mean that this heterotrophic component of the food web may play an increasing role in the overall transfer and production of energy, particularly within peatland catchments. While such catchments are common in the temperate northwest Atlantic regions of Europe, studies describing the seasonal dynamics of the heterotrophic, mixotrophic, and autotrophic components of their aquatic food webs are rare. In this study, the biomass of these pelagic components was enumerated over 1 year in 2 oligotrophic lakes, both situated in peatland catchments in the west of Ireland but with contrasting DOC concentrations. Bacterial biomass dominated the pelagic food web of the more humic lake, Lough Feeagh, while autotrophic phytoplankton biomass was greatest in the clearwater lake, Lough Guitane. The biomass of potentially mixotrophic flagellates was also slightly larger in the Lough Guitane, while phagotrophic ciliate biomass was comparable between the 2 lakes. An extreme precipitation event led to a significant increase in bacterial biomass while simultaneously depressing autotrophic production for several months in the humic lake. Extreme precipitation in the clearwater lake also depressed autotrophic production but did not give rise to significant increases in bacterial biomass. This quantification of autotrophic, mixotrophic, and heterotrophic components provides a vital first step in understanding how pelagic communities contribute to net ecosystem productivity, and thus how Irish peatland lakes may be affected by projected climate changes