Littoral benthic macroinvertebrates of mountain lakes in the Tatra Mountains (Slovakia, Poland)

AbstractLittoral benthic macroinvertebrates of 45 mountain lakes in the Tatra Mountains were sampled using a semi-quantitative method in September 2000. A total of 32,852 specimens were identified to 93 taxa belonging to 14 higher taxonomic groups. Multivariate statistics (CCA, RDA) and nine biotic metrics (AQEM/STAR) were used to explain relationships between macroinvertebrate assemblages and environmental variables. Up to 57% of the ecological position of littoral macroinvertebrate assemblages were explained by variance of environmental variables divided into chemical, trophic, physical, catchment and location. Five types of Tatra lakes were recognized using CCA: A — strongly acidified lakes (small catchment, low pH, high concentration of TP, DOC, highest amount of POM in littoral); B — alpine acidified lakes (low amount of POM, low values of biotic metrics); C — alpine non-acidified lakes (high value of diversity index, predominance of Diptera); D — subalpine acidified lakes (high values of biotic metrics: number of families, proportion of crenal and rhithral taxa/total taxa); E — subalpine non-acidified lakes (high values of biotic metrics: number of families, number of genera, BMWP score, number of taxa and abundance of EPT taxa). RDA was used to design five levels of macroinvertebrate taxa acidification tolerance. The Tatra Acidification Index (TAI) was established to assess the acidification status of the lakes in the Tatra Mts.

Download Full-text

Factors governing nutrient status of mountain lakes in the Tatra Mountains

Freshwater Biology ◽

10.1046/j.1365-2427.2000.00569.x ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 43 (3) ◽

pp. 369-383 ◽

Cited By ~ 52

Author(s):

JiR. öå Kopàcöek ◽

Evzö.E. N. Stuchlåk& ◽

VeörA. Strasökrab ◽

Petra Psöenàk ◽

Keyword(s):

Nutrient Status ◽

Mountain Lakes ◽

Tatra Mountains ◽

The Tatra Mountains

Download Full-text

Chemical composition of the Tatra Mountain lakes: Response to acidification

Biologia ◽

10.2478/s11756-006-0116-7 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 61 (18) ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Evžen Stuchlík ◽

Jiří Kopáček ◽

Jan Fott ◽

Zuzana Hořická

Keyword(s):

Water Chemistry ◽

Base Cations ◽

Mountain Lakes ◽

Metamorphic Rocks ◽

Tatra Mountains ◽

Lake District ◽

Lake Water Chemistry ◽

Catchment Areas ◽

Major Factors ◽

The Tatra Mountains

AbstractData from two surveys of the Tatra Mountain lakes (Slovakia and Poland) performed in the autumns of 1984 (53 lakes) and 1993 or 1994 (92 lakes) were used to estimate spatial variability in water chemistry in this lake district during the period of maximum European acid deposition. The ionic content of the lakes was generally low, with conductivity (at 20°C) ranging from 1.1 to 4.7 mS m−1 and 23% of the lakes had a depleted carbonate buffering system. Major factors governing differences in lake-water chemistry were bedrock composition and amount of soil and vegetation in their catchment areas. Compared to lakes in the predominantly granitic central part of the Tatra Mountains, lakes in the West Tatra Mountains had higher concentrations of base cations and alkalinity due to the presence of metamorphic rocks in the bedrock. Concentrations of phosphorus, organic carbon, organic nitrogen, and chlorophyll-a were highest in forest lakes and decreased with decreasing density of vegetation and soil cover in the catchment areas. Concentrations of nitrate showed an opposite trend. Several exceptions to these general patterns in chemical and biological composition were due to exceptional geology or hydrology of the lake catchments.

Download Full-text

Water temperatures and ice cover in lakes of the Tatra Mountains

Biologia ◽

10.2478/s11756-006-0121-x ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 61 (18) ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Ferdinand Šporka ◽

David Livingstone ◽

Evžen Stuchlík ◽

Jan Turek ◽

Joanna Galas

Keyword(s):

Ambient Air ◽

Ice Cover ◽

Mountain Lakes ◽

Temperature Profiles ◽

Tatra Mountains ◽

Lake Surface ◽

Quantitative Characterization ◽

Data Loggers ◽

The Tatra Mountains

AbstractIn 2000 and 2001, miniature thermistors with integrated data loggers were employed to measure lake surface water temperatures (LSWTs) and temperature profiles in high-altitude mountain lakes lying between 1580 and 2145 m a.s.l. on both the Slovak and Polish sides of the Tatra Mountains. This allowed the annual cycle of water temperatures and ice cover in these lakes to be described quantitatively, and their dependence on lake altitude above sea level to be investigated. LSWTs in the Tatra Mountains are found to decrease approximately linearly with increasing altitude from late spring to autumn. LSWT in summer can be modelled well in terms of exponentially smoothed ambient air temperature. Although the timing of ice-off is dependent on altitude, the timing of ice-on is not; the dependence of the duration of ice cover on altitude is therefore wholly due to the altitudinal dependence of the timing of ice-off. The temperature profile measurements allow quantitative characterization of summer and winter stagnation, and spring and autumn turnover.

Download Full-text

Checklist of benthic macroinvertebrates of high altitude ponds of the Tatra Mountains (Central Europe) with new records of two species for Slovakia

Check List ◽

10.15560/11.1.1522 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 1522 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Milan Novikmec ◽

Marta Veselská ◽

Peter Bitušík ◽

Ladislav Hamerlík ◽

Zuzana Matúšová ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Altitude ◽

Central Europe ◽

Benthic Macroinvertebrates ◽

New Records ◽

The Other ◽

Tatra Mountains ◽

Minimum Number ◽

Taxonomic Groups ◽

The Tatra Mountains ◽

Total Diversity

A checklist of benthic macroinvertebrates of ponds of Tatra Mountains is presented. The checklist comprises 122 taxa including the first records of Derotanypus cf. sibiricus (Kruglova & Chernovskii, 1940) (Diptera: Chironomidae) and Arctocorisa carinata (Sahlberg, 1918) (Heteroptera) from Slovakia. The most diverse pond site supported 28 taxa, the minimum number of recorded taxa was 2. The richest group was Chironomidae (Diptera) constituting almost half of the total diversity (58 taxa), followed by Trichoptera with 15 taxa. The other higher taxonomic groups were represented by considerably lower taxa number. Relatively high number of recorded taxa underlines important contribution of small lentic waterbodies to regional biodiversity of high-altitude ecosystems.

Download Full-text

Epilithic diatoms of mountain lakes of the Tatra Mountains (Slovakia)

Biologia ◽

10.2478/s11756-006-0123-8 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 61 (18) ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Elena Štefková

Keyword(s):

Species Composition ◽

Relative Abundance ◽

Hierarchical Cluster ◽

Mountain Lakes ◽

High Mountain ◽

Tatra Mountains ◽

Epilithic Diatoms ◽

The Status ◽

The Individual ◽

The Tatra Mountains

AbstractIn the framework of the international project EMERGE, species composition of epilithic diatoms of 34 selected high mountain lakes of Slovak part of the Tatra Mountains were investigated. In all, 127 taxa of diatoms belonging to 26 genera were recorded. Comparison of the epilithic assemblages of the investigated lakes showed differences both in relative abundance and taxa present in the individual lakes. On the basis of species composition and relative abundance of epilithic diatoms using hierarchical cluster analysis, two main groups of lakes were created. The first group includes 4 lakes which can be classified as strongly acidified and 9 lakes which are acidified or threatened by acidification. In this group, acidophilous species such as Achnanthes helvetica, A. marginulata, Aulacoseira distans and Tabellaria flocculosa prevailed. The second group includes 19 non-acidified lakes. The most common diatoms in these lakes were Achnanthes minutissima, A. helvetica, Cymbella minuta and Denticula tenuis which occur practically in all these lakes but with different abundances. The division of lakes due to their diatom species composition mostly confirmed the status of these lakes as judged from their water chemistry.

Download Full-text

A new diatom training set for the reconstruction of past water pH in the Tatra Mountain lakes

Journal of Paleolimnology ◽

10.1007/s10933-021-00182-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Elwira Sienkiewicz ◽

Michał Gąsiorowski ◽

Ladislav Hamerlík ◽

Peter Bitušík ◽

Joanna Stańczak

Keyword(s):

Surface Sediments ◽

Tatra Mountains ◽

Training Set ◽

Statistical Parameters ◽

The Past ◽

Water Ph ◽

Inferred Ph ◽

The 1960S ◽

The Tatra Mountains ◽

The Relationship

AbstractLakes located in the Polish and Slovak parts of the Tatra Mountains were included in the Tatra diatom database (POL_SLOV training set). The relationship between the diatoms and the water chemistry in the surface sediments of 33 lakes was the basis for the statistical and numerical techniques for quantitative pH reconstruction. The reconstruction of the past water pH was performed using the alpine (AL:PE) and POL_SLOV training sets to compare the reliability of the databases for the Tatra lakes. The results showed that the POL_SLOV training set had better statistical parameters (R2 higher by 0.16, RMSE and max. bias lower by 0.2 and 0.36, respectively) compared to the AL:PE training set. The better performance of the POL_SLOV training set is particularly visible in the case of Przedni Staw Polski where the curve of the inferred water pH shows an opposite trend for the period from the 1960s to 1990 compared to that based on the AL:PE dataset. The reliability of the inferred pH was confirmed by the comparison with current instrumental measurements.

Download Full-text

The intensity of slope and fluvial processes after a catastrophic windthrow event in small catchments in the Tatra Mountains

Journal of Mountain Science ◽

10.1007/s11629-021-6726-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (6) ◽

pp. 1405-1423

Author(s):

Dariusz Strzyżowski ◽

Elżbieta Gorczyca ◽

Kazimierz Krzemień ◽

Mirosław Żelazny

Keyword(s):

Environmental Changes ◽

Bedload Transport ◽

Strong Wind ◽

Tatra Mountains ◽

Salvage Logging ◽

Fluvial Processes ◽

Wind Events ◽

And Control ◽

The Tatra Mountains ◽

The Impact

AbstractStrong wind events frequently result in creating large areas of windthrow, which causes abrupt environmental changes. Bare soil surfaces within pits and root plates potentially expose soil to erosion. Absence of forest may alter the dynamics of water circulation. In this study we attempt to answer the question of whether extensive windthrows influence the magnitude of geomorphic processes in 6 small second- to third-order catchments with area ranging from 0.09 km2 to 0.8 km2. Three of the catchments were significantly affected by a windthrow which occurred in December 2013 in the Polish part of the Tatra Mountains, and the other three catchments were mostly forested and served as control catchments. We mapped the pits created by the windthrow and the linear scars created by salvage logging operations in search of any signs of erosion within them. We also mapped all post-windthrow landslides created in the windthrow-affected catchments. The impact of the windthrow on the fluvial system was investigated by measuring a set of channel characteristics and determining bedload transport intensity using painted tracers in all the windthrow-affected and control catchments. Both pits and linear scars created by harvesting tend to become overgrown by vegetation in the first several years after the windthrow. The only signs of erosion were observed in 10% of the pits located on convergent slopes. During the period from the windthrow event in 2013 until 2019, 5 very small (total area <100 m2) shallow landslides were created. The mean distance of bedload transport was similar (t-test, p=0.05) in most of the windthrow-affected and control catchments. The mapping of channels revealed many cases of root plates fallen into a channel and pits created near a channel. A significant amount of woody debris delivered into the channels influenced the activity of fluvial processes by creating alternating zones of erosion and accumulation.

Download Full-text