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Review article - Peer-reviewed, 2021

Lakes in the era of global change: moving beyond single‐lake thinking in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services

Heino, Jani; Alahuhta, Janne; Bini, Luis Mauricio; Cai, Yongjiu; Heiskanen, Anna-Stiina; Hellsten, Seppo; Kortelainen, Pirkko; Kotamaki, Niina; Tolonen, Kimmo T.; Vihervaara, Petteri; Vilmi, Annika; Angeler, David G.

Abstract

The Anthropocene presents formidable threats to freshwater ecosystems. Lakes are especially vulnerable and important at the same time. They cover only a small area worldwide but harbour high levels of biodiversity and contribute disproportionately to ecosystem services. Lakes differ with respect to their general type (e.g. land‐locked, drainage, floodplain and large lakes) and position in the landscape (e.g. highland versus lowland lakes), which contribute to the dynamics of these systems. Lakes should be generally viewed as ‘meta‐systems’, whereby biodiversity is strongly affected by species dispersal, and ecosystem dynamics are contributed by the flow of matter and substances among locations in a broader waterscape context. Lake connectivity in the waterscape and position in the landscape determine the degree to which a lake is prone to invasion by non‐native species and accumulation of harmful substances. Highly connected lakes low in the landscape accumulate nutrients and pollutants originating from ecosystems higher in the landscape. The monitoring and restoration of lake biodiversity and ecosystem services should consider the fact that a high degree of dynamism is present at local, regional and global scales. However, local and regional monitoring may be plagued by the unpredictability of ecological phenomena, hindering adaptive management of lakes. Although monitoring data are increasingly becoming available to study responses of lakes to global change, we still lack suitable integration of models for entire waterscapes. Research across disciplinary boundaries is needed to address the challenges that lakes face in the Anthropocene because they may play an increasingly important role in harbouring unique aquatic biota as well as providing ecosystem goods and services in the future.

Keywords

biological diversity; ecosystem change; fresh waters; meta-system; monitoring; resilience; restoration

Published in

Biological Reviews
2021, Volume: 96, number: 1, pages: 89-106

    Sustainable Development Goals

    SDG6 Clean water and sanitation
    SDG15 Life on land
    SDG13 Climate action

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Environmental Sciences

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12647

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/107360