Lakes in the era of global change: moving beyond single‐lake thinking in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services

Abstract

The Anthropocene presents formidable threats to freshwater ecosystems. Lakes are especially vulnerable and important at the same time. They cover only a small area worldwide but harbour high levels of biodiversity and contribute disproportionately to ecosystem services. Lakes differ with respect to their general type (e.g. land‐locked, drainage, floodplain and large lakes) and position in the landscape (e.g. highland versus lowland lakes), which contribute to the dynamics of these systems. Lakes should be generally viewed as ‘meta‐systems’, whereby biodiversity is strongly affected by species dispersal, and ecosystem dynamics are contributed by the flow of matter and substances among locations in a broader waterscape context. Lake connectivity in the waterscape and position in the landscape determine the degree to which a lake is prone to invasion by non‐native species and accumulation of harmful substances. Highly connected lakes low in the landscape accumulate nutrients and pollutants originating from ecosystems higher in the landscape. The monitoring and restoration of lake biodiversity and ecosystem services should consider the fact that a high degree of dynamism is present at local, regional and global scales. However, local and regional monitoring may be plagued by the unpredictability of ecological phenomena, hindering adaptive management of lakes. Although monitoring data are increasingly becoming available to study responses of lakes to global change, we still lack suitable integration of models for entire waterscapes. Research across disciplinary boundaries is needed to address the challenges that lakes face in the Anthropocene because they may play an increasingly important role in harbouring unique aquatic biota as well as providing ecosystem goods and services in the future.

Temporal beta diversity of lake plants is determined by concomitant changes in environmental factors across decades

“…Despite the ecological stressors in the study lakes, one reason for the small changes in the TBIs can be the high ecological resilience of the lakes (Holling, 1973), which is in accordance with the idea that species can keep pace with the changes in the environment (for lakes, see a review by Heino et al., 2020). Connectivity is essential for the resilience of freshwater biota and environments (Heino et al., 2017).…”

Editorial: Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Metacommunities - Implications for Conservation and Management

“…However, the differences in metacommunity assembly mechanisms found among studies are far from being fully understood. The evaluation of temporal dynamics of metacommunities has only emerged recently (Cañedo-Argüelles et al, 2020;Jabot et al, 2020;Li et al, 2020;Lindholm et al, 2021) and the application of the metacommunity theory in other fields, such as biomonitoring, conservation biology or ecosystem restoration, is yet to be fully explored (Bengtsson, 2010;Heino, 2013;Leibold and Chase, 2018;Chase et al, 2020;Cid et al, 2020;Heino et al, 2021).…”

“…However, metacommunity ecology and conservation biology have barely begun to be connected in an applied fashion Chase, 2018, Chase et al, 2020). More emphasis on the importance to understand metacommunity assembly has been given in applied contexts recently, especially in river networks (Cid et al, in press) and lakes considered as sets of interconnected systems in a landscape (Heino et al, 2021). However, terrestrial and marine ecologists have not considered metacommunity theory from this direct perspective, even though similar ideas pertaining to the importance of metapopulation dynamics (e.g., Hanski, 2005) and connectivity conservation (e.g., Ament et al, 2014) in anthropogenically affected landscapes have received considerable attention.…”

“…In a changing world, our current understanding of the underlying drivers of biodiversity patterns and ecosystem functioning will only improve with further research jointly focusing on both spatial and temporal dynamics of metacommunities (Heino et al, 2021). Metacommunity theory (Leibold et al, 2004) should also be combined with the traditional approaches in environmental assessment (Heino, 2013) and conservation planning (Hanski, 2005) that have not paid enough attention to the dynamics of ecological communities in changing landscapes, regions, and continents so far.…”

A Global Agenda for Advancing Freshwater Biodiversity Research

“…Freshwater biodiversity remains underappreciated relative to marine and terrestrial biodiversity (Dudgeon et al 2006;Reid et al 2019;van Rees et al 2020). International and intergovernmental science-policy platforms and funding agencies continue to fall short of giving freshwater biodiversity its rightful place in global biodiversity, climate, and socio-economic forums (Darwall et al 2018;Tickner et al2020;Heino et al 2021), often including freshwater biodiversity in the terrestrial realm or simply overlooking it.…”