@article{Mavromati2023,

title = {Does littoral substrate affect macroinvertebrate assemblages in Mediterranean lakes?},

author = {Efpraxia Mavromati and Dimitra Kemitzoglou and Vasiliki Tsiaoussi},

doi = {10.1007/s10452-023-10037-7},

issn = {1573-5125},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-06-05},

journal = {Aquat Ecol},

volume = {57},

number = {3},

pages = {667--679},

publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC},

abstract = {The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of substrate type in macroinvertebrate assemblages in Mediterranean lakes. Samplings have taken place in the littoral zone of 21 lakes in Greece, between 2015 and 2018. We compared benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages among three substrate types of their littoral zones; sandy, covered with macrophytes and stony substrate. Benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages at sites with extended macrophyte cover differed only slightly in composition and abundance from the ones found in stony and sandy substrates. Coenagrionidae were indicative of sites covered with macrophytes and Oligochaeta and Erpobdellidae were representative of stony substrates. The type of substrate proved to be a statistically significant factor influencing the number of benthic macroinvertebrate taxa, the relative abundance of Oligochaeta and the relative abundance of Odonata. In the context of designing site-adapted management measures, priority could be given to the conservation and restoration of aquatic vegetation in lake littoral zones, which host rich macroinvertebrate assemblages with abundant taxa of Odonata.},

keywords = {Aquatic Science, Behavior and Systematics, Ecology, Evolution},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Kelly2023,

title = {Development of novel diatom metrics to assess ecological status of phytobenthos in Greek lakes},

author = {Martyn Kelly and Steve Juggins and Kimon Moschandreou and Dimitra Kemitzoglou and Vasiliki Tsiaoussi},

doi = {10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.109974},

issn = {1470-160X},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-02-16},

journal = {Ecological Indicators},

volume = {147},

publisher = {Elsevier BV},

abstract = {Mediterranean lakes present particular challenges when developing ecological assessment techniques, due partly to long histories of human activity in their catchments but also to strong interactions with climate, intensifying in recent decades due to global warming. A survey of diatoms in lakes in Greece revealed both a strong nutrient gradient and a salinity gradient. It is necessary to disentangle these when assessing ecological status in order that appropriate measures for restoring good ecological status are applied. Two approaches were used to develop a Water Framework Directive-compatible metric for assessing ecological status using diatoms. The strongest relationship was obtained using weighted averaging, but an alternative metric, generated by rescaling a well-established and widely used diatom metric performed only slightly less well. The limited number of lakes in Greece resulted in a small dataset, creating a risk of overfitting models and the rescaled metric has the advantage of drawing on a broader autecological knowledge base. Supplementary metrics to evaluate salinity are also proposed in order to ensure that lakes subject to this pressure are clearly differentiated from those where nutrient impacts predominate. Approaches to defining reference conditions and status class boundaries draw on established criteria developed for Water Framework Assessments in Europe to ensure that status assessments in Greece reflect similar levels of ambition to those established elsewhere in the European Union.},

keywords = {Behavior and Systematics, Ecology, Evolution, General Decision Sciences},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Zervas2019,

title = {Exploring the relationships between aquatic macrophyte functional traits and anthropogenic pressures in freshwater lakes},

author = {Dimitrios Zervas and Vasiliki Tsiaoussi and Athanasios S. Kallimanis and Panayotis Dimopoulos and Ioannis Tsiripidis},

doi = {10.1016/j.actao.2019.103443},

issn = {1146-609X},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-06-27},

journal = {Acta Oecologica},

volume = {99},

publisher = {Elsevier BV},

abstract = {Modern water resource management requires biomonitoring of the structure and functioning of freshwater ecosystems, which may be better illuminated by functional trait distribution patterns and responses across human-induced pressure gradients. In this study, we applied the RLQ, the fourth-corner and their novel combination methods, in order to assess the relationship between the distribution of 30 aquatic macrophyte functional traits and 14 indicators of anthropogenic pressures across 16 freshwater lakes. Our findings showed that there is a statistically significant relationship between the distribution of specific functional traits and anthropogenic pressures. Eutrophication was the dominant pressure and the shift from a submerged-macrophyte dominated vegetation community to an emergent one was the most important functional response. Aerial reproduction and dispersal traits were found to replace water-related ones under higher nutrient concentrations. Trophic and light preferences of macrophytic species increased, while their leaf morphology was found to change from tubular/capillary leaf types with low leaf area values to entire leaf types with greater leaf area. These results provide hints on the changes in ecosystem functioning occurring as a response to human-induced drivers. Therefore, this assessment approach could provide important support to the tasks of biomonitoring, conservation and management planning in freshwater ecosystems.},

keywords = {Behavior and Systematics, Ecology, Evolution, Nature and Landscape Conservation},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Ntislidou2018,

title = {A new multimetric macroinvertebrate index for the ecological assessment of Mediterranean lakes},

author = {Chrysoula Ntislidou and Maria Lazaridou and Vasiliki Tsiaoussi and Dimitra Bobori},

doi = {10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.05.071},

issn = {1470-160X},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-06-20},

journal = {Ecological Indicators},

volume = {93},

pages = {1020--1033},

publisher = {Elsevier BV},

abstract = {This study outlines the development and application of a new multimetric index (Greek Lake Benthic macroinvertebrate Index – GLBiI) for the assessment of the ecological quality of Greek lakes, based on the ecological quality ratio (EQR), under the requirements of the Water Framework Directive. Profundal and sublittoral benthic macroinvertebrates from 18 lakes were biannually sampled across Greece. Additionally, 21 environmental parameters and 5 human pressures were assessed for each lake. The hindcasting approach was used for the establishment of reference conditions after minimizing human pressures. A pool of 84 candidate metrics, representing diversity/richness, sensitivity, functional traits, and taxonomical composition, were tested for the development of the multimetric index. Spearman’s rank correlation extracted seven environmental parameters (lake area, mean depth, altitude, alkalinity, dissolved oxygen at bottom and conductivity at bottom) and three human pressures (total phosphorus, population density and non-natural land cover) that were further stepwise linear regressed against each biological metric for pressure-response relationships. Finally, three metrics, the number of taxa and the Simpson's diversity index in the profundal and sublittoral zones, and the relative contribution of Chironomidae (%) family in the profundal zone, were selected as the most appropriate, responding to eutrophication (expressed as total phosphorus and non-natural land cover). The multimetric index GLBiI was expressed as the mean of the EQRs of its metrics following a five class ecological status system. This assessment method may be used in other Mediterranean lakes with similar characteristics.},

keywords = {Behavior and Systematics, Ecology, Evolution, General Decision Sciences},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Petriki2017,

title = {A fish-based index for the assessment of the ecological quality of temperate lakes},

author = {Olga Petriki and Maria Lazaridou and Dimitra Bobori},

doi = {10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.03.029},

issn = {1470-160X},

year  = {2017},

date = {2017-04-08},

journal = {Ecological Indicators},

volume = {78},

pages = {556--565},

publisher = {Elsevier BV},

abstract = {A fish – based index for the assessment of the ecological quality of natural temperate lakes was developed, in accordance to the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) 2000/60/EC. As a case study, 11 natural lakes located at northern and western Greece were selected. Fish surveys were conducted during mid summer to mid autumn in 2010, 2011 and 2012 using Nordic gillnets and electrofishing. Environmental parameters and anthropogenic pressures were assessed for each lake. Fish species richness, abundance, trophic, reproductive and habitat functional guilds were used for extracting a set of 107 metrics, meeting the requirements of the WFD. All metrics were initially tested as candidates for the index development. A stepwise linear regression of each metric against environmental parameters (lake area, altitude, maximum depth, alkalinity) and anthropogenic pressures (drainage area covered by non-natural land uses – NNLC, water total phosphorus concentrations – TP, Lake Habitat Modification Score – LHMS) was initially conducted for ensuring pressure-response relationships. Reference conditions for each lake were estimated by the hindcasting procedure and the ecological quality for each lake was expressed as the ecological quality ratio (EQR) by a value ranging from 0 (poor quality) to 1 (excellent quality). Two fish fauna metrics, the relative numerical abundance of introduced species (Introduceda) and the relative biomass of omnivorous species (OMNIb) were finally extracted as the most significant, responding to LHMS and TP, respectively. The final index was expressed as the mean values of the EQRs of these two metrics. The multimetric fish index presented herein could serve as a tool for assessing the ecological quality of natural lakes at broad geographical scale and generally, in the Mediterranean temperate lakes with similar hydromorphological characteristics.},

keywords = {Behavior and Systematics, Ecology, Evolution, General Decision Sciences},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}