Classification, assessment and trophic reconstruction of Danish lakes using chironomids

Abstract

1. Surface‐sediment assemblages of subfossil chironomid head capsules from fifty‐four primarily shallow and nutrient‐rich Danish lakes were analysed using multivariate numerical techniques. The species data, comprising forty‐one chironomid taxa, were compared to environmental monitoring data in order to establish a relationship between chironomid faunal composition and lake trophic state.2. The subfossil assemblages were compared to the chironomid bathymetric distributions along transects from four lakes. Correspondence analysis and similarity coefficients showed that the subfossil assemblages, sampled in the lake centre, reflect the chironomid communities in the littoral at a depth of 2–7 m.3. Two‐way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN) was used to classify the Danish lakes into five groups defined by trophic state, lake depth and pH. Eighteen chironomid taxa showed significant differences in abundance among the five groups. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) showed the chlorophyll a concentration ([Chl a]) and Secchi depth to be the variables best correlated to the faunal data, and fourteen taxa were significantly correlated to [Chl a].4. The strong correlation between chironomid data and the ln‐transformed ([Chl a]) was used to create a weighted averaging (WA) model to infer lake trophic state. Several models were tested by cross validation (leave‐one‐out jack‐knifing), and a simple WA model using inverse de‐shrinking had a RMSEPjack of 0.65 (ln units) and a r2jack of 0.67.5. The results can be used in the assessment and reconstruction of lake trophic state for long‐term monitoring and palaeoecological investigations of shallow, temperate lakes in the mesotrophic to hypertrophic nutrient range.