Use of seasonal epilithic diatom assemblages to evaluate ecological status in Irish lakes

Periphyton is increasingly used to assess the biological condition of lakes. The predominance of relatively shallow exposed waterbodies in Ireland implies that epilithic diatoms should have a prominent role as bioindicators for the WFD; but epilithic diatom ecology in these Irish systems is poorly d...

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Autores principales:	Bryan Kennedy, Yvonne M. Buckley
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Elsevier 2021
Materias:	Algae Water Framework Directive Lake classification Ecology QH540-549.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/5cd7ebbc76da4029a0dede2edf9a05ce
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:5cd7ebbc76da4029a0dede2edf9a05ce2021-12-01T04:54:33ZUse of seasonal epilithic diatom assemblages to evaluate ecological status in Irish lakes1470-160X10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.107853https://doaj.org/article/5cd7ebbc76da4029a0dede2edf9a05ce2021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X21005185https://doaj.org/toc/1470-160XPeriphyton is increasingly used to assess the biological condition of lakes. The predominance of relatively shallow exposed waterbodies in Ireland implies that epilithic diatoms should have a prominent role as bioindicators for the WFD; but epilithic diatom ecology in these Irish systems is poorly described. We characterised spring and summer diatom populations in diverse periphyton communities in 91 Irish lake waterbodies. Six assemblage clusters of diatom species were identified, and variation in their assemblages was predominately associated with environmental gradients of acidity-alkalinity, total phosphorus, and true colour. Diatom composition differed amongst high status lakes in three a priori defined lake alkalinity groups commonly used as a diatom typology for lake classification. However, when waterbodies were evaluated with a lake trophic diatom index (LTDI) their distribution of ‘expected-values’ was equivalent. The LTDI was highly correlated with total phosphorus but also had similar responses in the three lake alkalinity types. These findings indicated that lake typology had a limited role for diatom classification with the LTDI in Ireland. Matched spring and summer sampling across wide environmental gradients allowed the role of seasonality to be investigated. Relatively few benthic diatoms had a significant seasonal indicator value suggesting that unbiased monitoring of the epilithon is possible during any month of the growing season in comparable temperate waterbodies. However, temporal variability was lower at low values of the LTDI and increased unpredictably on a lake by lake basis thereafter. Given that lake diatom classification has been validated we suggest that the approach could be developed and used for more targeted assessment objectives.Bryan KennedyYvonne M. BuckleyElsevierarticleAlgaeWater Framework DirectiveLake classificationEcologyQH540-549.5ENEcological Indicators, Vol 129, Iss , Pp 107853- (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Algae Water Framework Directive Lake classification Ecology QH540-549.5
spellingShingle	Algae Water Framework Directive Lake classification Ecology QH540-549.5 Bryan Kennedy Yvonne M. Buckley Use of seasonal epilithic diatom assemblages to evaluate ecological status in Irish lakes
description	Periphyton is increasingly used to assess the biological condition of lakes. The predominance of relatively shallow exposed waterbodies in Ireland implies that epilithic diatoms should have a prominent role as bioindicators for the WFD; but epilithic diatom ecology in these Irish systems is poorly described. We characterised spring and summer diatom populations in diverse periphyton communities in 91 Irish lake waterbodies. Six assemblage clusters of diatom species were identified, and variation in their assemblages was predominately associated with environmental gradients of acidity-alkalinity, total phosphorus, and true colour. Diatom composition differed amongst high status lakes in three a priori defined lake alkalinity groups commonly used as a diatom typology for lake classification. However, when waterbodies were evaluated with a lake trophic diatom index (LTDI) their distribution of ‘expected-values’ was equivalent. The LTDI was highly correlated with total phosphorus but also had similar responses in the three lake alkalinity types. These findings indicated that lake typology had a limited role for diatom classification with the LTDI in Ireland. Matched spring and summer sampling across wide environmental gradients allowed the role of seasonality to be investigated. Relatively few benthic diatoms had a significant seasonal indicator value suggesting that unbiased monitoring of the epilithon is possible during any month of the growing season in comparable temperate waterbodies. However, temporal variability was lower at low values of the LTDI and increased unpredictably on a lake by lake basis thereafter. Given that lake diatom classification has been validated we suggest that the approach could be developed and used for more targeted assessment objectives.
format	article
author	Bryan Kennedy Yvonne M. Buckley
author_facet	Bryan Kennedy Yvonne M. Buckley
author_sort	Bryan Kennedy
title	Use of seasonal epilithic diatom assemblages to evaluate ecological status in Irish lakes
title_short	Use of seasonal epilithic diatom assemblages to evaluate ecological status in Irish lakes
title_full	Use of seasonal epilithic diatom assemblages to evaluate ecological status in Irish lakes
title_fullStr	Use of seasonal epilithic diatom assemblages to evaluate ecological status in Irish lakes
title_full_unstemmed	Use of seasonal epilithic diatom assemblages to evaluate ecological status in Irish lakes
title_sort	use of seasonal epilithic diatom assemblages to evaluate ecological status in irish lakes
publisher	Elsevier
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/5cd7ebbc76da4029a0dede2edf9a05ce
work_keys_str_mv	AT bryankennedy useofseasonalepilithicdiatomassemblagestoevaluateecologicalstatusinirishlakes AT yvonnembuckley useofseasonalepilithicdiatomassemblagestoevaluateecologicalstatusinirishlakes
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Use of seasonal epilithic diatom assemblages to evaluate ecological status in Irish lakes

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