AN INVESTIGATION OF FINGER LAKE (CONESUS, CANADICE, AND HONEOYE) LIVE-DEAD COMMUNITIES IN WESTERN NEW YORK

The geological record yields valuable data on past environmental and ecological changes that can be used as tools for conservation such as biodiversity assessment; identification of invasive species; distinguishing past, pre-stressed ecosystem states; and monitoring the progress of restoration/remediation. Comparisons of past generations of organisms and community states identified as locally accumulating death assemblages to present living communities can provide insight to understanding the state of aqueous environments. An examination on the degree of agreement between living communities and associated organic remains have become increasingly important tools to identify lake ecosystems impacted by humans.

This study sets out to test the live/dead agreement of the soft and mineralized invertebrate fauna across three finger lakes: Conesus, Canadice, and Honeoye in western New York. These three lakes were selected because of their distinctive stages of anthropogenic influence, remediation and trophic state. To evaluate the biodiversity and preservational biases, dredging of live and death assemblages was conducted in the northern and southern regions of all three lakes. Transects were taken perpendicular to the coast at 10 meter intervals, resulting in 24 bulk sediment samples representing different micro-habitats, water chemistries, and sedimentology. Various phyla (soft and mineralized) were collected and identified to the lowest taxonomic level possible.

Preliminary results indicate that the living communities of all three lakes have variable diversity within and across each lake basin. Overall, Conesus lake has a distinct community structure from Honeoye and Canadice. The southern basin of Conesus and Canadice have the highest community richness whereas the northern basins of all three lakes show lower richness and dominance in the live assemblages. Honeoye lake demonstrated the most distressed living community with the lowest evenness and richness. Initial fidelity analysis of Conesus lake live-dead assemblages indicate that the taxonomic composition of both northern and southern basins is significantly different showing poor agreement between the living and dead community based on dissimilar taxonomic composition.