Table 1.
Macrophyte methods for lake ecological status assessment included in the analysis; macrophyte groups: SUBM – submerged rooted and non-rooted, FLOAT – floating-leaved rooted and free floating; HELO – helophytes, FILA – filamentous algae (large), MOSS – mosses, CYAN – cyanobacterial films.
| Member State | Method and reference | Sampling procedure | Macrophyte groups included | Abundance scale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium Flanders (BE-FL) | Flemish macrophyte assessment system (Schneiders et al., 2004, Leyssen et al., 2005) | Point observations in all homogeneous parts up to 2 or 4 m depth | SUBM, FLOAT, HELO, FILA, MOSS, CYAN | 5-point scale for individual taxa and 4-point scale for total abundance |
| Denmark (DK) | Danish Lake Macrophytes Index (DLMI, Søndergaard et al. 2013) | Transects | SUBM, FLOAT, (FILA)*, (MOSS) | 6-point scale for each observation point, translated into % coverage |
| Estonia (EE) | Estonian macrophyte assessment system (Portielje et al., 2014) | Transects for larger lakes, total mapping for smaller | SUBM, FLOAT, (HELO), FILA, MOSS | Separate 5-point scales for SUBM, FLOAT and HELO |
| Germany (DE) | German Assessment System for Macrophytes & Phytobenthos (Reference Index, Schaumburg et al., 2004) | Transects of ca. 20 m width | SUBM, FLOAT, MOSS | 5-point scale for taxa in each depth zone |
| Latvia (LV) | Latvian macrophyte assessment method (Portielje et al., 2014) | Transects | SUBM, FLOAT, HELO, FILA, MOSS | 5- or 7-point scale |
| Lithuania (LT) | Lithuanian macrophyte assessment method (Portielje et al. 2014) | Transects | SUBM, FLOAT, (HELO), (FILA), MOSS | 5-point semi quantitative scale |
| Netherlands (NL) | WFD-metrics for natural water types (Coops et al., 2007) | Sampling points of a size of 200 × 200 m for larger lakes and transects for smaller lakes | SUBM, FLOAT, HELO, FILA, MOSS | 9-point scale for individual taxa and percentage cover for total abundance |
| Poland (PL) | Ecological Status Macrophyte Index (ESMI, Ciecierska and Kolada, 2014) | Transects of ca. 30 m width | SUBM, FLOAT, HELO, MOSS | 7-point scale for taxa and percentage cover for total abundance |
| United Kingdom (UK) | LEAFPACS lakes macrophyte classification tool (Willby et al., 2012) | Transects of ca. 100 m width | SUBM, FLOAT, FILA, MOSS, CYAN | Percentage cover of each taxa |