Impact of the Drainage System on Water Vegetation of the Lowland Lakes (Eastern Poland)

The Wieprz–Krzna drainage and irrigation canal was created in the early 1960s highly complicated water relations and the hydrological systems of the Polesie region of Eastern Poland. The highest level of degradation occurred in the hydrogenic areas of the Łęczna–Włodawa Lake District. The aim of this study was to complete a qualitative and quantitative analyses of changes from 1959 to present of vascular plants in lakes influenced by the drainage system. In addition, an evaluation of the lakes’ ecological status was conducted and comparisons between lakes transformed into reservoirs, embanked lakes, and natural lakes were made. Based on RI values that are used to determine ecological status, in 1959 all of the eight lakes reached good or high ecological status but in 2015 only two remained in this classification. The extensive changes observed in the macrophyte plant communities within all lakes in the study, indicates a progressive process of overgrowth in both natural and transformed lakes. Agricultural water inputs from the WKCS into lakes has lead to their slow but differentiated degradation. The greatest changes within the studied eutrophic and hypertrophic lakes studied have occurred in lakes converted to retention reservoirs

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