Adirondack Lakes

Fig. 10-11. The pH scale is a measure of hydrogen ion concentration. The pH of common substances is shown with various values along the scale. The Adirondack Lakes are located in the state of New York and are considered to be receptors of acidic deposition. Source U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Acid Rain—Research Summary," EPA-600/8-79-028, Cincinnati, 1979.

Lorey P, Driscoll CT. 1999. Historical trends of mercury deposition in Adirondack lakes. Environ Sci Technol 33 718-722. 

While an exact number of site clusters has not been proposed, the authors consider from approximately 3 to 10 clusters of sites to be appropriate. These clusters should represent different ecoregions with different ecological characteristics as well as different loadings (both in amount and source) of mercury deposition. Care should be taken to monitor different types of water bodies and watersheds (e.g., seepage lakes, drainage lakes, old reservoirs, rivers, and estuaries). Areas that should be considered as potential cluster site locations include lakes in northern New England/the Adirondacks, lakes in the upper Midwest, rivers and streams in the southeastern coastal plain, lakes in south-central and southeastern Canada, western... 

White, J.R. and C.T. Driscoll. 1985. Lead cycling in an acidic Adirondack lake. Environ. Sci. Technol. 19 1182-1187. 

Brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis, Adirondack lakes (15), <1.0 FW 27... 

Driscoll, C.T., V. Blette, C. Yan, C.L. Schofield, R. Munson, and J. Holsapple. 1995. The role of dissolved organic carbon in the chemistry and bioavailability of mercury in remote Adirondack lakes. Water Air Soil Pollut. 80 499-508. 

Sloan, R. and C.L. Schofield. 1983. Mercury levels in brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) from selected acid and limed Adirondack lakes. Northeast. Environ. Sci. 2 165-170. 

Driscoll et al. (1994) have studied the mercury species relationships among water, sediments, and fish (yellow perch) in a series of Adirondack lakes in New York state, USA. In most lakes, approximately 10% of the total mercury loading was in the form of C2HsHg+. Mercury concentrations increased as pH fell, but the best correlation was found between [dissolved Al] and [dissolved Hg] suggesting that the same factors are responsible for mobilizing both these metals. Methylmercury concentrations correlated strongly with the dissolved organic carbon content in the water. Fish muscle tissue was analyzed for mercury and showed an increase with age. However, the study was unable to resolve the question of whether the principal source of mercury to these lakes was atmospheric deposition or dissolution from bedrock due to acid rains. 

Similar trends were detected in a more limited study conducted by the Adirondack Lakes Survey Commission during the 1990s. The commission found a reduction of 92 percent in sulfate deposition in a selected sample of lakes in the Adirondack Mountains between 1992 and 1999, but an increase of 48 percent in nitrogen deposition in the same lakes. 

Heit M, Schofield C, Driscoll CT, et al. 1989. Trace element concentrations in fish from three Adirondack lakes New York USA with different pH values. Water Air Soil Pollut 44 9-30. 

It has been estimated that 1.4-7.4 times as many streams in the eastern United States undergo episodic acidification than are chronically acidic (108). Similarly, the number of episodically acidic Adirondack lakes is estimated to be 3 times higher than the number of chronically acidic lakes (108). Wigington et al. (109) reported that acidic episodes occur in a wide range of geographic locations in the northeastern, southeastern, and western United States, as well as in Scandinavia, Europe, and Canada. 

Figure 8. Effect of baseline acid-neutralizing capacity (ANC) and episodic conditions in Adirondack lakes, a, Relationship between baseline ANC and the springtime depression in ANC (baseline ANC—minimum ANC) for 11 lakes sampled in 1986 and 1987. b, The relative contributions of base cations (Cb) and nitrate (N03 ) to the springtime ANC depressions in Adirondack lakes. Lakes at intermediate ANC values undergo the largest springtime depressions in ANC. Lakes with lower baseline ANC are affected more by N03 pulses, and lakes with higher baseline ANC are affected more by base-cation dilution. Solid lines represent best-fit relationships. (Redrawn with permission from reference 126. Copyright 1990 American Geophysical Union.)...

Figure 10. Temporal patterns in lake-water N03, acid-neutralizing capacity (ANC), base cations (Ca + + Mg2+ + Na+ + K+), S042, and inorganic monomeric aluminum (Al ) at Constable Pond, a long-term monitoring site in the Adirondack Mountains. Trend lines are shown for variables with significant trends (p < 0.10 in seasonal Kendall tau test). Seasonal pattern is typical of Adirondack lakes, with seasonal minima in ANC coincident with seasonal maxima in NOf and Ah. Many Adirondack lakes exhibited upward trends in N03 in the 1980s the primary increase was in episodic N03 concentrations.

Some evidence does exist that mechanisms other than atmospheric deposition contribute to N03" episodes, at least on a small scale. Rascher et al. (43), for example, showed that mineralization of organic matter in the soil during the winter months and subsequent nitrification contribute substantially to snowmelt N03 concentrations at one site in the Adirondacks. Schaefer and Driscoll (83) suggested that a similar phenomenon contributes to N03 pulses during snowmelt at 11 Adirondack lakes and that the contribution from mineralization is greater in low-ANC and acidic lakes. Murdoch and Stoddard (127) presented similar results for streams in the Catskill Mountains. Stottlemyer and Toczydlowski (184) also reported that mineralization contributes to snowmelt NO3" at a site on the upper peninsula of Michigan. It is not currently known how widespread this phenomenon is. 

Galloway JN, Likens GE. 1979. Atmospheric enhancement of metal deposition in Adirondack lake sediments. Limnology Oceanography 24 427-433. 

Heit M, Klusek CS. 1985. Trace element concentrations in the dorsal muscle of white suckers and brown bullheads from two acidic Adirondack lakes. Water Air Soil Pollut 25 87-96. 

Methe, B. A., W. D. Hiorns, and J. P. Zehr. 1998. Contrasts between marine and freshwater bacterial community composition Analyses of communities in Lake George and six other Adirondack lakes. Limnology and Oceanography 43 368-374. 

Methe, B.A., and J. P. Zehr. 1999. Diversity of bacterial communities in Adirondack lakes Do species assemblages reflect lake water chemistry Hydrobiologia 401 77-96. 

Munson R. K. and Gherini S. A. (1993) Influence of organic acids on the pH and acid-neutralizing capacity of Adirondack lakes. Water Resour. Res. 29, 891-899. 

Figure 12.25 (a) Plot of log 1AP versus pH for 64 samples from a drainage basin affected by acid mine waters from the Leviathan mine, Cali-fornia-Nevada. Points shown as open squares have pH <4.6, plus symbols are those with pH >4.9. The solid lines are theoretical solubilities of amorphous AI(0H)3 and microcrystalline gibbsite. (b) Plot similar to (a) for acid mine drainage from Appalachia (solid circles) and Adirondack lake waters affected by acid precipitation (open circles). From Science 232 54-56, D. K. Nordstrom and J. W. Ball, The geochemical behavior of aluminum in acidified surface waters. Copyright 1986 by Science-AAAS. Used by permission. 

Baker, J. P, W. J. Warren-Hicks, J. Gallagher, and S. W. Christensen. 1993. Fish population losses from Adirondack lakes The role of surface water acidity and acidification. Water Resources Research 29(4) 861-74. 

The loss of game fish is expected to be severe for lakes whose pH has already dropped to 5 or lower. By 1976, about 50% of the lakes in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, USA, had no fish in them, whereas forty years ago almost all these lakes supported a population of sport fish. This observation correlates with comparisons of the alkalinity of Adirondack lakes today vs. sixty years earlier of 274 lakes for which data were available, 80% had suffered loss of alkalinity, the median loss being 50 mol H+/L. The loss of the fish has serious consequences for regions like upstate New York and Northern Ontario, where tourism is a mainstay of the economy. 

P.A. Bukaveckas, M. Robbins-Forbes (2000). Role of dissolved organic carbon in the attenuation of photosynthetically active and ultraviolet radiation in Adirondack lakes. Freshwat. Biol., 43, 339-354. 

Tan, Y.L. and M. Heit. 1981. Biogenic and abiogenic polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in sediments from two remote Adirondack lakes. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 45 2267-2279. 

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