BA (Durham), PhD (University College London)
Professor of Physical Geography
email: N.J.Anderson@lboro.ac.uk
Tel : +44 (0)1509 228194
Fax: +44 (0)1509 223930
Room NN.1.16, Martin Hall building, East Park
Career
2004– Professor of Physical Geography, Loughborough University
2003 Senior Research Scientist, Geological Survey of Denmark & Greenland
1999–2002 Professor of Global Change, Dept.of Geography, University of Copenhagen
1995–1999 Research Professor, Geological Survey of Denmark & Greenland
1990–1995 Senior Research Scientist, Danish Geological Survey, Geobotany Division
1988–1990 Research Associate, Umeå University, Dept. of Ecological Botany
1987–1988 Royal Society European Science Exchange Fellowship, Umeå University
1984–1986 Research assistant: Dept. of Geography, University College London
Research Interests
I use lake sediment records (palaeolimnology) to understand how both natural (catchment disturbance and succession) and anthropogenic (nutrient enrichment, acidification, metal pollution) processes have impacted lake functioning and biological structure over a range of timescales. My own particular speciality is in the use of diatoms but I have used a variety of techniques (mineral magnetism, geochemistry, stable isotopes and multi-proxy approaches) to consider lake response to environmental stressors in both temperate and arctic environments. More recently I have become interested in the thermal structure of lakes and how this influences their functioning at a range of timescales. Some of my main projects (and associated publications) are summarized below.
Anderson, N.J., Dearing, J.A., Bugmann, H. & Gaillard, M.-J. (2006) Linking models and palaeoenvironmental data to understand the past and to predict the future. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 21: 696–704
Anderson, N.J. (1993). Natural versus anthropogenic change in lakes: the role of the sediment record. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 8: 356-361
Anderson, N.J. (1995).Using the past to predict the future: lake sediments and the modelling of limnological disturbance. Ecological Modelling, 78: 149-172
Anderson, N.J. & R.W. Battarbee, (1994) Aquatic community persistence and variability: a palaeolimnological perspective. In Giller, P.S., A.G. Hildrew & D. Raffeli (Eds.) Aquatic Ecology: Scale, Pattern and Process; Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford; pp. 233-259
Temporal and spatial scaling in palaeolimnology
Lake ecosystems exhibit considerable temporal hetereogeneity, from daily and annual changes associated with seasonal changes in heat and energy budgets, through to long-term changes associated with catchment vegetation changes. I am interested in how the temporal resolution of the sediment record and temporal scaling issues affect our interpretation of the biological remains in sediments, particularly in terms of what we infer to be the main drivers of ecological change. Similarly, sediment accumulation in lake basins is not uniform in either space or time, a factor that can limit severely the quantitative interpretation of the sediment record and is often ignored by palaeolimnologists. The complexity of sediment accumulation can be addressed by multiple coring, a time consuming approach but one that permits more ecologically meaningful interpretations of biological remains (for example, contributions of the littoral zone to whole-lake productivity) and quantitative estimates of nutrient/element budgets. Finally, as palaeolimnology is an historical science, formal hypothesis testing is problematical and the subject is plagued by subjectivity. I am interested in the theoretical basis of the subject and its future development.
Battarbee, R.W., Anderson, N.J., Jeppesen, E., & Leavitt, P.R. (2005) Combining palaeolimnological and limnological approaches in assessing lake ecosystem response to nutrient reduction. Freshwater Biology 50: 1772-1780
Anderson, N.J. (2000) Diatoms, lakes and climatic change. European Journal of Phycology 35: 307-314
Anderson, N.J. (1998) Variability of diatom-inferred phosphorus profiles in a small lake basin and its implications for histories of lake eutrophication. Journal of Paleolimnology, 20: 47-55
Anderson, N.J. (1990). Variability of diatom concentrations and accumulation rates in sediments of a small lake basin. Limnology & Oceanography 35: 497-508
Anderson, N.J. (1989) A whole-basin diatom accumulation rate for a small lake in Northern Ireland and its palaeoecological implications. Journal of Ecology77: 926-946
Lake-catchment interactions with climate in the low Arctic of SW Greenland
I have worked on in SW Greenland for more than 12 years; my research covers different aspects of regional limnology and palaeolimnology, together with broader issues of climate variability and global change in the Arctic. The Kangerlussuaq area of South west Greenland (Søndre Strømfjord in Danish) contains thousands of lakes and is limnologically diverse, ranging from dilute, oligotrophic systems to evapo-concentrated oligosaline lakes. Initially, I used sediment records from these oligosaline lakes to address long-term variability of effective precipitation but have also instigated a programme of limnological monitoring and hydrological observations of associated lake catchments, including deployment of automatic weather stations.
My work in SW Greenland has been funded extensively by the Danish Natural Science Research Council and earlier the Danish Polar Centre.
Climate and lake ontogeny in SW Greenland
The landscape around Kangerlussuaq (SW Greenland) offers striking visual examples of the impact of climate on lakes and their catchments, there are numerous closed-basin lakes that are surrounded by fossil shoreline. The area has low effective total precipitation (<150 mm/yr) so that many lakes are very sensitive to changes in precipitation over short time periods. Interestingly, freshwater lakes are juxtaposed to oligosaline systems, leading to questions about the controls on landscape and lake development in this area during the Holocene. We have used a variety of techniques (diatom-inferred conductivity, pigments, mineral magnetics, biogenic silica, chironomids, stable isotopes: δ18O, organic and inorganic δ13C) to address long-term changes in regional climate and its impact on lake biological structure.
The work in SW Greenland on climate-lake interactions involves collaboration with a number of international and national partners:
Dr Klaus Brodersen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Professor Sheri Fritz, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA
Dr Yongsong Huang, Brown Univiersity, Providence, USA
Professor Melanie Leng, NERC Isotope Lab, Keyworth, U.K
Dr Suzanne McGowan, University of Nottingham, U.K
Anderson, N.J., Brodersen, K.P., Ryves, D.B., McGowan, S., Sander, L. Jeppesen, E. & Leng, M.J. (2008) Climate versus in-lake processes as controls of community development in an oligotrophic lake in the low-Arctic of West Greenland. Ecosystems in press
McGowan, S., Juhler, R.K. & Anderson, N.J. (2008) Lake ontogeny modifies autotrophic response to climate. Journal of Paleolimnology DOI: 10.1007/s10933-007-9105-2
Pla, S. & Anderson, N.J. (2005) Environmental factors correlated with chrysophyte cyst assemblages in low arctic lakes of southwest Greenland.Journal of Phycology41: 957-974
Anderson, N.J. & Leng, M.J. (2004) Increased aridity during the early Holocene in West Greenland inferred from stable isotopes in laminated-lake sediments.Quaternary Science Reviews 23: 841-849McGowan, S., Ryves, D.B. & Anderson,
N.J. (2003). Holocene records of effective precipitation in West Greenland. The Holocene13: 239-249
Leng, M.J. & Anderson, N.J. (2003). Isotopic variation in modern lake-waters in western Greenland. The Holocene13: 335-342
Brodersen, K. P. & Anderson, N.J. (2002) Distribution of chironomids (Diptera) in low arctic West Greenland lakes: trophic conditions, temperature and environmental reconstruction. Freshwater Biology47: 1137-1157
Ryves, D. B., S. McGowan, & Anderson, N.J. (2002) Development and evaluation of a diatom-conductivity model from lakes in West Greenland.Freshwater Biology47: 995-1014
Atmospheric pollution histories derived from lake sediments
The Arctic was until quite recently considered to be a pristine environment, remote from anthropogenic pollution sources. The analysis of total Pb (and the ratio of the stable isotopes 206/207Pb), Hg and POPs in 210Pb-dated sediment cores in SW Greenland has shown unambiguously that this area, as with elsewhere at high latitudes, has been subject to pollution by long-range air-borne atmospheric pollutants for more than 100 years.
This work has been undertaken with Dr Rich Bindler, Professor Ingemar Renberg and Dr Carola Lindeberg at the University of Umeå, Sweden. More detailed information can be found at their website:
http://www.emg.umu.se/personal/eng/ingemar_renberg.htm
Malmquist, C., Bindler, R., Renberg, I., van Bavel, B., Tysklind, M., Karlsson, E. & Anderson, N.J. (2003). PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), pesticides and brominated flame-retardant in lake sediments from Greenland; a study of temporal trends. Environmental Science & Technology 37: 4319-4324
Lindeberg, C., Bindler, R., Renberg, I., Emteryd, O., Karlsson, E., & Anderson, N.J. (2006) Natural fluctuations of mercury and lead in Greenland Lake sediments. Environmental Science & Technology, 40, 90-95
Bindler, R., Renberg, I, Anderson, N.J., Appleby, P.G., Bränvall, M.L, Emteryd, O & Boyle, J. (2001) Pb istope ratios of lake sediments in the Kangerlussuaq region, West Greenland: inference on pollution sources. Atmospheric Environment35: 4675-4685
Bindler, R., Renberg, I., Anderson, N.J. , Appleby, P.G. & Rose, N.L. (2001) Mercury accumulation rates and spatial trends in lake sediments from West Greenland: a coast to ice margin transect. Environmental Science and Technology35: 1736-1741
Limnological variability and carbon cycling in low arctic lakes
The combination of the limnological diversity of the lakes in SW Greenland and the fact that the majority of them have not been studied, prompted me to initiate a limnological sampling programme, which has involved routine measurements such as oxygen temperature profiling during both summer and winter together with the deployment of automatic sequencing sediment traps (to determine carbon fluxes) and monitoring of lake-thermal properties using dataloggers. Most recently I have been studying the nature and source of the very high dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations in these lakes and their implications for their functioning and carbon burial rates.
Anderson, N.J. & Stedmon, C.A. (2007) Regional versus local controls on dissolved organic carbon concentration and quality in low Arctic lakes of SW Greenland. Freshwater Biology 52: 280-289
Kettle, H., Thompson, R., Anderson, N.J. & Livingstone, D.M. (2004) Empirical modeling of summer lake surface temperatures in southwest Greenland.Limnology & Oceanography 49:271-282
Anderson, N.J., Harriman, R., Ryves, D.B. & Patrick, S.T. (2001) Dominant factors controlling variability in the ionic composition of West Greenland lakes.Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research 33: 418-425
Phosphorus dynamics in NW European lakes and catchments: variability in space and time
As a result of land-cover changes over millennia and the intensification of agricultural land-use since 1950, there has been a massive perturbation of biogeochemical phosphorus cycle with corresponding effects on the productivity of lakes and changes in their biological structure. Phosphorus is now back on the environmental agenda because of the development of the P-surplus in modern agriculture. My early work focussed on the use of diatoms for qualitative reconstruction of lake eutrophication, based on species changes and then quantitative reconstructions, using whole-basin estimates of diatom concentration and accumulation rates. Together with Danish colleagues we used a multi-proxy approach to look at the effects of decadal scale variability in nutrient loading and trophic interactions on changing biological structure in shallow Danish lakes, within the framework of multiple stable states. More recently, I have returned to lake sediment records of eutrophication because of their implications for carbon burial in agricultural landscapes.
Bradshaw, E.G. & Anderson, N.J. (2001) Validation of a diatom-phosphorus calibration set for Sweden Freshwater Biology 46: 1035-1048
Anderson, N.J. (1997) Historical changes in epilimnetic phosphorus concentrations in six rural lakes in Northern Ireland. Freshwater Biology 38:427-440
Anderson, N.J. (1997) Reconstructing historical phosphorus concentrations in rural lakes using diatom models.In Tunney, H., Carton, O.T., Brookes, P.C. & Johnston, A.E. (eds) Phosphorus loss from soil to water. Proceedings of an international workshop. CAB International. pp. 95-118
Bennion, H., Juggins, S. & Anderson, N. J. (1996) Predicting epilimnetic phosphorus concentrations using an improved diatom-based transfer function, and its application to lake eutrophication management.Environmental Science & Technology 30: 2004-2007
Anderson, N.J., Rippey, B. &Gibson. C.E. (1993). A comparison of sedimentary and diatom-inferred phosphorus profiles: implications for lake defining pre-disturbance nutrient conditions. Hydrobiologia 253: 357-366
Diatom ecology – implications for understanding phosphorus dynamics in lakes
Following work on lake acidification and the development of Weighted Averaging (WA) approaches for reconstructing pH from diatoms, I used a similar approach to estimate lake-water phosphorus concentrations from diatoms preserved in lake sediments for lakes in Northern Ireland and Denmark. This work has had considerable applied relevance and the technique is now widely used by a range of environmental agencies. More recently, however, I have become interested in the ecological limitations to this approach. For example, Emily Bradshaw and I examined some of the possible constraints on the use of diatoms and the WA approach to reconstructing nutrient dynamics in Danish lakes, for example, issues associated with P co-varying with other limiting nutrients (nitrogen, alkalinity) and response of an individual species to a range of environmental variables. Dr Brian Rippey (University of Ulster) and I combined estimates of diatom-inferred total phosphorus, geochemical mass balances with long-term climate data to estimate past P-loading on lakes, an approach which takes into account varying P-burial efficiency associated with hypolimnetic anoxia and internal recycling.
Gibson, C.E., Anderson, N.J. & Haworth E.Y. (2003). Aulacoseira subarctica (O. Müller) Haworth: taxonomy, physiology, ecology and palaeoecology. European Journal of Phycology 38: 83-101
Bradshaw, E. G. & Anderson, N.J. (2003) Environmental control ofCyclostephanos dubius (Bacillariophyceae) abundance in Danish lakes, from seasonal to century scale. European Journal of Phycology, 38: 265-276
Bradshaw, E.G., Anderson, N.J., Jensen, J.P. & Jeppesen, E. (2002) Phosphorus dynamics in Danish lakes and the implications for diatom ecology and palaeoecology. Freshwater Biology 47 1963-1975
Jordan, P., Rippey, B. & Anderson, N.J. (2002) The 20th century whole-basin trophic history of an inter-drumlin lake in an agricultural catchment. The Science of the Total Environment 297: 161-173
Anderson, N.J., Blomqvist, P. & Renberg, I. (1997). An experimental and palaeoecological study of algal responses to lake acidificaton and liming in three lakes in central Swedish lakes. European Journal of Phycology 32: 35-48
Rippey, B. & Anderson, N.J. (1996). The reconstruction of lake phosphorus loading and dynamics using the sedimentary record. Environmental Science & Technology 30: 1786-1788
Renberg, I, T. Korsman & N.J. Anderson (1993). A temporal perspective of lake acidification in Sweden. Ambio 22: 264-271
Anderson, N.J. & Renberg, I. (1992). A palaeolimnological assessment of diatom production responses to lake acidification. Environmental Pollution 78: 113-119
The development of early agriculture and its impact on lakes
My interest in long-term changes in lake ecosystems resulted in my addressing the role of natural land cover changes (e.g. Spruce immigration) and forest clearance for early agriculture in northern Sweden. These interests formed the basis of the research programme for Emily Bradshaw, who studied the effects of initial forest clearances on Danish lakes and applied phosphorus inference models to estimate long-term trends in lakewater phosphorus concentrations. Since then, I have been involved with Peter Rasmussen at the Geological Survey of Denmark & Greenland (GEUS) on long-term dynamics of macrophytes in shallow Danish lakes as well as their role as archives of millennial scale erosion and sediment yield in cultural landscapes.
Bradshaw E G., Nielsen, A.B. & Anderson, N.J. (2006). Using diatoms to assess the impacts of prehistoric, pre-industrial and modern land-use on Danish lakes. Regional Environmental Change 6: 17-24
Rasmussen, P. & Anderson, N.J. (2005) Natural and anthropogenic forcing of aquatic macrophyte development in a shallow Danish lake during the last 7000 years. Journal of Biogeography 32: 1993-2005
Anderson, N.J. (1995) Naturally eutrophic lakes: reality, myth or myopia.Trends in Ecology & Evolution 10: 137-138
Anderson, N.J., Renberg, I. & Segerström, U. (1995). Diatom and lake productivity responses to agricultural development in a Northern Swedish, boreal-forest catchment Journal of Ecology 83: 809-822
Korsman, T., Renberg, I. & Anderson, N.J. (1994). A palaeolimnological test of the influence of Norway Spruce (Picea abies) immigration on lake water acidity.The Holocene 4: 132-140
Climate-lake interactions in cultural landscapes
Lake sediment records are now widely used for reconstructing past climate change, largely because of the paucity of long-term climate records. This approach, while partially valid for remote areas and lakes that have not undergone major cultural disturbance, tends to ignore the complexities of biotic interactions in lakes as well as the effect of catchment soil and vegetation changes (partly driven by climate) on surface water chemistry. I have tried to focus on the effects of climate variability on lake biological structure at a variety of timescales as well as addressing the considerable problem of disentangling the effects of climatic variability from long-term cultural disturbance (acidification, eutrophication) on lakes. Both these approaches require an independent measure of climate variability, which can be difficult to obtain; together with the group at Umeå University (http://www.emg.umu.se/personal/eng/ingemar_renberg.htm), I have used tree-ring inferred air temperatures to compare with the sediment record. Where we have used independent-climate time series in conjunction with a multi-proxy approach, it is clear that climate per se explains only a small percentage of the variance in long-term changes in biological structure.
Bradshaw, E.G., Rasmussen, P., Nielsen, H., & Anderson, N.J. (2005) Mid- to late-Holocene land-use change and lake development at Dallund So, Denmark: trends in lake primary production as reflected by algal and macrophyte remains. Holocene, 15: 1130-1142.
McGowan, S., Leavitt, P.R., Hall, R.I., Anderson, N.J., Jeppesen, E., & Odgaard, B.V. (2005) Controls of algal abundance and community composition during ecosystem state change. Ecology 86: 2200-2211.
Anderson, N.J., Odgaard, B.V. Segerström, U. & Renberg, I. (1996) Separating the relative effects of climate and eutrophication on the diatom assemblages in a boreal forest lake (Kassjön, Northern Sweden). Global Change Biology 2: 399-405
Separating the effects of land-use changes from climate change during the late 20th-century
While temperature effects can have considerable impact on lake functioning, mainly through altered thermal structure (and can be important for arctic and alpine systems), for many temperate lakes, hydrological forcing (through varying precipitation and catchment runoff) and its impact on nutrient loading is probably more important. Moreover, while future climate change will affect aquatic ecosystem functioning, climate itself will interact with land-use changes, creating synergistic effects that might be difficult to predict. One can address this problem using climate-ecosystem models, but alternatively, detailed documentary evidence for land-use changes during the late 20th century can be combined with long-term climate monitoring data and lake sediment records to study these interactions historically. Together with Drs Bob Foy (AFBINI) and Brian Rippey (University of Ulster), I am using such an approach to address the impact of changing precipitation on a small eutrophic lake in Northern Ireland. This work is the basis of my contribution to the EU-funded eurolimpacs project.
Rippey B, Anderson, N.J. & Foy, R.H. (1997). Accuracy of diatom-inferred total phosphorus concentrations and the accelerated eutrophication of a lake due to reduced flushing. Canadian Journal of Fisheries & Aquatic Science 54: 2637-2646
Annually-laminated sediments
Following post-doc work with Professor Ingemar Renberg at the University of Umeå, I have been interested in the use of varved, or annually-laminated sediments, to address a wide range of issues within environmental reconstruction, notably spatial variability within a single lake basin and temporal scaling issues: varves are usually confined to deep-water zones within lakes and temporal resolution is spatially variable. We have focussed primarily on two lakes, Kassjön and Nylandssjön, where we have used a range of sampling techniques, from high resolution contiguous sampling of Russian cores to discrete sampling of individual varves in freeze cores to address planktonic diatom dynamics at inter-annual timescales and their relationship to meteorological variability. We have also used varves to look at inter-annual records of sediment yield in Kassjön, a boreal forest lake, just outside Umeå.
http://www.emg.umu.se/personal/eng/ingemar_renberg.htm
Anderson, N.J., Renberg, I. & Segerström, U. (1995). Diatom and lake productivity responses to agricultural development in a Northern Swedish, boreal-forest catchment Journal of Ecology 83: 809-822
Anderson, N.J. (1995) Temporal scale, phytoplankton succession and palaeolimnology. Freshwater Biology, 34: 367-378
Anderson, N.J., Renberg, I. & Korsman, T. (1994). Heterogeneity of diatom stratigraphy in varved lake sediments of a boreal forest lake (Kassjön, Northern Sweden). Aquatic Science 56: 40-58
Impact of afforestation on forest lakes in NW Ireland
The ability of lake sediments to extend the timescale of monitoring and provide information about past ecological status in lakes, means they are often used in an applied context; I have been involved in projects on lake acidification in Scotland and Sweden and eutrophication histories in Ireland and Denmark. Much of this work has been funded by national and local government agencies and has an important role in lake restoration and conservation.
Land cover change can be an important driver of ecological change in lakes, both in the past (with land clearance for agriculture) but also in the future. For many upland areas within the U.K. agriculture has been marginalized with the result that alternative land-use options have been considered and/or instigated. One of the most obvious and visual changes in upland landscapes is that of afforestation. Agroforestry has important implications for terrestrial biodiversity but also can have severe impacts on aquatic ecosystems. For example, due to the methods of land preparation employed, i.e. ploughing and fertilization prior to planting, there can be considerable loss of nutrients and increased sediment yield associated with commercial forestry. As there are few records of lake status prior to planting to ascertain its effects, we are using a combination of palaeolimnological methods (diatom analyses, near infrared spectroscopy) and limnological surveys to determine the effects of afforestation on small, upland lakes in the north-west of Ireland, mainly in the Lough Erne catchment.
This work is funded by the Environment & Heritage Service (NI) through the interreg programme.
Estuarine dynamics
Nutrient and sediment loads to the coastal zone are increasing dramatically as a result of land-cover changes and agricultural intensification. Although for many years considered immune to external disturbance, major changes are now being observed in the biological structure of estuaries and shallow marine embayments, notably increased phytoplankton abundance, in particular, toxic dinoflagellates. Despite the higher levels of energy inputs to coastal waters, which result in resuspension and sediment mixing, it is possible to use sediment cores to reconstruct past changes and extend the period of observation of ecological change in estuaries as has been for lakes. Following my suggestion in 1994 that a similar approach to that used for lakes could be applied to the reconstruction of the eutrophication history of the coastal zone, I have been involved in the development of diatom-nutrient transfer functions for the shallow coastal waters in NW Europe, and their application.
This work was funded by the European Union project MOLTEN.
Ellegaard, M., Clarke, A. L., Reuss, N., Drew, S., Weckström, K., Anderson, N. J., & Conley, D. J. (2006) Long-term changes in plankton community structure and geochemistry in Mariager Fjord, Denmark, linked to increased nutrient loading. Estuarine & Coastal Shelf Science 68: 567-578
Clarke, A. L., Weckström, K., Conley, D. J., Anderson, N. J., Adser, F., Andrén, E., de Jonge, V. N., Ellegaard, M., Juggins, S., Kauppila, P., Korhola, A., Reuss, N., Telford, R. J., Vaalgamaa, S. (2006) Long-term trends in eutrophication and nutrients in the coastal zone. Limnology & Oceanography 51: 385-397
Anderson, N.J. & Vos, P. (1992). Learning from the past: diatoms as palaeoecological indicators of natural and anthropogenic change in marine environments. Netherlands Journal of Aquatic Science 26: 19-30
Editorial Work
I am on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Paleolimnology (link) and am Associate Editor (microalgal ecology) for the European Journal of Phycology(link)
Teaching
Undergraduate
Applied Physical Geography
Environmental Systems and Resource Management
Limnology
Environmental Change and Ecological Response
Postgraduate
Limnology
