Assessment of the significance of water bodies for the conservation of aquatic plants

Abstract

A new method for assessment of the role of different water bodies in maintaining aquatic plant biodiversity is presented. An integral index has been developed based on floristic (number of hydrophytes, presence and number of protected, regionally rare plant species, sozologically valuable communities) and other (genesis of a water body, its belonging to rare or typical biotopes) criteria. The method was tested on 349 water bodies of the Pukhovichy Plain, which were classified according to their environmental status. High and very high status has been assigned to 22 water bodies, occupying less than 1% of the plain area and containing 78.4% of the aquatic plant species of the region. These include stretches of the Neman, Losha, Uzdyanka, Ussa and Ptich rivers, 4 reservoirs and 3 lakes, 1 dig.