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Regional Representativeness of Swedish Reference Lakes
1Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Department of Environmental Assessment Box 7050, S-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
Environmental Management
|December 16, 1998
Summary
This study assessed if Swedish reference lakes are regionally representative. Predictive modeling and ordination confirmed most reference lakes are representative, though some biases in selection were noted.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Environmental Science
- Limnology
Background:
- Ecoregion delineations are crucial for regional water and habitat quality monitoring.
- Reference sites are vital for ecological assessments, but their regional representativeness requires validation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the regional representativeness of subjectively selected Swedish reference lakes.
- To compare these reference lakes against a randomly selected lake population using an ecoregion framework.
Main Methods:
- Discriminant function analysis (predictive modeling) was used to classify lakes.
- Principal Component Analysis (PCA) ordination visualized reference lake placement within the random population.
- Lakes were stratified by ecoregion, surface area, and physicochemical variables.
Main Results:
- The majority of selected reference lakes were found to be regionally representative.
- The boreonemoral ecoregion showed the highest proportion of lake "misclassifications".
- PCA ordination identified potential gaps in reference site representation along ecological gradients.
Conclusions:
- While generally representative, the selection criteria for reference lakes may introduce biases, such as overrepresentation of forest lakes.
- The ecoregion approach provides a robust framework for assessing reference site representativeness.
- Further refinement of reference site selection is recommended to capture broader ecological gradients.