Abstract
Lake Ringsjön has been subject to a severe eutrophication process followed by various counter measures, such as nutrient reduction and fish manipulation. We have quantified staging waterfowl populations from 1968, before the eutrophication process reached its maximum, to 1996 when both the nutrient and fish reduction programmes were performed. The general pattern is that high numbers staged in Lake Ringsjön in 1968–1972. In the following 15 years, few waterfowl used the lake as staging area, but from about 1989, the number of birds again began to increase. The likely explanation of this pattern is an improved food availability within the lake, rather than large-scale, national, increases in bird population sizes, a notion strengthened by comparisons with standardized national waterfowl counts. We conclude that there are strong relations between limnological conditions and waterfowl abundances, and that the measures undertaken in Lake Ringsjön improved the lake as a staging area for waterfowl.
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Andersson, G., Nilsson, L. Autumn waterfowl abundance in Lake Ringsjön, 1968–1996. Hydrobiologia 404, 41–51 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1003709620993
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1003709620993