Chemical composition of wetland sediments as an integrator of trophic state
Keywords:
bio-production number, eutrophication, aquatic conservation, Mediterranean lakesAbstract
Because eutrophication constitutes a key problem in limnology, evaluation of trophic state is a preliminary and essential step for the conservation and management of aquatic ecosystems. Frequently, lake trophic state is expressed by using parameters measured in the water column such as water transparency, total phosphorus or chlorophyll-a concentrations. The application of these indices usually requires repeated seasonal monitoring of the system for obtaining the annual mean values. Considering that lake sediments reflect lake trophic state, in this work we show the relevance of using sediment composition (total N and organic matter content) for obtaining quantitative data related to lake trophic state (bio-production number, BPN). Our results show that the estimated values obtained with BPN (ranging from 5.23 to 6.33), in a lake with relatively low organic matter content, reflected the trophic state as estimated by traditional water-column methods. Furthermore, the reproducibility of the BPN method, which is reflected by the constant BPN values along time, means that only one sampling including the spatial heterogeneity of the surface sediment, can provide a reasonable composite measure of trophic condition in a wetland. Finally, and as it represents a less time-consuming index, we propose the BPN as an appropriate trophic state indicator for wetlands, shallow lakes, and aquatic systems showing large temporal variability.
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