Environmental determinants of littoral paludification in boreal lakes

Numerical studies of the relationships between littoral processes and environmental variables are important because they provide understanding of the impacts of natural and human factors on lake systems. In this study, littoral paludification, its occurrence, types and main environmental determinants were studied in boreal lakes with varying size (41–560 km²) and total phosphorus content (4.5–35.5 μg L⁻¹) in Finland. The relative importance of catchment characteristics, water quality and water level regulation on paludification was analysed at the lake level (n=20), whereas the importance of site morphology, soil quality and aquatic vegetation was analysed at the site level (n=289). This study utilised two novel statistical methods in numerical analyses: generalised linear mixed models and variation partitioning (VP). Bottom ward overgrowth was the main paludification type in the studied lakes. At the lake level, the magnitude of spring flooding and the altitude of the lake had a negative response to paludification, whereas the existence of water level regulation, cover of clay soil and total phosphorus content correlated positively to paludification. At the site level, the paludification was negatively related to slope angle, and positively to the occurrence of clay soil, Glyceria maxima (reed sweet-grass) and the abundance of eutrophy indicator species. However, a considerable amount of variation in littoral paludification both at lake and site levels was accounted for by the joint effects of predictors and may thus be causally related to two or all three groups of predictors.