Eulittoral macroinvertebrate communities of lowland lakes: discrimination among trophic states

Abstract

1. Nutrient inputs from urban and agricultural land use often result in shifts in species composition of pelagic and profundal invertebrate communities. Here, we test if nutrient enrichment affects the composition of eulittoral macroinvertebrate communities, and, if so, if macroinvertebrate communities of five different habitat types reflect differences in trophic state. 2. Macroinvertebrate community composition of 36 lakes was significantly correlated with total phosphorus (TP) concentration, the proportion of coarse woody debris (CWD) and root habitats and the proportion of grassland. 3. However, macroinvertebrate communities of five major habitat types from eight lakes were more dissimilar among habitats than among trophic states. Community composition of reed and stone habitats was significantly correlated with wind exposure but not TP concentration, while macroinvertebrate composition of sand habitats was related to TP concentration and coarse sediments. In CWD and root habitats, both TP concentration and a predominance of invasive species covaried, which made it difficult to relate the observed compositional differences to either trophic state or to the effects of competition between native and invasive species. 4. Trophic state influenced the composition of eulittoral macroinvertebrate communities but to a lesser extent than has been previously reported for profundal habitats. Moreover, the effects of trophic state were nested within habitat type and were partially superseded by biotic interactions and small-scaled habitat complexity. Although eulittoral macroinvertebrate communities were not strong indicators of the trophic state of lowland lakes, they may be used to assess other anthropogenic impacts on lakeshores.

Coarse woody debris in temperate littoral zones: implications for biodiversity, food webs and lake management

“…Xylophages recorded in other studies were represented in lakes by the caddisfly genus Lype sp. (Psychomyiidae) (Brauns et al, 2007(Brauns et al, , 2011 and wood-mining chironomids: Glyptotendipes sp. and Dicrotendipes sp.…”

Macroinvertebrate responses to regime shifts caused by eutrophication in subtropical shallow lakes

“…Increased levels of eutrophication are often accompanied by a decline in macroinvertebrate diversity (Donohue et al 2009), an increase in density, and a decrease in wet biomass (mollusks with shells) (Crowns et al 1992, Wollheim and Lovvorn 1995, Gong and Xie 2001, Xiong et al 2003. However, most previous research has been restricted to local-scale studies, i.e., in a single lake or in a few lakes (Saether 1980, Kerovec et al 1989, Gong et al 2000, Xiong et al 2003, Timm et al 2006, and few studies have covered a complete range of nutrient concentrations (Brauns et al 2007a, Donohue et al 2009). …”

The invertebrate's community in adjacent Alto Iguaçu's anthropic lakes of different environmental factors

“…Brauns et al (2007) observed that while a community part was related to organic matter and conductivity reduction, there was another positively related to phosphorous. For these authors, the relation with phosphorous infers about productivity and, therefore, the macroinvertebrate's composition was associated to system productivity.…”

“…When entering in the metropolitan Curitiba's region, the riverbed was modified, providing extension and depth, in many points it remakes the riverbed or cut the natural one, transforming the meanders in to horseshoe lakes. Brauns et al (2007) argue that while domestic and industrial discharges have been reduced in recent years, due to wastewater treatment, the lakes still receive nitrogen from urban areas, and phosphorous from agricultural waste, besides atmospheric deposition. According to Vollenweider (1968) the increase of nutrients, particularly phosphorus, enriches the environment and favors the algal blooms, which can reduce the development of submerged plants (Chandra et al 2005).…”