Regulation effects on lakes

Hydropower production is generally considered as climate friendly energy production, but it has some negative impacts on ecosystems. The most obvious effect hydropower has on lake ecosystems is a change from natural water level variations to regulated water levels. Regulation has been shown to diminish diversity and productivity of fish, macroinvertebrates and macrophytes. However, very little is known about impacts of regulation on the smallest organisms, meiofauna and protists, which hold key positions in lake littoral ecosystems through primary production and carbon transfer to higher trophic levels. Here, our aim was to assess the effect of water-level regulation on diversity of lake littoral meiofauna and protists.