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Efficient sampling methodologies for lake littoral invertebrates in compliance with the European Water Framework Directive

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Abstract

Lake shores are characterised by a high natural variability, which is increasingly threatened by a multitude of anthropogenic disturbances including morphological alterations to the littoral zone. The European Water Framework Directive (EU WFD) calls for the assessment of lake ecological status by monitoring biological quality elements including benthic macroinvertebrates. To identify cost- and time-efficient sampling strategies for routine lake monitoring, we sampled littoral invertebrates in 32 lakes located in different geographical regions in Europe. We compared the efficiency of two sampling methodologies, defined as habitat-specific and pooled composite sampling protocols. Benthic samples were collected from unmodified and morphologically altered shorelines. Variability within macroinvertebrate communities did not differ significantly between sampling protocols across alteration types, lake types and geographical regions. Community composition showed no significant differences between field composite samples and artificially generated composite samples, and correlation coefficients between macroinvertebrate metrics calculated with both methods and a predefined morphological stressor index were similar. We conclude that proportional composite sampling represents a time- and cost-efficient method for routine lake monitoring as requested under the EU WFD, and may be applied across various European geographical regions.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is a result of the project WISER (Water bodies in Europe: Integrative Systems to assess Ecological status and Recovery) funded by the European Union under the 7th Framework Programme, Theme 6 (Environment including Climate Change) (contract No. 226273), http://www.wiser.eu. We thank Daniel Graeber for help with the statistical analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecosystem Research, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Müggelseedamm 301, 12587, Berlin, Germany

    Gwendolin Porst, Oliver Miler, Francesca Pilotto, Mario Brauns & Martin Pusch

  2. Chair of Water Resources Management and Modelling of Hydrosystems, Technische Universität Berlin, Sec. TIB1-B14, Gustav-Meyer-Allee 25, 13355, Berlin, Germany

    Gwendolin Porst

  3. School of Natural Sciences, Zoology Department, Freshwater Research Group, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland

    Louise Donohue & Tamara Jurca

  4. Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Francesca Pilotto & Angelo Solimini

  5. Department River Ecology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH – UFZ, Brückstr. 3a, 39114, Magdeburg, Germany

    Mario Brauns

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  1. Gwendolin Porst
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  2. Oliver Miler
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  3. Louise Donohue
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  4. Tamara Jurca
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  5. Francesca Pilotto
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  6. Mario Brauns
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  7. Angelo Solimini
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  8. Martin Pusch
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Correspondence to Gwendolin Porst.

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Porst, G., Miler, O., Donohue, L. et al. Efficient sampling methodologies for lake littoral invertebrates in compliance with the European Water Framework Directive. Hydrobiologia 767, 207–220 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-015-2500-1

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