A botanical classification of standing waters in Britain: Applications for conservation and monitoring

Abstract

ABSTRACT1. A classification is described based on an indicator species analysis of the vegetation of 1124 fresh and brackish standing water sites in Great Britain. 2.Ten Site Types are recognizable by their assemblages of plants, and these groupings are related to the alkalinity, pH and conductivity of the water. One Type consists of extremely acid water bodies on peat. There are two other nutrient-poor Types, distinguishable from each other largely by size and substrate, as well as by vegetation. These sites lie mostly in the north and west of Britain. There are four distinct Site Types with nutrient-rich water, one characteristic of Scotland, the rest more typical of the lowlands of southern and eastern Britain. A further Site Type is regarded as mesotrophic and is found mainly in northern England and Scotland. Of the remaining two Site Types, one shows an unusual combination of base-poor and base-rich characteristics and the other comprises brackish sites in Scotland.3. The use of the classification for producing Trophic Ranking Scores, both for individual species and for sites, and the application of these scores for monitoring the nutrient status of fresh waters are explained.4. The application of the classification to the selection of sites important for nature conservation is discussed, with special reference to north west Scotland.5. This classification is compared with other classifications of aquatic vegetation in Great Britain.

Checklists and their Importance for Recording Freshwater Vascular Plants: The British Experience

“…The first comprehensive classification scheme for standing waters in Britain (Palmer 1992;Palmer et al 1992) was based on macrophyte surveys carried out by the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) from 1124 standing waters throughout England, Scotland andWales between 1975 and1988. This dataset became an important source of information used for a variety of purposes including conservation site selection and the identification of aquatic communities in the National Vegetation Classification (NVC) (Rodwell et al 1995).…”

“…Brackish water sites (Group J) were excluded, as in Palmer et al (1992). Any species with fewer than 25 non-brackish occurrences was also excluded.…”

“…Between 1975 and1988, the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) carried out surveys of macrophytes from 1124 sites throughout England, Scotland and Wales. The information gained from these surveys was used to develop the first comprehensive classification scheme for standing waters in Britain (Palmer 1992;Palmer et al 1992). At that stage a possible bias was recognised towards sites that were likely to be botanically rich, or to have some other value for conservation ) and the majority of sites were in Scotland and northern England but natural lakes are found at relatively high densities in these areas.…”

“…Affinities: Closest to Type 4 in Palmer (1992) and Palmer et al (1992), but some similarities to Type 3 and 5A.…”

A new multi-criteria method for the ecological assessment of lakes: A case study from the Transboundary Biosphere Reserve ‘West Polesie’ (Poland)

“…At this point, we considered only 14 among 22 lakes, because only they could be successfully compared using others indices. In order to verify the analysis undertaken for selected lakes: the Polish index (ESMI) and the English Trophic Ranking Scores (TRS) were specified (Palmer et al, 1992;Ciecierska, 2008). …”