Abiotic factors as a long-term stressor for the vendace fisheries in Lake Ińsko (European Central Plains Ecoregion, Poland)

Abstract

The population of vendace ( Coregonus albula L., 1758) in many European lakes, especially in Central Europe, have declined recently as a result of lake eutrophication. The aim of the study was to (i) determine many years’ changes in the volume of vendace catches and specific physicochemical parameters of water, (ii) determine correlations between particular physicochemical parameters, and (iii) indicate hydrochemical parameters which show the greatest impact on the volume of vendace catches on the example of Lake Ińsko located in the European Central Plains Ecoregion. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to indicate the most important hydrochemical variables impact on vendace fisheries. Among them, after redundancy analysis, 6 were taken into account (total nitrogen, N-NO3, N-NO2, total phosphorus, oxygen concentration, temperature). Time series analysis revealed an increasing trend in nutrients concentration in lake. Analyses showed that fish catches were mostly negatively connected to nitrogen and phosphorus concentration. Trend analysis, based on the above-mentioned parameters, can provide prediction of vendace catches for further years with the predictability at the level of around 60% accuracy. The results of this study are very crucial to the vendace fisheries and for formulating fisheries management policies in the future in the changing hydrochemical condition of lakes.