The fauna in the upper stony littoral of Danish lakes: macroinvertebrates as trophic indicators

Abstract

1. The macroinvertebrate fauna living on stones in the exposed stony littorals of thirty‐nine Danish lakes were examined by multivariate numerical methods. The data were derived from 125 semi‐quantitative samples and a species list of 126 taxa. The mean number of individuals per sample was 960, and among the most common taxa were Asellus aquaticus, Gammarus, Oulimnius, Tinodes, Cricotopus and Dicrotendipes.2. The total number of species and fourteen individual taxa were positively correlated to mean depth of the lakes and eleven taxa were correlated to the total phosphorus concentration. The Shannon diversity was negatively correlated to the chlorophyll a concentration ([Chl a]).3. Community patterns were examined by detrended correspondence analysis (DCA), and the relationship between species data and selected environmental variables was analysed by canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). Mean lake depth was found to be the strongest environmental variable in explaining the species data. The [Chl a] and Secchi depth also explained significant variation in the distribution of the stony littoral invertebrates. Wind fetch and relative exposure did not explain any variation in the faunal composition among sites.4. The abilities of the macroinvertebrates to predict the lake trophic state, expressed as log ([Chl a]), were explored by means of weighted averaging (WA) regression and calibration. Two tolerance‐weighted WA models using inverse and classical regression for deshrinking are presented. The models were assessed by the root mean square error (RMSE) of prediction, using bootstrapping as cross validation, and by the correlation between observed and inferred log ([Chl a]). The model using inverse deshrinking had a RMSEboot = 0.41 and r2 = 0.63. By using classical regression, the predictability in the ends of the gradient was improved but the RMSE increased: RMSEboot = 0.46.5. Although the factors determining faunal distribution patterns in the Danish lowland lakes were highly multivariate and difficult to disentangle, it seems reasonable to use the WA estimated species optima and tolerances to [Chl a] in a bio‐assessment model.