Principal Determinants of Aquatic Macrophyte Communities in Least-Impacted Small Shallow Lakes in France

Water

Frédéric Labat¹  Christophe Piscart²  Gabrielle Thiébaut² 

[1] Aquabio, 10 Rue Hector Guimard, 63800 Cournon-d’Auvergne, France;University of Rennes, CNRS, ECOBIO-UMR 6553, 35042 Rennes, France;

关键词: depressional wetlands;    ponds;    alkalinity;    geology;    distance from source;    connectivity;   

DOI  :  10.3390/w13050609

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Small shallow lakes (SSL) support exceptionally high and original biodiversity, providing numerous ecosystem services. Their small size makes them especially sensitive to anthropic activities, which cause a shift to dysfunctional turbid states and induce loss of services and biodiversity. In this study we investigated the relationships between environmental factors and macrophyte communities. Macrophytes play a crucial role in maintaining functional clear states. Better understanding the factors determining the composition and richness of aquatic plant communities in least-impacted conditions may be useful to protect these shallow lakes. We inventoried macrophyte communities and collected chemical, climatic, and morphological data from 89 least-impacted SSL widely distributed in France. SSL were sampled across four climatic ecoregions, various geologies, and elevations. Hierarchical cluster analysis showed a clear separation of four macrophyte assemblages strongly associated with mineralization. Determinant factors identified by distance-based redundancy analysis (db-RDA) analysis were, in order of importance, geology, distance from source (DIS, a proxy for connectivity with river hydrosystems), surface area, climate, and hydroperiod (water permanency). Surprisingly, at a country-wide scale, climate and hydroperiod filter macrophyte composition weakly. Geology and DIS are the major determinants of community composition, whereas surface area determines floristic richness. DIS was identified as a determinant in freshwater lentic ecosystems for the first time.

【 授权许可】

Unknown