How to Assess the Ecological Status of Highly Humic Lakes ? Development of a New Method Based on Benthic Invertebrates

Dāvis Ozoliņš (Corresponding Author), Agnija Skuja, Jolanta Jekabsone, Ilga Ilga , Andris Avotiņš, Sandra Poikane (Corresponding Author)

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Highly humic lakes are typical for the boreal zone. These unique ecosystems are characterised as relatively undisturbed habitats with brown water, high acidity, low nutrient content and lack of macrophytes. Current lake assessment methods are not appropriate for ecological assessment of highly humic lakes because of their unique properties and differing human pressures acting on
these ecosystems. This study proposes a new approach suitable for the ecological status assessment of highly humic lakes impacted by hydrological modifications. Altogether, 52 macroinvertebrate samples from 15 raised bog lakes were used to develop the method. The studied lakes are located
in the raised bogs at the central and eastern parts of Latvia. Altered water level was found as the main threat to the humic lake habitats since no other pressures were established. A multimetric index based on macroinvertebrate abundance, littoral and profundal preferences, Coleoptera taxa richness and the Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP) Score is suggested as the most suitable tool to
assess the ecological quality of the highly humic lakes.
Original languageEnglish
Article number223
Number of pages18
JournalWater
Volume13
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 Jan 2021

Keywords*

  • highly humic lakes
  • macroinvertebrates
  • ecological status assessment

Field of Science*

  • 1.6 Biological sciences

Publication Type*

  • 1.1. Scientific article indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus database

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