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Zooplankton (Cladocera) in assessments of biologic integrity and reference conditions: application of sedimentary assemblages from shallow boreal lakes

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Abstract

Zooplankton are potentially powerful proxies for the assessments of biologic integrity. The paleolimnological perspective and use of fossil Cladocera also provide the means to reconstruct reference conditions and natural long-term community dynamics. Unfortunately, the use of zooplankton in lake quality assessments is currently underexploited. We studied a surface sediment dataset of 41 lakes in Finland to examine the relationship between Cladocera remains and environmental variables. Of the examined environmental variables, total phosphorus availability was found to be the most important variable in explaining the Cladocera community composition. Following the tests on species environment relations, we selected a lake trophic typology as the most suitable environmental variable for developing a new tool for limnoecological quality assessments. A test of the model on a modern and historic sample from a eutrophied lake showed that the test lake has proceeded from “mesotrophic/poor” to “eutrophic/bad” limnoecological state in agreement with previous independent evidence. The model developed here showed favorable performance that can be used to provide reliable estimates of ecological and environmental state of lakes.

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Acknowledgments

The material used in this study was collected during the EPHIPPIUM project (Academy of Finland, grant #1107062). Personal grants from the Academy of Finland (ILMAVEIVI-project, grant #250343) for T.P. Luoto and from the Kone Foundation (EGGER-project) for L. Nevalainen are deeply appreciated. We thank the members of the Ephippium project field team, Seija Kultti, Susanna Kihlman, and Anu Hakala, for their help in collecting the material. We are also grateful for the two reviewers for providing constructive comments that significantly improved the value of the paper.

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  1. Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 64, 00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Tomi P. Luoto & Kaarina Sarmaja-Korjonen

  2. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Niemenkatu 73, 15140, Lahti, Finland

    Liisa Nevalainen

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  1. Tomi P. Luoto
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Luoto, T.P., Nevalainen, L. & Sarmaja-Korjonen, K. Zooplankton (Cladocera) in assessments of biologic integrity and reference conditions: application of sedimentary assemblages from shallow boreal lakes. Hydrobiologia 707, 173–185 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-012-1422-4

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