F2.1 Large permanent freshwater lakes

F2. Lakes biome

F2

Profile summary

Full profile at https://global-ecosystems.org/explore/groups/F2.1

Brief description

Large volumes of permanent water in these lakes buffers water temperatures and effects of nutrient input on water quality. The spatial extent and range of habitats support very large numbers of species in some groups such as fish, some of which are unique to a single lake, often composed of closely related species, endemic to a lake. The high primary productivity from algae and aquatic plants lake supports diverse foodwebs. High numbers of plankton support large numbers of waterbugs, fish, frogs, reptiles, waterbirds, and mammals. Bacteria play key roles in cycling organic matter.

Key features

Large (usually >100km2) permanent freshwater lakes connected to rivers, with high spatial and bathymetric niche diversity supporting complex trophic networks supported by planktonic algae, high diversity and endemism.

Overview of distribution

Humid temperate and tropical regions.

Map description

Locations of large lakes (>100km2)were taken from the HydroLAKES database (Messager et al. 2016) and combined with global estimates of permanent surface water surfaces (classes 1, 2 and 7 from Pekel et al. 2016). Freeze/thaw lakes in boreal and polar climates (temperature of coldest quarter > -10°C) were excluded (Beck et al. 2018) (see F2.3). Occurrences were aggregated to 30 arc second spatial resolution..

Map code and version: F2.1.web.alt v4.0. DOI

Version history

Profile versions

  • v2.1 (2022-04-06): RT Kingsford; R Mac Nally; LJ Jackson; F Essl; K Irvine; DA Keith.1
  • v2.01 (NA): NA.
  • v2.0 (2020-05-24): RT Kingsford; R Mac Nally; LJ Jackson; F Essl; K Irvine; DA Keith.
  • v1.0 (2020-01-20): RT Kingsford; RC Mac Nally; LJ Jackson; F Essl; DA Keith.
  • v1.0 (2020-05-20): RT Kingsford; RC Mac Nally; LJ Jackson; F Essl; DA Keith.

Available maps

Read more details about the current map versions here.

  • Indicative Map (code: F2.1.IM.alt, version v4.0)
  • Web navigation (code: F2.1.web.alt, version v4.0)

Read more details about older or alternative versions of maps for this functional group.

  • Indicative Map: discarded (code: F2.1.IM.alt, version v3.0)
  • Indicative Map: discarded (code: F2.1.IM.alt, version v2.0)
  • Web navigation: in preparation (code: F2.1.WM.nwx, version v1.0)
  • Web navigation: requires review (code: F2.1.web.orig, version v1.0)
  • Indicative Map: discarded (code: F2.1.IM.orig, version v1.0)

References

Main references

References used in the different versions of the profiles.

  • Ludsin SA, DeVanna KM, Smith REH (2014) Physical-biological coupling and the challenge of understanding fish recruitment in freshwater lakes Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 71: 775-794 DOI:10.1139/cjfas-2013-0512
  • Pennisi E (2018) Hybrids spawned Lake Victoria’s rich fish diversity Science 361: 539-539 DOI:10.1126/science.361.6402.539

Map references

References used in the different versions of the maps (current and discarded).

  • Abell R, Thieme ML, Revenga C, Bryer M, Kottelat M, Bogutskaya N, Coad B, Mandrak N, Contreras Balderas S, Bussing W, Stiassny MLJ, Skelton P, Allen GR, Unmack P, Naseka A, Ng R, Sindorf N, Robertson J, Armijo E, Higgins JV, Heibel TJ, Wikramanayake E, Olson D, López HL, Reis RE, Lundberg JG, Sabaj Pérez MH, Petry P (2008) Freshwater ecoregions of the world: A new map of biogeographic units for freshwater biodiversity conservation, BioScience 58: 403–414. DOI:10.1641/B580507
  • Beck, H., Zimmermann, N., McVicar, T. et al. (2018) Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution Sci Data 5, 180214 DOI:10.1038/sdata.2018.214
  • Messager, M.L., Lehner, B., Grill, G., Nedeva, I., Schmitt, O. (2016) Estimating the volume and age of water stored in global lakes using a geo-statistical approach Nature Communications 13603 DOI:10.1038/ncomms13603
  • Pekel JF, Cottam A, Gorelick N, Belward AS (2016) High-resolution mapping of global surface water and its long-term changes Nature 540, 418-422 DOI:10.1038/nature20584

Footnotes

  1. This is the current version available at official site.↩︎