Abundance, diversity and distribution of macrophyte communities in neighboring lakes of different trophic states and morphology in north-central Greece

Abstract

The role of aquatic vegetation in wetland ecosystems is closely related with their abundance, diversity and distribution, which in turn represents synergy of various environmental factors. The floristic composition of the aquatic vegetation in two neighboring lakes (Vegoritida and Petron) in north-central Greece was investigated by means of 160 relevés, which were recorded using the Braun-Blanquet method. The analysis of relevés based on TWINSPAN clustering showed the existence of 10 plant communities from the Lemnetea, Potametea, Phragmito-Magnocaricetea and Juncetea maritimi classes. The most important environmental factors for the vegetation differentiation in the study area, according to the ordination diagram, are light intensity and water depth of the habitats. The plant species diversity was quantified with species richness, Shannon Diversity and evenness indices at a scale of each relevé, with a sampling size of 20 m2. There was a clear differentiation between the relevés at the more eutrophic Petron Lake and those at Vegoritida Lake. The mean plot diversity was also calculated for each plant community, to enable comparison of the diversity indices among the communities at the plot level

Diversity and abundance of macrophytes of streams under different anthropogenic influences in the Buea municipality, southwestern Cameroon

“…The frequency of occurrence and abundance of each species were recorded. Creeping species were evaluated by percent cover and later converted to count using Braun Blanquet scale index [12].…”

Plant communities and habitat types in the protected area of Lake Pamvotis (Epirus, Northwestern Greece)

“…The Bolboschoenus-dominated vegetation, mainly reported from coastal regions of Europe, also occurs in a variety of inland freshwater and saline habitats (Hroudová et al, 2009). Although Bolboschoenus maritimus communities are rather frequent in coastal saline ecosystems of Greece (Wolff, 1968;Gradstein & Smittenberg, 1977;Babalonas, 1979;Georgiadis et al, 1990;Karagianni et al, 2008;Sarika, 2012), up to date few records from inland freshwater wetlands exist (Zotos, 2006;Dimopoulos et al, 2005;Pirini et al, 2011).…”

Contribution to decision‐making on establishing the maximum water level for Lake Vegoritida

“…The maximum water level of a natural lake is an important parameter that should not be drastically altered from year to year since its characterizes the lake's morphological features and affects its lake water quality, the lake ecosystem balance, the hydraulic residence time and the available water volume to meet annual water requirements of economic activities such as agriculture, fishery and tourism. The water level alteration in Lake Vegoritida, as an example, caused substantial changes in the lake's biotic features, particularly the relationship among the lake's morphometry and water quality, as well as the abundance, diversity and distribution of aquatic macrophytes (Pirini, Karagiannakidou, & Charitonidis, ; Stefanidis & Papastergiadou, ). Other research efforts have highlighted the interrelations between the abiotic and biotic features of the lake (Antonopoulos & Gianniou, ; Stefanidis, ), and studied the energy and water budget of the lake (Gianniou & Antonopoulos, ).…”