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Diluting a salty soup: Impact of long-lasting salt pollution on a deep Alpine lake (Traunsee, Austria) and the downside of recent recovery from salinization

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Abstract

Saline emissions can elevate water densities and have the potential to alter stratification and mixing dynamics in lakes. In the light of rising anthropogenic salinization of temperate freshwater lakes, it is highly relevant to understand how saline emissions, as well as the rehabilitation from salt pollution might affect lake circulation patterns. In this study, we present the impact of industrial pollution with chloride salts on the deep Alpine lake Traunsee in Austria from 1930 to 2005 and the observed limnological changes during the recovery from salinization in the following 12 years. We assembled and analysed a unique dataset of monthly sampling profiles covering chloride, conductivity, temperature and dissolved oxygen over a 87-year period. We quantified the impact of saline emissions on the lake’s total chloride content, water densities, stability indices and deepwater oxygen concentrations. Time-series of water density profiles and stability indices revealed a significant impact of salinization on seasonal stratification and mixing. Higher dilution and shallower release of saline wastes and the short water retention in Traunsee helped to prevent a long-lasting density stratification. Nevertheless, two periods of salt-induced meromixis occurred in the lake. The first was caused directly by the disposal of saline wastes into the deepwater in the 1930s and 1940s, whereas the second was induced by the recovery from salinization in recent years. The naturally faster wash-out of salts from shallower water layers reinforced the density gradient and impeded vertical water circulation after salt pollution ceased. The rehabilitation from salinization had a stronger effect on stratification intensity and deepwater oxygen concentration than the continuous salt pollution over the last century.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Solvay Österreich GmbH, Salinen Austria AG and the Landesregierung Oberösterreich for extensive long-term monitoring of Traunsee and data acquisition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Freshwater Ecology, Fisheries Biology and Lake Research, Federal Agency for Water Management, Scharfling 18, 5310, Mondsee, Austria

    Harald Ficker, Martin Luger, Barbara Pamminger-Lahnsteiner, Daniela Achleitner, Albert Jagsch & Hubert Gassner

Authors
  1. Harald Ficker
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  2. Martin Luger
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  3. Barbara Pamminger-Lahnsteiner
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  4. Daniela Achleitner
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  5. Albert Jagsch
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  6. Hubert Gassner
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Harald Ficker.

Appendix

Appendix

Temporal and spatial dimensions of sampling profiles

The temporal and spatial resolution of sampling increased steadily over the first ten years of the monitoring program conducted from 1930 to 2016. The long-term records of water temperature, conductivity and chloride concentration predominantly comprise monthly vertical sampling profiles in at least 17 depth layers between surface and lake bottom from the 1950s onwards.

See Figs. 10, 11, 12 and 13.

Fig. 10
figure 10

a Number of temperature profiles per year and b mean number of individual temperature samples per profile. Error bars indicate varying numbers of samples in the profiles during a year

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Fig. 11
figure 11

a Number of conductivity profiles per year and b mean number of individual conductivity samples per profile. Error bars indicate varying numbers of samples in the profiles during a year

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Fig. 12
figure 12

a Number of chloride profiles per year and b mean number of individual chloride samples per profile. Error bars indicate varying numbers of samples in the profiles during a year

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Fig. 13
figure 13

a Number of oxygen profiles per year and b mean number of individual oxygen samples per profile. Error bars indicate varying numbers of samples in the profiles during a year

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Linear regression of chloride vs. conductivity measurements

See Fig. 14.

Fig. 14
figure 14

Linear relationship between measured chloride concentrations and measured electrical conductivities in Traunsee between June 1930 and December 2016

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Development of daily stability indices of Traunsee between 1930 and 2016

See Fig. 15.

Fig. 15
figure 15

Daily time-series of Schmidt stability indices calculated with temperature data (St) and temperature and conductivity data (Stk) from a June 1930 to December 1959, b January 1960 to December 1989 and c January 1990 to December 2016

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Ficker, H., Luger, M., Pamminger-Lahnsteiner, B. et al. Diluting a salty soup: Impact of long-lasting salt pollution on a deep Alpine lake (Traunsee, Austria) and the downside of recent recovery from salinization. Aquat Sci 81, 7 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-018-0602-3

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