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Aquatic vegetation greatly impacts lake functions. Forest ecosystems surrounding lakes are effective protection zone of lakes and their associated flora and fauna. The presence of aquatic plants depends on many factors, including the chemical composition and acidity of water, the shape of the lake catchment, the angle of slope along shorelines and the management of surrounding lands. Natural ecosystems throughout Eastern Europe are threatened by anthropogenic activities. Aquatic systems and bogs are particularly sensitive to disturbances. The aim of the study was to determine the influence of land management, forest type and stand age on aquatic plant colonisation within lakes as well as to quantify and qualify the structure of macrophyte communities within two lakes, Płotycze Sobiborskie and Orchowe, located in the Sobibór Landscape Park in western Poland. Even though there were few bogs within the catchment areas and lake buffer zones, where they did occur they had the greatest effect on macrophyte presence. The results of this research indicate that in the absence of anthropogenic disturbances midforest water-bog complexes are relatively stable systems and preserve their natural character. The applied multi-criteria evaluation of macrophytes in the studied lakes and their surrounding buffer zones and catchment areas allowed the lakes to be characterised as lakes with a good ecological status.

The aim of the study was to show which morphometric traits of lakes influence the development of the rush zone of lakes and how buffer zone management influences analyzed features of rushes. We also checked what analyzed features of rushes influence the trophy of the lake, or the type of its supply. The average area inhabited by helophytes in studied lakes of the Łęczna-Włodawa Lake District was 19% among all lakes. The lowest values of the analyzed features of rushes were found in lakes without inflow and outflow. Therefore, favourable conditions are found in inlet lakes, fed mostly with fertile waters from the Wieprz-Krzna Canal. We confirmed the hypothesis that the natural way of management of the buffer zone, the largest lakes of the Łęczna-Włodawa Lake District, generates the highest values of the studied features of emergent macrophytes. Therefore, it is the best form of their development. In addition, among the morphometric features of lakes the most important impact on the development of rushes had the type of feeding the lake, while the type of lake use turned out to be irrelevant. Among the physico-chemical parameters of water, the visibility and pH of the water had a significant influence on the features of the rushes, while the electrolytic conductivity was irrelevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]