RT Journal Article
T1 Effects of water-level fluctuations on lakes: An annotated bibliography
A1 Leira Campos, Antón Manoel
A1 Cantonati, Marco
A1 Filippi, M.L.
K1 Water-level fluctuations (WLF)
K1 Spatial trends
K1 Temporal trends
K1 Effects
K1 Indicators
K1 Lake management
K1 Lake habitats
K1 Littoral
AB Water-level fluctuations (WLF) in lakes and rivers, especially their extent, frequency and duration, are dominant forces controlling the functioning of these ecosystems. In particular, WLF play an important role in the lake's littoral and aquatic-terrestrial interface processes. WLF may take place on different spatial and temporal scales under natural conditions but water levels have been artificially modified in regulated lakes, and their impacts are expected to be enhanced within the actual global change scenarios with forthcoming management problems. This article presents an overview on the literature published on this important topic since 1991 by using journals indexed in the ISI Web of Knowledge. The overall objective was to examine temporal and spatial trends in publications on WLF, the specific aspect of WLF concerned and their main effects. Throughout the article we have used case studies to illustrate different effects of WLF on the variety of lake habitats and indicators that have been studied. Overall, the number of papers published on the subject since the 1990s has risen steadily, when less than ten papers were published each year; until 2006 and peaking in 2005. The greatest number of papers on WLF has been carried out in Europe and North America (c. 73%). These data also showed that the effects of WLF have not been studied equally for different groups of organisms. There is a greater interest on macrophytes, which are the most studied group of organisms (18.4% of the papers). Nearly 7% of the papers deal with algae, and zooplankton and invertebrates account for a 7% followed by fish. WLF effects on ecosystems are very complex, and the biological effects in lakes are greatest in shallow water and littoral areas, where even small changes in water levels can result in the conversion of large areas of a standing-water environment in air exposed habitats. Finally, these data might serve to highlight knowledge gaps still existing on this topic and, in particular, some of the approaches that can potentially contribute to solve several of these lacunae are explored.
PB Springer
SN 0018-8158, 1573-5117
YR 2008
FD 2008
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/32813
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/32813
LA eng
NO Leira, M. and Cantonati, M., 2008. Effects of water-level fluctuations on lakes: an annotated bibliography. Ecological effects of water-level fluctuations in lakes, pp.171-184.
NO This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-015-9825-7
DS Minerva
RD 24 abr 2026