Journal ArticleDOI
Modelling lake macroinvertebrate species in the shallow sublittoral: relative roles of habitat, lake morphology, aquatic chemistry and sediment composition
Gary Free,Angelo G. Solimini,Bruno Rossaro,Laura Marziali,Roberto Giacchini,Bruno Paracchini,Michela Ghiani,Stefano Vaccaro,Bernd Manfred Gawlik,Roswitha Fresner,Georg Santner,Michael Schönhuber,Ana Cristina Cardoso +12 more
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In this paper, the relative importance of environmental variables in explaining macroinvertebrate abundance was examined in 45 sub-alpine lakes were sampled for macroinvetebrates in the shallow sublittoral.Abstract:
Macroinvertebrates are one of the key components of lake ecosystems and are required to be monitored alongside other biological groups to define ecological status according to European Union legislation. Macroinvertebrate communities are highly variable and complex and respond to a diverse series of environmental conditions. The purpose of this study was to examine the relative importance of environmental variables in explaining macroinvertebrate abundance. A total of 45 sub-alpine lakes were sampled for macroinvertebrates in the shallow sublittoral. Environmental variables were grouped into four types: (1) aquatic physical and chemical parameters, (2) littoral and riparian habitat, (3) lake morphometric parameters and (4) sediment chemical characteristics. Nonparametric multiplicative regression (NPMR) was used to model the abundance of individual macroinvertebrate taxa. Significant models were produced for nine out of the 24 taxa examined. Sediment characteristics were the group most frequently included in models and also the factors to which taxa abundance was the most sensitive. Aquatic physical and chemical variables were the next group most frequently included in models although chlorophyll a was not included in any of the models and total phosphorus in only one. This indicates that many taxa may not show a direct easily interpretable response to eutrophication pressure. Lake morphometric factors were included in several of the models although the sensitivity of macroinvertebrate abundance tended to be lower than for sediment and aquatic physical and chemical factors. Habitat factors were only included in three models although riparian vegetation was found to have a significant influence on the abundance of Ephemera danica indicating that ecotone integrity is likely to play a role in its ecology. Overall, the models tended to be specific for species with limited commonality across taxa. Models produced by NPMR indicate that the response of macroinvertebrates to environmental variables can be successfully described but further research is required focussing in more detail on the response of key taxa to relevant environmental parameters and anthropogenic pressures.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
A hitchhiker's guide to European lake ecological assessment and intercalibration
Sandra Poikane,Sebastian Birk,Jürgen Böhmer,Laurence Carvalho,Caridad de Hoyos,Hubert Gassner,Seppo Hellsten,Martyn Kelly,Anne Lyche Solheim,Mikko Olin,Karin Pall,Geoff Phillips,Rob Portielje,David Ritterbusch,Leonard Sandin,Ann Kristin Schartau,Angelo G. Solimini,Marcel S. van den Berg,Georg Wolfram,Wouter van de Bund +19 more
TL;DR: The Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires European countries to establish comparable ecological assessment schemes for their freshwaters as mentioned in this paper, which is a key element in harmonising quality classification within and between Europe's river basins is an "Intercalibration" exercise, stipulated by the WFD, to ensure that the good status boundaries in all of the biological assessment methods correspond to similar levels of anthropogenic pressure.
Journal ArticleDOI
Ecological impacts of winter water level drawdowns on lake littoral zones: a review
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors synthesize the abiotic and biotic responses to annual and novel winter water level drawdowns in littoral zones of lakes and reservoirs and identify eight general research gaps to guide future research.
Journal ArticleDOI
Biological assessment of European lakes: ecological rationale and human impacts
Journal ArticleDOI
How representative are subfossil assemblages of Chironomidae and common benthic invertebrates for the living fauna of Lake De Waay, the Netherlands?
TL;DR: The distribution of benthic invertebrates and their subfossil remains was examined within the basin of De Waay, a dimictic, eutrophic lake in the Netherlands, focusing on Chironomidae, but also report the abundances of 11 invertebrate groups that potentially produce chitinous remains that are preserved in the fossil record.
Journal ArticleDOI
Characterisation of Alpine lake sediments using multivariate statistical techniques
Sara Comero,Giovanni Locoro,Gary Free,Stefano Vaccaro,Luisa De Capitani,Bernd Manfred Gawlik +5 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) has been applied to a geochemical dataset obtained by XRF analysis on sediments from 11 alpine lakes located in Italy, and four interpretable factors were identified through PMF analysis, in connection with the mineralogical/chemical features of lake sediments in the catchment areas.
References
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Loss on ignition as a method for estimating organic and carbonate content in sediments: reproducibility and comparability of results.
TL;DR: In this paper, five test runs were performed to assess possible bias when performing the loss on ignition (LOI) method to estimate organic matter and carbonate content of lake sediments.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Ecology of Interfaces: Riparian Zones
Robert J. Naiman,Henri Décamps +1 more
TL;DR: Riparian zones possess an unusually diverse array of species and environmental processes as discussed by the authors, related to variable flood regimes, geographically unique channel processes, altitudinal climate shifts, and upland influences on the fluvial corridor.
Journal ArticleDOI
Multivariate Analysis of Ecological Data
Jan Lepš,Petr Šmilauer +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a study material for the participants of the course named Multivariate Analysis of Ecological Data that we teach at our university for the third year, which provides an easy-to-read supplement for the more exact and detailed publications like the collection of the Dr. Ter Braak' papers and the Canoco for Windows 4.0 manual.
Book ChapterDOI
zonation of plants in freshwater lakes
TL;DR: Specific examples of the zonation of vegetation in a range of lakes, to emphasize the distinction between environmental factors varying solely in the vertical plane and those that have both vertical and horizontal components are presented in the chapter.
Journal ArticleDOI
A simplified phosphorus analysis technique.
TL;DR: A simplified method for the analysis of total P(TP), total dissolved P(TDP) and dissolved reactive P (DRP) in multiple water samples has been developed and Reproducibility and precision measurements compare to or exceed commonly used P techniques.