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Redevelopment of landscape units - governing of lake and wetland ecosystems with emphasis on Swedish experience

Sven Björk

 Abstract

Already in the earliest days of limnology, with regional limnology as the main field of research, it was quite clear that lake ecosystems reflect the character of their catchment areas. At the same time, paleolimnological studies proved that it is possible - by means of stratigraphic and fossil analyses of sediment - to reconstruct the ecological development of both the individual lake and its surroundings. The simple fact that surface water and groundwater are carriers of solid and dissolved matter from catchment to lakes means that the shoreline should not be looked upon as a line of demarcation, but as a zone connecting terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. A lake together with its catchment area constitutes, therefore, the primary ecological and management unit of a river basin. Water bodies are the mirrors in which the original state - and recent care, management and mismanagement - of the catchments are reflected.