Table 1.

List of lakes sampled with rough description of ecological context.

acronym	name	description	sediment structure
Am	Ammersee	large mesotrophic lake, with several adjacent towns, broadly used for fishing, water sports and shipping	****
Di	Dietlhofer Weiher	small lake next to a town, bathing lake in summer, occasionally exceeds bacteriological pollution limits	***
Lu	Lussee	small mesotrophic lake under environmental protection, with broad reed girdle	**
Ma	Maisinger See	small mesotrophic lake, bathing lake in summer, low pollution level	***
Nu	Nussberger Weiher	small lake used mainly for pisciculture	****
Os	Ostersee	midsized mesotrophic lake, next to Lussee, but without special protection status, bathing lake in summer	**
Pi	Pilsensee	midsized eutrophic lake, broadly used for water sports, bathing and fishing	*****
St	Starnbergersee	very large mesotrophic lake, with several adjacent towns, broadly used for fishing, water sports and shipping	*
Tk	Tonkuhle	artificial lake in a former clay pit near Braunschweig	*
To	water reservoire near Bad Tölz	mesotrophic storage lake of the Isar, fluctuating water levels, can fall dry during summer	**
We	Weßlinger See	small polytrophic lake within a town (Weßling), artificially aerated	****
Zo	—	very small artificial pool in the garden of the Zoological Institute in Munich	*

The column ‘sediment structure’ refers to the coarseness of the sediment ranging from one star (*, very fine sediment) to five stars (*****, coarse gravel). This classification refers of course only to the respective sampling sites.