Archives of Biological Sciences 2011 Volume 63, Issue 3, Pages: 763-774
https://doi.org/10.2298/ABS1103763P
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Abundance, diversity and distribution of macrophyte communities in neighboring lakes of different trophic states and morphology in north-central Greece
Pirini Chrisoula B. (Department of Botany, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece)
Karagiannakidou Vasiliki (Department of Botany, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece)
Charitonidis Savvas (Department of Botany, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece)
The role of aquatic vegetation in wetland ecosystems is closely related with
their abundance, diversity and distribution, which in turn represents synergy
of various environmental factors. The floristic composition of the aquatic
vegetation in two neighboring lakes (Vegoritida and Petron) in north-central
Greece was investigated by means of 160 relevés, which were recorded using
the Braun-Blanquet method. The analysis of relevés based on TWINSPAN
clustering showed the existence of 10 plant communities from the Lemnetea,
Potametea, Phragmito-Magnocaricetea and Juncetea maritimi classes. The most
important environmental factors for the vegetation differentiation in the
study area, according to the ordination diagram, are light intensity and
water depth of the habitats. The plant species diversity was quantified with
species richness, Shannon Diversity and evenness indices at a scale of each
relevé, with a sampling size of 20 m2. There was a clear differentiation
between the relevés at the more eutrophic Petron Lake and those at Vegoritida
Lake. The mean plot diversity was also calculated for each plant community,
to enable comparison of the diversity indices among the communities at the
plot level.
Keywords: aquatic vegetation, lakes, classification, plant communities, diversity indices, environmental factors