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Littoral benthic macroinvertebrates of mountain lakes in the Tatra Mountains (Slovakia, Poland)

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Abstract

Littoral benthic macroinvertebrates of 45 mountain lakes in the Tatra Mountains were sampled using a semi-quantitative method in September 2000. A total of 32,852 specimens were identified to 93 taxa belonging to 14 higher taxonomic groups. Multivariate statistics (CCA, RDA) and nine biotic metrics (AQEM/STAR) were used to explain relationships between macroinvertebrate assemblages and environmental variables. Up to 57% of the ecological position of littoral macroinvertebrate assemblages were explained by variance of environmental variables divided into chemical, trophic, physical, catchment and location. Five types of Tatra lakes were recognized using CCA: A — strongly acidified lakes (small catchment, low pH, high concentration of TP, DOC, highest amount of POM in littoral); B — alpine acidified lakes (low amount of POM, low values of biotic metrics); C — alpine non-acidified lakes (high value of diversity index, predominance of Diptera); D — subalpine acidified lakes (high values of biotic metrics: number of families, proportion of crenal and rhithral taxa/total taxa); E — subalpine non-acidified lakes (high values of biotic metrics: number of families, number of genera, BMWP score, number of taxa and abundance of EPT taxa). RDA was used to design five levels of macroinvertebrate taxa acidification tolerance. The Tatra Acidification Index (TAI) was established to assess the acidification status of the lakes in the Tatra Mts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, Comenius University, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Mlynská dolina B2, SK-84215, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Il’ja Krno

  2. Department of Hydrobiology, Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravska cesta 9, SK-84506, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Ferdinand Šporka, Ladislav Hamerlík & Zuzana Zaťovičová

  3. Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, av. Mickiewicza 33, PL-31120, Krakow, Poland

    Joanna Galas

  4. Department of Biology and General Ecology, Faculty of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Technical University in Zvolen, SK-96053, Zvolen, Slovakia

    Peter Bitušík

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  1. Il’ja Krno
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Krno, I., Šporka, F., Galas, J. et al. Littoral benthic macroinvertebrates of mountain lakes in the Tatra Mountains (Slovakia, Poland). Biologia 61 (Suppl 18), S147–S166 (2006). https://doi.org/10.2478/s11756-006-0127-4

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