The ecological organisation of lake districts: general introduction

Abstract

1. Here we introduce a special issue of Freshwater Biology that focuses on the landscape‐scale spatial and temporal patterns exhibited by multiple lakes within lake districts. We call this patterning, and the processes that lead to it, the ‘ecological organisation of lake districts.’2. Papers in this special issue share the common goal of examining landscape‐level processes that lead to spatial and temporal patterns of lake characteristics in individual or multiple lake districts. Several papers focus on the degree to which multiple lakes have synchronous among year variability in various physical, chemical, and biological variables. Others focus on the landscape‐level processes that lead to spatial patterning of lake characteristics. Finally, a few papers examine the relationship between spatial patterning and temporal dynamics. Papers in this special issue present results from 10 lake districts from North America, Europe, and Antarctica.