Invertebrate-habitat associations in the Littoral and Riparian Ecotone of Lough Carra, Co. Mayo, Ireland

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between habitat structure in the land lake ecotone and the abundance and community composition of larval and adult macroinvertebrates. This was done extensively within one sample lake, Lough Carra, in county Mayo. Aspects of lake hydromorphology were assessed and described by use of the Lake Habitat Survey (LHS), which measures the extent of particular habitat features within the littoral, riparian and shore zones of a lake. The first aim of the research was to test the relevance of the LHS metrics for describing macroinvertebrate taxon richness, abundance and community composition. This was done with the creation of a Hab-Plot specific score called the HabQA. This was based on the original Lake Habitat Survey Lake Habitat Quality Assessment (LHQA) score. Additional work examined the relevance of the overall survey, not just the metric, for macroinvertebrate community composition.