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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Distribution patterns of epiphytic reed-associated macroinvertebrate communities across European shallow lakes

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So far, research on plant-associated macroinvertebrates, even if conducted on a large number of water bodies, has mostly focused on a relatively small area, permitting limited conclusions to be drawn regarding potentially broader geographic effects, including climate. Some recent studies have shown that the composition of epiphytic communities may differ considerably among climatic zones. To assess this phenomenon, we studied macroinvertebrates associated with the common reed Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud in 46 shallow lakes using a common protocol. The lakes, located in nine countries, covered almost the entire European latitudinal range (from <48°N to 61°N) and captured much of the variability in lake size and nutrient content in the region. A Poisson Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) showed the number of macroinvertebrate epiphytic taxa to be negatively associated with water conductivity and positively associated with medium ice cover duration (approximately 1 month). A Gamma GLMM showed a positive effect of chlorophyll a on the density of macroinvertebrates, and a significantly greater density in lakes located at the lowest and highest latitudes. Individual taxa responded differently to lake environmental conditions across climate zones. Chironomidae dominated in all climate zones, but their contribution to total density decreased with increasing latitude, with progressively greater proportions of Naidinae, Asellidae, Ephemeroptera and Trichoptera. Our study demonstrates that epiphytic macroinvertebrate fauna, even when analyzed at low taxonomic resolution, exhibits clear differences in diversity, relative abundance of individual taxa and total density, shaped both by geographic and anthropogenic variables. The results were discussed in the context of climate change. To our best knowledge this is the first study to examine epiphytic fauna carried out on a European scale. This work was carried out as part of the ECOFRAME project "Ecological quality and functionning of shallow lake ecosystems with respect to the needs of the European Water Framework Directive", Contract EVK1- 1999-00261, funded under the EU Fith Framework Programme. The completion of the publication is a result of the National Marine Fisheries Research Institute statutory research project (DOT18/Lagoon_RK), supported by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. EJ was supported by the Tübitak BIDEB2232 program (118C250). The following members of the ECOFRAME team contributed to the discussions and collection of data: Cobelas Alvarez, Eloy Becares, Loles Boronat, Sally Collings, Camino Fernández-Aláez, Margarita Fernández-Aláez, Tõnu Feldmann, Deborah Fox, Mikael Gyllström, Bogdan Lorens, Peeter Nõges, Edwin Peters, Susana Romo, Marten Sheffer, Halina Smal, Anna Kaczorowska, Monika Tarkowska-Kukuryk, Claudia Tesch, Taavi Virro, Wouter van de Bund and Eduardo Vicente. This work was carried out as part of the ECOFRAME project "Ecological quality and functionning of shallow lake ecosystems with respect to the needs of the European Water Framework Directive", Contract EVK1- 1999-00261, funded under the EU Fith Framework Programme. The completion of the publication is a result of the National Marine Fisheries Research Institute statutory research project (DOT18/Lagoon_RK), supported by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. EJ was supported by the Tübitak BIDEB2232 program (118C250). The following members of the ECOFRAME team contributed to the discussions and collection of data: Cobelas Alvarez, Eloy Becares, Loles Boronat, Sally Collings, Camino Fernández-Aláez, Margarita Fernández-Aláez, Tõnu Feldmann, Deborah Fox, Mikael Gyllström, Bogdan Lorens, Peeter Nõges, Edwin Peters, Susana Romo, Marten Sheffer, Halina Smal, Anna Kaczorowska, Monika Tarkowska-Kukuryk, Claudia Tesch, Taavi Virro, Wouter van de Bund and Eduardo Vicente.