Vegetation communities of British lakes: a revised classification scheme for conservation

Duigan, Catherine A.; Kovach, Warren L.; Palmer, Margaret A.

doi:10.1002/aqc.780

Cited by 39 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Prior to *1900, the macrofossils suggest that at least five charophyte taxa were present in Cunswick Tarn. This agrees with early plant records for the site that indicate that the flora was typical of a mesotrophic, calcareous (marl) lake (Group I in the 'Vegetation communities of British lakes', Duigan et al 2007). Various surveys reported occurrence of Chara aculeolata Kütz., Chara globularis agg.…”

Section: Reference Plant Communitiessupporting

confidence: 88%

“…The timing is synchronous with a decline in carbonate content of the sediments, potentially signalling the cessation of marl precipitation. Indeed Cunswick Tarn currently fills none of the macrophyte criteria for marl lakes in the British Isles (diversity of Potamogeton and Chara spp., M. spicatum -Palmer et al 1992;Duigan et al 2007). Thus, as for the high alkalinity lakes, the macrofossil data support the condition of these lakes as 'unfavourable'.…”

Section: Conservation Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since aquatic macrophytes play a central role in providing habitat, refuge and food for a range of biota, and can sequester nutrients and stabilise sediments, changes in their abundance, composition and seasonality can have major consequences for the overall ecological structure and function of a lake (Jeppesen et al 1998;Sayer et al 2010a). Hence, aquatic macrophytes are frequently at the heart of lake conservation assessments (Duigan et al 2007;Penning et al 2008;Søndergaard et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sedimentary macrofossil records reveal ecological change in English lakes: implications for conservation

et al. 2017

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Aquatic macrophytes play a key role in providing habitat, refuge and food for a range of biota in shallow lakes. However, many shallow lakes have experienced declines in macrophyte vegetation in recent decades, principally due to eutrophication. As changes in macrophyte composition and abundance can affect overall ecological structure and function of a lake, an assessment of the timing and nature of such changes is crucial to our understanding of the wider lake ecosystem. In the typical absence of historical plant records, the macro-remains of macrophytes preserved in lake sediments can be used to assess long-term changes in aquatic vegetation. We generated recent (150-200 years) plant macrofossil records for six English lakes subject to conservation protection to define past macrophyte communities, assess trajectories of ecological change and consider the implications of our findings for conservation targets and strategies. The data for all six lakes reveal a diverse submerged macrophyte community, with charophytes Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10933-017-9941-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. as a key component, in the early part of the sedimentary records. The stratigraphies indicate considerable change to the aquatic vegetation over the last two centuries with a general shift towards species more typically associated with eutrophic conditions. A common feature is the decline in abundance of lowgrowing charophytes and an increase in tall canopyforming angiosperms such as fine-leaved Potamogeton species, Zannichellia palustris and Callitriche species. We hypothesise, based on findings from longterm datasets and palaeoecological records from enriched shallow lakes where plants are now absent, that the observed shifts provide a warning to managers that the lakes are on a pathway to complete macrophyte loss such that nutrient load reduction is urgently needed. It is the sound understanding of present-day plant ecology that affords such reliable interpretation of the fossil data which, in turn, provide valuable context for current conservation decisions.

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Section: Reference Plant Communitiessupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Conservation Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sedimentary macrofossil records reveal ecological change in English lakes: implications for conservation

et al. 2017

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“…For example, small low alkalinity upland lakes will generally have less emergent macrophytes and habitat diversity than large higher alkalinity lakes, hence scoring lower for LHQA, despite their naturalness. In order to address this, a lake typology approach, similar to that used for the Water Framework Directive, or the JNCC lake classification method (Duigan et al, 2007), could be useful for calculating the LHS scores, with different habitat features scored differently according to lake type. Identification of littoral Chironomidae to a lower taxonomic level would also increase overall taxon richness of samples.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A test of the association between Lake Habitat Quality Assessment and macroinvertebrate community structure

McGoff

Irvine

2009

Aquatic Conservation

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ABSTRACT1. Lake Habitat Survey (LHS) provides a standard method for characterizing the physical habitat of lakes and reservoirs, but has not been tested for its relevance to the composition and abundance of macroinvertebrates. This study investigated the relationship between the metrics used in LHS and components of macroinvertebrate communities found in the littoral zone of a shallow calcareous lake in the west of Ireland.2. A scoring system, the Habitat Quality Assessment (HabQA), developed from the Lake Habitat Quality Assessment (LHQA) of the LHS, was used to assess the relationship between habitat quality based on physical structure within 10 LHS 'habplots' and metrics of the macroinvertebrate community.3. Macroinvertebrate taxon richness, both of adults found in the riparian zone and larvae found in the littoral zone, correlated positively with the HabQA score. Macrophytes within the littoral zone, and complexity of riparian vegetation within the riparian zone, were particularly important in driving the HabQA score. While overall abundance of macroinvertebrates did not vary with HabQA score, that of particular genera did.4. The HabQA score was a useful surrogate of taxon richness for adult and larval aquatic macroinvertebrates, suggesting that, in general, LHS provides a useful conservation assessment tool relevant for macroinvertebrates. However, in some circumstances, such as wave-washed stony substrates devoid of macrophytes, the HabQA score may not capture the quality of a site for macroinvertebrates, and the importance of natural but low diversity sites should not be neglected in conservation assessment of lakes. Similarly, while the LHS method notes the presence of alien species, further work on how these could be incorporated into the method would be useful.5. Reliance on a single, or overall combined, metric score across quality elements, whether based on biotic or structural assessment, has some potential limitations. It is clear that for conservation management a holistic assessment of naturalness, representativeness and species rarity needs to be made in conjunction with scoring systems.

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“…Typologies have typically focused on a single biological quality element, including macrophytes (Holmes et al, 1999;Duigan et al, 2007), triclads (Reynoldson, 1958), macroinvertebrates (Ehlert et al, 2002) and fish (Huet, 1959;Noble and Cowx, 2002). Many of these typologies are of relatively recent origin, often constructed specifically to comply with the requirements of the WFD.…”

Section: Typology Of Water Bodiesmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Water Framework Directive

Hatton-Ellis

2008

Aquatic Conservation

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In Douglas Adams' comedy novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a civilization wanted to know the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything. They built Deep Thought, an enormous computer that, after seven and a half million years of detailed calculations, produced the answer: 42. The scientists then realized that although Deep Thought had given them the ultimate answer, they did not know the ultimate question.For all scientists, asking and answering the correct questions is fundamental to the development and application of knowledge. However, for conservation scientists there is the additional complication of translating the knowledge gained into effective policy and legislative mechanisms. These rely on effective communication and partnership working.The EC Water Framework Directive (WFD; European Commission, 2000) is an ambitious instrument of Europe-wide legislation that aims to set minimum ecological standards for surface water (including coastal waters) and groundwater by providing a unified policy approach. Unlike almost all previous legislation in the UK and elsewhere, standards are derived with respect to ecological quality rather than physico-chemical thresholds. Individual water bodies are graded into one of five quality classes (high, good, moderate, poor or bad). EU member states are required to ensure that all water bodies reach good ecological status by 2015, and that there is no deterioration from the existing ecological status. Where water bodies are degraded by human activities beyond a level that it is reasonable to expect restoration, they can be designated 'heavily modified'. However, even heavily modified water bodies are required to reach 'maximum ecological potential'.The WFD requires that each member state identify a typology for their water bodies. Types are based on fundamental ecological drivers such as altitude and geology, and their ecological quality is then compared with a 'type-specific reference condition'. Different biological, hydromorphological and physico-chemical 'quality elements' may be used, as appropriate for the habitat type being monitored. A series of generic metrics of environmental quality are identified in the Directive, mainly related to taxon richness and abundance. These are then used to grade the ecological quality of each water body by comparing it with a reference condition using an Ecological Quality Ratio (EQR). The EQR is calculated by dividing the observed metric by the reference value for that metric. The range of EQRs is then divided into five classes ranging from high to bad ecological status. Class status is on a 'one-out, all-out' basis, i.e. the quality element with the worst ecological quality is used to determine ecological class } however, in many water bodies only a single biological quality element } that perceived as being 'most sensitive' to the predominant pressure } needs to be monitored. As a control to ensure that the approach is applied evenly across the EU, an intercalibration process takes place to compare standards of i...

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Vegetation communities of British lakes: a revised classification scheme for conservation

Cited by 39 publications

References 20 publications

Sedimentary macrofossil records reveal ecological change in English lakes: implications for conservation

Sedimentary macrofossil records reveal ecological change in English lakes: implications for conservation

A test of the association between Lake Habitat Quality Assessment and macroinvertebrate community structure

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Water Framework Directive

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