| 1. |
- Mcgoff, Elaine, et al.
(författare)
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Assessing the relationship between the Lake Habitat Survey and littoral macroinvertebrate communities in European lakes
- 2013
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Ingår i: Ecological Indicators. - : Elsevier. - 1470-160X .- 1872-7034. ; 25, s. 205-214
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) has drawn much attention to hydromorphological alterations of surface waters. The Lake Habitat Survey (LHS) protocol provides a method for characterising and assessing the physical habitats of lakes and reservoirs. Two metrics were developed based on this method: the Lake Habitat Modification Score (LHMS) and the Lake Habitat Quality Assessment (LHQA), as measures of lake modification and habitat value, respectively. However, the use of these metrics to predict measures of ecological quality remains largely untested. Thus, we assessed the relationships between LHS metrics and the littoral macroinvertebrate community in 42 lakes across Europe. A significant relationship was found between littoral macrophyte descriptors and riparian natural land cover variables of the LHQA score and macroinvertebrate community composition in 2 out of 4 European regions. No relationship was found between macroinvertebrate community composition and the LHMS. Some significant correlations were found between selected macroinvertebrate metrics and the LHS scores, but this pattern was not consistent across regions, and no relationship was found with the overall LHMS or LHQA scores. This demonstrates that the LHS metrics do not consistently predict the quality of littoral macroinvertebrate communities across Europe, and a region specific approach may be necessary. However, we could demonstrate a relationship between the site specific LHS variables and the macroinvertebrate community at the site level, and in some cases at the regional level. Therefore, although the LHS metrics do not appear to be a useful for relating habitat quality and pressure to littoral macroinvertebrate communities, selected LHS variables may exhibit stronger relationships with the biota.
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| 2. |
- Miler, Oliver, et al.
(författare)
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Morphological alterations of lake shores in Europe : a multimetric ecological assessment approach using benthic macroinvertebrates
- 2013
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Ingår i: Ecological Indicators. - : Elsevier. - 1470-160X .- 1872-7034. ; 34, s. 398-410
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Besides pollution, lakes are affected by human alterations of lake-shore morphology. However, ecological effects of such alterations have rarely been studied systematically. Hence, we developed tools to assess the ecological effects of anthropogenic morphological alterations on European lake-shores based on pressure-specific response patterns of littoral macroinvertebrate community composition. Littoral invertebrates were sampled from 51 lakes in seven European countries. Sampling covered a range of natural to heavily morphologically degraded sites including natural shorelines, recreational beaches, ripraps and retaining walls. Biological data were supplemented by standardized morphological data that were collected via a Lake Habitat Survey (LHS) protocol and subsequently used to develop a morphological stressor index. Two biotic multimetric indices were developed based on habitat-specific samples (Littoral Invertebrate Multimetric based on HAbitat samples, LIMHA) and composite samples (Littoral Invertebrate Multimetric based on COmposite samples, LIMCO) through correlations with the morphological stressor index. Similarity analyses showed strong spatial differences in macroinvertebrate community composition between four main geographical regions, i.e. Western, Northern, Central and Southern Europe. The morphological stressor index as well as LIMCO and LIMHA have been developed for each geographical region specifically, thereby optimizing correlations of LIMCO and LIMHA with the respective morphological stressor index. The metric composition of LIMCO and LIMHA and their correlation coefficients with the morphological stressor index are comparable to existing national and regional methods that assess morphological lakeshore degradation via macroinvertebrate communities. Hence, LIMCO and LIMHA indices constitute a new stressor-specific assessment tool that enables comparable lake morphology assessment across Europe, as it has been developed involving a uniform methodology followed by regionalized optimization. These tools fulfil the standards of the EU Water Framework Directive and thus may complement existing assessment approaches used in lake monitoring focusing solely on lake eutrophication so far.
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