An attempt at a typology of karst lakes in the Połaniec Basin (Małopolska Upland)

Abstract

Abstract The main goal of the paper is to attempt a typology of karst lakes in the Połaniec Basin (Małopolska Upland). The typology was conducted on the basis of a dependence analysis of several essential morphometric parameters of lake basins. The considered data comprised 23 lakes with respect to 15 morphometric features. The correlation analysis, mainly of a group of lakes located in single karst sinkholes, revealed that the length and width of basins are strongly correlated. It is also noticeable that basin shape determines lake volume, even though pools of similar water volume may differ in area. Moreover, an increase in the maximum depth of basins does not necessarily imply any increase in volume. Likewise, there is no prevalent dependence between basin area and maximum depth. The cluster analysis, among reasonable indications, generally identified a division of the considered lakes into two sets. One of the sets comprises Duży Staw and Dziki Staw, while the other consists of all the other lakes. Less frequent divisions into three indicated Duży Staw, Dziki Staw, and Czwarty Staw as the leading lakes. Divisions into 19–22 clusters were also suggested, but this does not seem to be reliable. As a consequence, the cluster analysis showed that Duży Staw and Dziki Staw stand out the most from the other lakes. This remainder constitutes rather close to each other, but not an ideally uniform group of lakes.