Lakes - Cherished yet forgotten?

Lakes, both naturally formed and human-made, are important priority habitats. They provide vital benefits for wildlife and people, along with a wide range of ecosystem services, and often have great cultural significance in our landscapes.

Despite this importance, and protection within legislation, lakes are mostly in a very degraded condition and have generally not featured prominently within catchment or river basin plans.

However, there are positive and achievable actions at different scales that can be taken, to both raise their profile within catchment planning, and improve the condition of lakes and their catchments.

The aim of this StoryMap is to summarise the situation and provide ideas and links to further information, to help start or support restoration of some of our most cherished yet threatened freshwater habitats.

Lakes, both naturally formed and human-made, are important priority habitats within many catchments. They provide vital benefits for both wildlife and people, along with a wide range of ecosystem services, and often have great cultural significance in our landscapes and lives.

There are many thousands of lakes and other standing waters in England. Generally, if a standing water body is > 2 hectares it’s considered a lake. (If <2 hectares it's considered a pond. For more information on these priority habitats see the  Freshwater Habitats Trust ). There are almost 3000 lakes above 2ha. All lakes in England are covered by the priority habitat definitions, although there's  ongoing work  to identify the priorities within these.

Under the WFD, all lakes above 50 hectares, those designated as European sites above 5 hectares, and some other SSSI lakes are recognised as WFD ‘waterbodies’ – and so are of particular importance in River Basin and associated catchment plans. 161 lakes are designated as SSSI’s, ‘Ramsar’ wetland or European sites. ‘European sites’ comprise those designated as Special Areas of Conservation (for habitats) or Special Protection Areas (for birds) designated part of the EU’s Natura 2000 network. For River Basin plans the same considerations are applied to environmental water objectives for Ramsar sites as to WFD EU ‘protected areas’. These designations and recognition under the WFD provide the legal basis for their conservation.  

Key  25-year environment plan  goals and associated indicators include lakes. Lakes have an important role to play, providing habitat and refuges for a diversity of wildlife, as part of the Nature Recovery Network.

There is a wide diversity in  lake types    and the wildlife they support across the country. Action in catchments often benefits the range of freshwater and wetland habitats that occur within them, including ponds, lakes, streams, rivers and wetlands. 

Delivery at catchment scale can take account of these synergies, and secure opportunities to achieve biodiversity benefits across the full range of habitats.

However, there are also some actions that may be required specifically on a lake to improve its functioning and condition, but these can still have wider benefits for rivers and wetlands. For example, restoring shoreline and riparian land can lead to wetland creation; removing barriers can also be good for fish in rivers, and improving water quality is beneficial across a catchment. As part of a  Nature Recovery Network , lakes provide ‘stepping’ stones in the landscape and resilience to the freshwater habitat resource, even when they are not directly hydrologically connected.

However, despite their importance for wildlife and people, and protection by legislation, many lakes are in a degraded condition and have generally not featured prominently within catchment or river basin plans - although there are excellent examples of restoration work around the country, some of which are represented in our case study section.

In part, this is due to the challenges in restoring what in some cases are some of the most threatened or modified aquatic habitats in England. However, there are positive and achievable actions at different scales, that can be taken to improve the condition of lakes and their catchments. Continue reading to find out more about the pressures on lakes and what can be done to address them.

Some of the key pressures that lead to many lakes, large and small, being in a degraded condition include:

• Diffuse and point source pollution (including those from  septic tanks );
• Physical modifications and abstraction;
• Invasive non-native species; and
• Inappropriate fish stocking.

The legacy of some issues e.g. pollution accumulated in lake sediments, can lead to long recovery times, but any action that improves water quality will improve lake habitat. So there is value in undertaking such measures, at whatever scale is available.

All these impacts are recorded as SSSI ‘reasons for adverse condition’ and WFD water body ‘reasons for not achieving good’, leading to many designated sites and waterbodies being recorded as being in ‘unfavourable’ condition or less than ‘good’. Poor water quality resulting from diffuse pollution is the most frequent issue.

In particular, a large proportion of ‘Ramsar’ and European designated lakes are failing to meet their conservation objectives.

Failure is often due to poor water quality, with phosphorus a more widespread issue than nitrogen - but both are a problem. 

Naturally nutrient poor sites with upland catchments are those which are most likely to have escaped the pressure of eutrophication that is pervasive in lowland England. However, even these sites with cleaner water are still subject to other pressures e.g. invasive species (although these are often under-recorded).

Climate change impacts are cross cutting and so not currently well captured by the data above, but recent review work considers:

the climate change sensitivity of standing open water habitats, including lakes and ponds, to be ‘High’.

The Climate Change Adaptation Manual by Natural England and RSPB is a resource to support practical and pragmatic decision-making, by bringing together recent science, experience and case studies, and is intended to be an accessible entry point to a range of available resources and tools. 

There has been action to tackle point source and diffuse pollution (e.g. through water company investment, and activities through agri-environment schemes and catchment sensitive farming advice) as well as targeted habitat restoration activity on some lakes.

However, it’s recognised that there has been a lack of progress in improving the condition of lakes and their catchments.

(see specific reference to lakes in the Environment Agency’s RBMP3 ‘Challenges & Choices’ consultation ‘Biodiversity Challenge’ information). With continued and sometimes increasing pressures, condition is generally being held at a standstill, rather than improving. 

BUT the battle to restore these precious habitats is not lost. The following sections describe actions that can be taken for all lakes, some examples of successes, and sources of advice.

There are several approaches that Catchment Partnerships and their members can take to influence and directly improve the condition of lakes:

From a planning and strategic perspective these include:

• Raising general awareness of lakes - their importance and condition, their association with other freshwater habitats in a catchment, and opportunities for improvement.

• Including lakes and possible restoration activity in catchment plans.

• Including key actions for lakes in catchment pages of RBMP3, as part of the program of measures.

• Actively recording  lake restoration priorities , and  lakes with high natural function  to the  priority habitats web portal .  

And in terms of ‘direct action’ on the ground, examples include:

• Action to improve water quality will improve lake habitat, so there is value in undertaking any measures, at whatever scale, that can contribute to this. 

• Advice to landowners, managers and farmers around best practice soil and nutrient management within the lake catchment (e.g. through  CSF ).

• Where opportunities allow, maintaining and restoring a natural hydrological regime, including water-level fluctuations and inflows and outflows.

• Restoring natural marginal and riparian vegetation can benefit biodiversity and potentially improve water quality.

• Restoring more natural mixed fish communities, especially where the fish assemblage is contributing to habitat degradation or preventing restoration of a clear water state. Doing so can help restore clear water and enable submerged plants and biodiversity to recover.

• Sediment removal may be an option in some circumstances but usually addressing excess nutrient and sediment inputs first, is a priority. Tangible improvements to condition can still be achieved with other measures, before considering de-silting, such as those above.

Guidance and a fuller description of actions to restore natural lake function can be found within the CaBA Biodiversity Pack - Lake Guidance. It is recognised that restoring natural ecosystem function may not be appropriate or desirable in all locations. It’s about the art of the possible, working in locations most conducive to restoration, although every step toward achieving natural function on any lake, will bring about positive changes for plants and wildlife.

The  CaBA website  also provides more information on a range of resources and tools that can help support CaBA partnerships to deliver these actions. For example:

The following are short case studies describing a range of ideas and approaches that can be used to address some of the issues affecting lakes. We hope to build a library of case studies to capture examples and experience of lake and lake catchment restoration. If you have any to contribute, please see contacts at the end of this StoryMap.

Explore the case study media: Click the arrow buttons to the right of each image to scroll through the images and videos that support each case study. Click on the info (i) button in the top left corner of each image to see its caption. Zoom out of the map and click the number buttons to jump to other case studies.

The ‘ CaBA Biodiversity Pack’   includes advice and habitat guides to support catchment partnerships and others in their delivery of freshwater and wetland biodiversity projects. There is a  specific guide for lakes .

Information on Priority freshwater lake and river habitats, and  maps  can be found at the FBAs  https://priorityhabitats.org/  where  lake restoration priorities , and  lakes with high natural function  can be recorded on the  priority habitats web portal .  

The  Aquatic restoration partnership  a comprehensive introductory peer-reviewed guide to aquatic restoration, including different lake types.

 The Freshwater Habitat Trust  website provides a wealth of information around freshwater habitats including ponds and lakes.

 Restoring England’s Special Lakes  – Natural England & Environment Agency Guidance on the Restoration of Lake SSSIs and Natura 2000 Network Sites.

 A review of lake restoration practices and their performance in the Broads National Park 1980-2013  – describes various case studies and issues around restoration of shallow lakes.

Maps and data on all UK lakes can be found at the UKCEH  UK Lakes Portal  – which provides location and ecological data (Note WBID codes are not the same as the WFD waterbody ID).

The  Catchment Data Explorer  for information on WFD Lake Water bodies.

 Designated Site View  for SSSI, European and Ramsar site information. 

 Glen Cooper , Natural England Lake Restoration Programme Manager

Find your local  Catchment Partnership 

Environment Agency Catchment Co-ordinators  Listed Here 

 Ruth Hall , Natural England, Standing Waters Senior Specialist.

 Jo-Anne Pitt     Senior Environment Agency Specialist, Research, Analysis & Evaluation: Air, Land and Water Research Team.

 Andrea Kelly  Senior Ecologist, the Broads Authority.

 Josh Jones , CaBA & The Rivers Trust Data & Evidence Team