The use of aquatic vegetation in lake assessment: testing the sensitivity of macrophyte metrics to anthropogenic pressures and water quality |
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Authors: | Agnieszka Kolada |
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Institution: | (1) Institute of Environmental Protection, Kolektorska 4, 01-692 Warsaw, Poland |
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Abstract: | The relationships between aquatic vegetation, anthropogenic pressures and water quality in 83 Polish lowland lakes were analysed
in order to select the best responding macrophyte metrics to be used in ecological status assessment. Several metrics describing
the syntaxonomic composition, abundance and spatial structure of macrophytes were tested in three morphological lake types
(deep regular-shaped, deep ribbon-shaped and shallow) separately by using the Spearman rank correlation coefficients. Among
all the parameters tested, only some anthropogenic pressure parameters (the percentage share of urban areas and forests in
a catchment, the pollution load from point sources) and all the water quality indicators (TP, TN, Chla, SD) were significantly correlated with most of the macrophyte metrics, although for different lake types the strength and
significance of relationships varied substantially. The macrophyte metrics which best responded to anthropogenic pressures
and water quality changes were: (i) in deep regular-shaped lakes: the percentage share of Chara phytocenoses and rush phytocenoses in the total phytolittoral area, the maximum depth of plant distribution and the colonisation
index; (ii) in deep ribbon-shaped lakes: the hydrophytes/helophytes area ratio, the percentage share of submerged and rush
phytocenoses in the total phytolittoral area; (iii) in shallow lakes: the percentage share of Chara phytocenoses and rush phytocenoses in the total phytolittoral area, and the hydrophytes/helophytes area ratio. These metrics
can then be used when elaborating new or refining existing macrophyte-based methods of ecological status assessment. |
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