Regionalisation of remote European mountain lake ecosystems according to their biota: environmental versus geographical patterns

• Published in: Freshwater biology 2009-12, Vol.54 (12), p.2470-2493
• Main Authors: KERNAN, MARTIN, VENTURA, MARC, BITUŠÍK, PETER, BRANCELJ, ANTON, CLARKE, GINA, VELLE, GAUTE, RADDUM, GUNNAR G, STUCHLÍK, EVŽEN, CATALAN, JORDI
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bacillariophyceae; Cladocera; environmental gradients; Freshwater; Marine; partial ordination; regionalisation; remote mountain lakes; Rotifera; species composition; species diversity
• ISSN: 0046-5070; 1365-2427
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2427.2009.02284.x

1. A survey of c. 350 remote high altitude and high latitude lakes from 11 different mountain regions was undertaken to explore species distribution across Europe at a scale not previously attempted. 2. Lakes were sampled for planktonic crustaceans, rotifers, littoral invertebrates and sub-fossil chironomids, diatoms and cladocerans. Each lake was characterised in terms of water chemistry, morphology, catchment attributes and geographical location. 3. Separate twinspan analyses were undertaken on diatom, chironomid, planktonic crustacean, littoral invertebrate and cladoceran (chydorids only) data to classify sites according to taxonomic composition. For most datasets there was a spatial component to the classification with distinct geographical groups emerging - Norway and Scotland, Finland and Central/Eastern Europe. 4. Constrained ordination methods were employed to examine how species responded to a range of environmental factors, which were aggregated into a series of component groups - proximal environment (the chemical, trophic and physical attributes of the lake), catchment characteristics and geographical location. Several key environmental gradients were identified, which explained significant levels of the variance across several of the biological groups including dissolved organic carbon (chironomids, planktonic crustaceans), temperature (chironomids and littoral invertebrates), chloride/sea-salt (littoral invertebrates, diatoms and rotifers), lake morphology (all groups), calcium/pH (diatoms), nitrate (chydorids, littoral invertebrates, rotifers and planktonic crustaceans) and fish (littoral invertebrates). In some cases these statistical relationships are likely to represent direct ecological constraints and, in others, it is probable that the environmental variable is acting as a surrogate for some other attribute or process. 5. Variance partitioning was undertaken to quantify how much of the variation in each biological group could be uniquely attributed to variables representing the proximal environment, catchment characteristics and geographical location. For most groups the location of the lake tends to explain the greatest variation in species composition across the Lake Districts. The proximal environment was also important but, with the exception of diatoms, secondary to location. Therefore, a strong geographical signal emerged from the analyses. Three distinct limno-regions were identified; Nordic (Scotland and Norway), Sub-Arctic (No