Vegetation communities of British lakes: a revised classification scheme for conservation

1. A revised classification scheme is described for standing waters in Britain, based on the TWINSPAN analysis of a dataset of aquatic plant records from 3447 lakes in England, Wales and Scotland, which is held by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. 2. Separate ecological descriptions of 11 distinct lake groups (A–J) are presented with summary environmental data, macrophyte constancy tables and maps showing their distribution. These lake groups include small dystrophic waters dominated by Sphagnum spp.; large, acid, upland lakes supporting a diversity of plant species, including Juncus bulbosus, Littorella uniflora, Lobelia dortmanna and Myriophyllum alterniflorum; low-altitude, above-neutral lakes with a high diversity of plant species, characterized by the presence of Potamogeton spp., Chara spp. or water-lilies and other floating-leaved vegetation; and coastal, brackish lakes, with macroalgae. 3. The Plant Lake Ecotype Index (PLEX) is presented as an indicator of changing lake environments. PLEX scores reflecting the new classification scheme have been developed for individual plant species and lakes. Applications of the index are demonstrated. 4. There is discussion of possible applications of the data collected and the resultant classification, in the context of the Habitats Directive, the Water Framework Directive and other conservation requirements. © Crown copyright 2006. Reproduced with the permission of Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  P. M. Wade.  The impact of human activity on the aquatic macroflora of Llangorse Lake, South Wales , 1999 .

[2]  B. Moss,et al.  Ecology of fresh waters : man and medium, past to future , 1998 .

[3]  F. Perring,et al.  British red data books: 1. Vascular plants. , 1983 .

[4]  W. Pearsall.  The aquatic vegetation of the English lakes. , 1920 .

[5]  M. O. Hill,et al.  A Fortran program for arranging multivariate data in an ordered two-way table by classification of the individuals and attributes , 1979 .

[6]  R. Battarbee,et al.  Afforestation and lake acidification: a comparison of four sites in Scotland. , 1990 .

[7]  W. Pearsall,et al.  The development of vegetation in the English lakes, considered in relation to the general evolution of glacial lakes and rock basins , 1921 .

[8]  C. Preston,et al.  Aquatic Plants in Britain and Ireland , 1997 .

[9]  C. Braak.  Canonical Correspondence Analysis: A New Eigenvector Technique for Multivariate Direct Gradient Analysis , 1986 .

[10]  C. Stace,et al.  New Flora Of The British Isles , 1998 .

[11]  R. Bachmann.  A guide to the restoration of nutrient‐enriched shallow lakes , 1999 .

[12]  R. Wetzel.  Limnology: Lake and River Ecosystems , 1975 .

[13]  David J. Gibson,et al.  British Plant Communities, Volume 4: Aquatic Communities, Swamps and Tall-Herb Fens. , 1995 .

[14]  N. F. Stewart,et al.  Red data books of Britain and Ireland : stoneworts , 1992 .

[15]  Don Monteith,et al.  Conservation classification of lakes in Wales, with implications for the EU Water Framework Directive. , 2001 .

[16]  A. Farmer.  The effects of lake acidification on aquatic macrophytes--a review. , 1990, Environmental pollution.

[17]  B. Moss,et al.  Ecology of Fresh Waters , 1980 .

[18]  M. Hill.  The Liverwort Flora of the British Isles , 2000 .

[19]  T. Dines,et al.  New atlas of the British and Irish flora. An atlas of the vascular plants of Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. , 2002 .

[20]  J. Pokorný,et al.  Aquatic Plants and Lake Ecosystems , 2007 .

[21]  Ewan M. Shilland,et al.  The United Kingdom Acid Waters Monitoring Network Data Report for 2011-2012 (year 24). Report to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Contract EPG 1/3/160) , 2004 .

[22]  Guidelines for Using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria , 2005 .

[23]  H. Bennion,et al.  An assessment of recent environmental change in Llangorse Lake using palaeolimnology , 1999 .

[24]  C. Duigan,et al.  Relationships between littoral microcrustacea and aquatic macrophyte communities on the Isle of Skye (Scotland), with implications for the conservation of standing waters , 1994 .

[25]  Jari Oksanen,et al.  Instability of ordination results under changes in input data order: explanations and remedies , 1997 .

[26]  M. Scheffer.  Ecology of Shallow Lakes , 1997, Population and Community Biology Series.

[27]  A. Melzer,et al.  Macrophyte-based assessment of lakes - a contribution to the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive in Germany , 2005 .

[28]  S. Maberly,et al.  Area, altitude and aquatic plant diversity , 2003 .

[29]  H. Bennion,et al.  The past, present and future of Llangorse Lake—a shallow nutrient-rich lake in the Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales, UK , 1999 .

[30]  Mark Huxham,et al.  The European Water Framework Directive: a new era in the management of aquatic ecosystem health? , 1998 .

[31]  C. Preston.  Pondweeds of Great Britain and Ireland , 1995 .

[32]  M. Palmer,et al.  A botanical classification of standing waters in Britain: Applications for conservation and monitoring , 1992 .

[33]  H. H. Birks,et al.  Species–environmental relationships of aquatic macrophytes in Northern Ireland , 2001 .

[34]  T.E.H. Allott,et al.  Classification of lakes in Wales for conservation using integrated biological data , 1999 .

[35]  N. Willby,et al.  Inter‐relationships between standing crop, biodiversity and trait attributes of hydrophytic vegetation in artificial waterways , 2001 .