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. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

EU Water Framework Directive; Assessment metrics; Lakes; Lake Habitat Survey; Pressure-response relationship; Macrozoobenthos

Published in

Ecological Indicators
2013, Volume: 34, pages: 398-410
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

SLU Authors

• Mcgoff, Elaine

  • Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

Lakes and watercourses
Use of FOMA data


UKÄ Subject classification

Ecology
Environmental Sciences


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2013.06.002

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/51135