https://doi.org/10.4081/jlimnol.2017.1627
Integrating the Water Framework Directive into the Habitats Directive: Analysis of distribution patterns of lacustrine EU habitats in lakes of Lombardy (northern Italy)
Accepted: 14 February 2017
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Authors
The existence of strong potential synergies between the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Habitats Directive (HD) is widely acknowledged. Indeed, ensuring favourable conservation conditions for aquatic habitats and species of conservation concern is closely related to the achievement of a good ecological status in water bodies. However, since these two sets of European laws are generally applied without any coordination, an inefficient use of resources may adversely affect their goals. The main negative outcome is an increase in the cost of monitoring programs for collecting data in nature (i.e., physical and chemical parameters, species and habitats, plant communities). The use of macrophytes as a bioindicator, as imposed by the WFD, may instead help to integrate data on aquatic EU habitats and enhance knowledge of such habitats outside the Natura 2000 network. The aim of present study was to evaluate the usefulness of data collected in WFD monitoring surveys as a means of inferring the occurrence and the distribution of lacustrine aquatic habitats in countries belonging to the European Union (EU). The main aim of the analysis was to identify the depth gradient distribution of diagnostic macrophyte taxa in two EU habitats (3140, i.e., Chara-dominated benthic communities, and 3150, i.e., natural eutrophic lakes) using data collected in lakes in Lombardy (northern Italy), some of which are included in the Natura 2000 network (10 out 16). While recognizing the limitations of the data collected within the two frameworks, the results confirmed the marked usefulness of WFD data as a means of enhancing the knowledge available on lacustrine aquatic habitats in the EU. WFD data can actively help to improve the basic information on aquatic habitats, thereby more effectively supporting regional strategies for biodiversity conservation as well as recovery programs.
How to Cite
Similar Articles
- Mattia M. Azzella, Rossano Bolpagni, Alessandro Oggioni, A preliminary evaluation of lake morphometric traits influence on the maximum growing depth of macrophytes , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 73 No. 2 (2014)
- Cristina Pulido, Joan Lluís Riera, Enric Ballesteros, Eglantine Chappuis, Esperança Gacia, Predicting aquatic macrophyte occurrence in soft-water oligotrophic lakes (Pyrenees mountain range) , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 74 No. 1 (2015)
- Lei Zeng, Biyun Liu, Zhigang Dai, Qiaohong Zhou, Lingwei Kong, Yi Zhang, Feng He, Zhenbin Wu, Analyzing the effects of four submerged macrophytes with two contrasting architectures on zooplankton: A mesocosm experiment , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 76 No. 3 (2017)
- Jong-Yun Choi, Kwang-Seuk Jeong, Geung-Hwan La, Gea-Jae Joo, Spatio-temporal distribution of Diaphanosoma brachyurum (Cladocera: Sididae) in freshwater reservoir ecosystems: importance of maximum water depth and macrophyte beds for avoidance of fish predation , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 74 No. 2 (2015)
- Marta Marchegiano, Elsa Gliozzi, Simona Ceschin, Ilaria Mazzini, Thierry Adatte, Roberto Mazza, Daniel Ariztegui, Ecology and distribution of living ostracod assemblages in a shallow endorheic lake: The example of the Lake Trasimeno (Umbria, central Italy) , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 76 No. 3 (2017)
- Mattia M. Azzella, Italian Volcanic lakes: a diversity hotspot and refuge for European charophytes , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 73 No. 3 (2014)
- Rossano Bolpagni, Eugenia Bettoni, Francesco Bonomi, Mariano Bresciani, Ketty Caraffini, Silvia Costaraoss, Federica Giacomazzi, Catia Monauni, Paola Montanari, Maria Cristina Mosconi, Alessandro Oggioni, Giovanna Pellegrini, Chiara Zampieri, Charophytes of the lake Garda (Northern Italy): a preliminary assessment of diversity and distribution , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 72 No. 2 (2013)
- Malgorzata Adamczuk, Niche separation by littoral-benthic Chydoridae (Cladocera, Crustacea) in a deep lake - potential drivers of their distribution and role in littoral-pelagic coupling , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 73 No. 3 (2014)
- Mariano Bresciani, Rossano Bolpagni, Federica Braga, Alessandro Oggioni, Claudia Giardino, Retrospective assessment of macrophytic communities in southern Lake Garda (Italy) from in situ and MIVIS (Multispectral Infrared and Visible Imaging Spectrometer) data , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 71 No. 1 (2012)
- Juliana V. Rangel, Rosângela E.S. Araújo, Cinthia G. Casotti, Larissa C. Costa, Walace P. Kiffer Jr., Marcelo S. Moretti, Assessing the role of canopy cover on the colonization of phytotelmata by aquatic invertebrates: an experiment with the tank-bromeliad Aechmea lingulata , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 76 No. 2 (2017)
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.
List of Cited By :
