Water quality in cutaway peatland lakes in Seda mire, Latvia

Transformation into shallow lakes can be a major post-harvesting land-use option for cutaway peatlands. We focused on lakes created on areas of a cutaway bog in the Seda Mire, Latvia, and the aim of our study was to analyse factors influencing water quality and communities in the cutaway lakes. It has been found that the residual peat amount and the lake feeding conditions (the balance between ground water and inflow from adjacent river during the spring season)are the major factors influencing aquatic chemistry and studied habitats. The studied cutaway lakes can not be considered as typical bog lakes regarding hydrochemical composition (especially concentrations of major dissolved ions, pH and water colour)and hydrobiological features (metabolic activity, biomasses and number of species in phytoplankton and zoobenthos).Considering aquatic chemistry and community structure of the cutaway lakes, a recommendation has been made in respect to peat excavation to transform peat mining sites to lakes.