Fickle lakescape project

Lakes, both natural and artificial (reservoirs) are vital and strategic resources for life on our planet. At the same time, they are also highly vulnerable to human activities, especially if they are not properly preserved and used in a sustainable manner. These natural resources and their ecosystems have defined borders, while at the same time also strongly influenced by where they are located. Although there is a geographic limit between a lake ecosystem and neighbouring ecosystems, lakes are heavily influenced by the substances entering them in their incoming waters. Moreover, lakes are very complex systems influenced by many different factors, major ones being the materials dissolved in their waters, the climate of the region, energy exchanges with the atmosphere, the soil and the variety of organisms inhabit them, all of which are influenced by, and also influence, the lake system itself. This complexity means that when a lake is studied on the basis of a single discipline, it can often lead to misleading conclusions, or even incorrect results.