index of human alteration of lake shore morphology

Morphological degradation constitutes one of the most severe threats to the ecological integrity of lakes. The development of biotic assessment methods for human lake shore alterations using littoral macroinvertebrates requires quantification of the degree of degradation by a stressor index and is complicated through simultaneous physical pressures that alter natural habitat structure. The Lake Habitat Survey (LHS) method and macroinvertebrate sampling were used to produce a pan‐European dataset of morphological lake shore degradation and macroinvertebrate densities covering 51 lakes in seven countries and across four geographical regions – northern, western, southern and central Europe. Lake Habitat Survey parameters that differed significantly among three categories of morphological pressure were combined to develop the stressor index components ‘Number of habitats', ‘Habitat diversity', ‘Total percentage volume inhabited by macrophytes', ‘Sum of macrophyte types', ‘Sum of vegetation cover types', ‘Sum of coarse woody debris/roots/overhanging vegetation', ‘Pressure index' (number of human disturbance sources) and ‘Natural/artificial dominant land cover type'. Stressor index components were tested for cross‐correlations and for differences among pressure levels. The final composition of the stressor index was optimized for the four studied geographical regions in Europe. The resulting stressor index correlated more strongly with macroinvertebrate metrics than simpler site‐specific LHS parameters or the HabQA index developed previously in one lake in north‐western Europe. The stressor index developed provides deeper insight into the morphological pressures that affect littoral invertebrate communities. The results also support the use of LHS to quantify morphological stressors at sampling site level, which can ease developing other multimetric bioassessment methods. The stressor index offers the possibility for wide and regional specific application to assess hydromorphological pressures on lakes to assist conservation planning and management and further global efforts to develop and test biotic assessment methods for lakes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.