Effect of human activity on Lake Saroma (Japan) during the past 150 years: Evidence by variation of diatom assemblages

Diatom assemblages of the surface and in core sediment samples from Lake Saroma (Japan) were examined for the purpose of evaluating anthropogenic effect on the coastal environmental changes. Before the first inlet excavation, the lake's water quality and ecology were controlled by water exchange with the Okhotsk Sea as well as lake-level variation. However, large-scale ecological modification occurred, mainly due to artificial excavation and shellfish industrial farms. A distinct record of the succession of the dominant diatom taxa was preserved in core sediments. Low-oxygen water was prevalent in the lake in 1929, before the first inlet excavation. Immediately after the first inlet excavation, the low-oxygen water in the western basin of the lake began to disappear, in a trend that became increasing transparent, which has been attributed to an increasing rate of water exchange. However, the lacustrine environment of bottom sediments resumes deterioration 20 years after since the first artificial excavation: the resultant deposition of river-mouth materials into the deep basin caused eutrophication and environmental disturbance of the lake bottom. At the same time, the eutrophication of surface water became intensified with the onset of intense scallop culturing beginning in 1966. Increasing organic loads deposited onto the bottom layer in the form of excreta from the scallop nursery led to more oxygen deficiency and the elution of nitrogen and phosphorus from the sediment, which again brought about eutrophication of the surface layer. Such environmental change was reflected in a decrease of benthic diatom taxa and an increase of planktonic taxa, trends which have continued until today. Particularly, the numbers of diatom assemblage have been decreasing all over the lake during the last 10 years, which suggests that Lake Saroma's present-day deterioration and eutrophication will continue or become even worse.