Classifying aquatic macrophytes as indicators of eutrophication in European lakes

Aquatic macrophytes are one of the biological quality elements in the Water Framework Directive (WFD) for which status assessments must be defined. We tested two methods to classify macrophyte species and their response to eutrophication pressure: one based on percentiles of occurrence along a phosp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Aquatic ecology 2008, Vol.42 (2), p.237-251
Main Authors: Penning, W. Ellis, Mjelde, Marit, Dudley, Bernard, Hellsten, Seppo, Hanganu, Jenica, Kolada, Agnieszka, van den Berg, Marcel, Poikane, Sandra, Phillips, Geoff, Willby, Nigel, Ecke, Frauke
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algae
Alkalinity
Aquatic plants
Aquatic vegetation
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Ecosystems
EU Water Framework Directive
Eutrophication
Freshwater & Marine Ecology
Indicator species
Indicators
Lakes
Landscape Ecology
Landskapsekologi
Life Sciences
Marine biology
REBECCA
Species classification
Studies
Taxa
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Summary:Aquatic macrophytes are one of the biological quality elements in the Water Framework Directive (WFD) for which status assessments must be defined. We tested two methods to classify macrophyte species and their response to eutrophication pressure: one based on percentiles of occurrence along a phosphorous gradient and another based on trophic ranking of species using Canonical Correspondence Analyses in the ranking procedure. The methods were tested at Europe-wide, regional and national scale as well as by alkalinity category, using 1,147 lakes from 12 European states. The grouping of species as sensitive, tolerant or indifferent to eutrophication was evaluated for some taxa, such as the sensitive Chara spp. and the large isoetids, by analysing the (non-linear) response curve along a phosphorous gradient. These thresholds revealed in these response curves can be used to set boundaries among different ecological status classes. In total 48 taxa out of 114 taxa were classified identically regardless of dataset or classification method. These taxa can be considered the most consistent and reliable indicators of sensitivity or tolerance to eutrophication at European scale. Although the general response of well known indicator species seems to hold, there are many species that were evaluated differently according to the database selection and classification methods. This hampers a Europe-wide comparison of classified species lists as used for the status assessment within the WFD implementation process.
ISSN:1386-2588
1573-5125
1573-5125
DOI:10.1007/s10452-008-9182-y