engleski

Man-made vs. natural lakes: a story told by chironomid community

Standing water bodies can be both natural and man-made. The latter can be used for the production of electric energy, irrigation or flood control and are often created by flooding an existing river valley thus causing a decrease in macroinvertebrate diversity of the area. The Chironomidae family (Insecta: Diptera) is widely distributed and often among the most abundant taxa in benthic macroinvertebrate communities of standing water bodies, and are frequently used in the ecological quality assessment of freshwater habitats. The main goal of this study was to determine whether man-made lakes can support the same amount of chironomid diversity as natural lakes and what criteria must be met. Both man-made and natural lakes were studied. Littoral macroinvertebrate samples were collected from May to October 2016/2017 in 21 man-made lakes and from July to September 2018 in 7 natural lakes of the Dinaric Western Balkan ecoregion, using the standard lake littoral sampling method. A total of 680 samples were analysed, and more than 130 000 individuals belonging to more than 80 taxa were found. Chironomid abundance was significantly higher in man-made lakes. No significant difference was observed in species richness and diversity indices between man-made and natural lakes. Within man-made lakes, the ones with short water retention time and high water-level fluctuations had significantly lower chironomid abundance and species richness, but there were no differences in diversity indices. Man-made lakes of the Dinaric karst with longer water retention time and low water-level fluctuations can potentially serve as natural lakes for chironomid community

Chironomidae ; Lake littoral ; Natural Lakes ; 80 taxa

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