Submerged macrophytes in Danish lakes: impact of morphological and chemical factors on abundance and species richness

Søndergaard, Martin; Davidson, Thomas A.; Lauridsen, Torben L.; Johansson, Liselotte S.

doi:10.1007/s10750-021-04759-8

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Our study does not refute the decades of research showing the influence of the trophic interactions in shallow lakes, where, for example, abundant submerged plants alter the relationship between nutrients and chlorophyll-a 40,45 . The suppression of phytoplankton by macrophytes can be both direct (e.g.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 86%

Bimodality and alternative equilibria do not help explain long-term patterns in shallow lake chlorophyll-a

et al. 2023

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Since its inception, the theory of alternative equilibria in shallow lakes has evolved and been applied to an ever wider range of ecological and socioecological systems. The theory posits the existence of two alternative stable states or equilibria, which in shallow lakes are characterised by either clear water with abundant plants or turbid water where phytoplankton dominate. Here, we used data simulations and real-world data sets from Denmark and north-eastern USA (902 lakes in total) to examine the relationship between shallow lake phytoplankton biomass (chlorophyll-a) and nutrient concentrations across a range of timescales. The data simulations demonstrated that three diagnostic tests could reliably identify the presence or absence of alternative equilibria. The real-world data accorded with data simulations where alternative equilibria were absent. Crucially, it was only as the temporal scale of observation increased (>3 years) that a predictable linear relationship between nutrient concentration and chlorophyll-a was evident. Thus, when a longer term perspective is taken, the notion of alternative equilibria is not required to explain the response of chlorophyll-a to nutrient enrichment which questions the utility of the theory for explaining shallow lake response to, and recovery from, eutrophication.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 86%

Bimodality and alternative equilibria do not help explain long-term patterns in shallow lake chlorophyll-a

et al. 2023

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“…We were, however, lacking information on littoral habitat characteristics (e.g., macrophyte coverage), which impact species-specific abundance in lakes (Lewin et al, 2014;Matern et al, 2021). However, mean depth and nutrient state specifically are correlated with macrophyte abundance and also water clarity (Søndergaard et al, 2017(Søndergaard et al, , 2022, and have been found in cross-lake studies to be decisive determinants of lake fish communities (Diekmann et al, 2005;Jeppesen et al, 2000;Mehner et al, 2005). We further included SDF as a quantitative measurement of available littoral habitat.…”

Section: Study Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fish community composition in small lakes: The impact of lake genesis and fisheries management

et al. 2022

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1. Gravel pit lakes are common across Europe. These novel ecosystems serve as model systems to study human-induced and natural colonisation of isolated lakes by fish. Fisheries-management activities can quickly spread species over large distances, possibly homogenising fish communities across ecosystems, while fostering local fish diversity.2. Our objective was to evaluate the effects of lake genesis (gravel pit lakes < 100 years old vs. natural lakes of glacial genesis ~10,000 years old) and fisheries management (fish stocking activities present vs. absent) on the fish community in small lakes, while controlling for key environmental variables known to affect lake fish communities.3. We sampled fish communities by electrofishing and multimesh gillnetting in 47 isolated lakes managed for fisheries, and 19 unmanaged and isolated lakes of both natural and artificial origin in northern Germany. Unmanaged lakes were used as reference to assess fisheries-management impacts in small natural and artificial lakes. 4. We caught 178,506 fish from 30 species and found that the accumulation of native lake fish species in lakes was associated with fisheries management, which increased local species richness (α-diversity) and number of predatory species, and reduced among-lake variation in fish community composition (β-diversity; i.e., homogenisation). The homogenisation-effect associated with fisheries happened with introduced native fish species, whereas non-native species were rarely detected. 5. In unmanaged gravel pit lakes, the littoral fish community composition was substantially different to the communities present in both types of managed lakes and unmanaged natural lakes. Therefore, the relatively young unmanaged gravel pit lakes revealed evidence of ongoing, stochastic colonisation processes that resulted in comparatively species-poor fish communities.

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“…In addition, our results revealed that the negative relationships between macrophytes and total fish abundance as well as the abundance and biomass of fish <10 cm were strongly associated with lakes with high plant cover, as shown by the within-lakes approach. This pattern might not only reflect macrophyte cover per se, because lakes highly covered by submerged macrophytes have higher water clarity (Søndergaard et al, 2022), which may favour predation of fish (Bunnell et al, 2021). High predation rates by piscivorous fish in macrophyte patches may lead fish to avoid these places because of their inability to keep a sufficient distance from predators in limited space, thereby adopting an open-water antipredator strategy (Jacobsen & Perrow, 1998).…”

Section: F I G U R Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Associations between submerged macrophytes and fish communities at two spatial scales in 88 temperate shallow lakes

et al. 2023

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Fish community structure is affected by a range of lake characteristics, including the cover of macrophytes that provide spawning habitats, nursery area, refuge against predators, and food. We assessed fish–macrophyte relationships at both lake and point scale using an extensive dataset from 88 Danish shallow lakes (maximum depth ≤4.5 m). At lake scale, we used mean values from fish and macrophyte community samples for all lakes, in total 88 samples. The point scale data were derived from multiple points in each lake (in total 595 samples) where both macrophytes and fish were sampled, allowing us to assess within‐lake variations. We found generally negative relationships between macrophyte cover and fish abundance and biomass, which was strongest at point scale. Contrary to macrophytes, chlorophyll a showed positive relationships with fish abundance—except for perch and all fish <10 cm, which did not show significant relationships. The deeper and more eutrophic the lakes, the more the fish tended to occupy points covered by macrophytes. The abundances of species such as roach and bream were negatively related to macrophyte cover, but, for perch, this relationship was not significant. Our results suggest that fish abundance and biomass were associated with a combination of factors that are often intercorrelated and difficult to isolate. The relationship between fish abundance and biomass and macrophyte cover may depend on, among other factors, fish species, fish size, and the characteristics of the individual lakes.

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Submerged macrophytes in Danish lakes: impact of morphological and chemical factors on abundance and species richness

Cited by 7 publications

References 54 publications

Bimodality and alternative equilibria do not help explain long-term patterns in shallow lake chlorophyll-a

Bimodality and alternative equilibria do not help explain long-term patterns in shallow lake chlorophyll-a

Fish community composition in small lakes: The impact of lake genesis and fisheries management

Associations between submerged macrophytes and fish communities at two spatial scales in 88 temperate shallow lakes

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