The examination of the composition and dynamics of periphytic communities took place in three lakes of similar morphometry – Lake Wielkowiejskie, Budzyńskie and Dębiniec, situated in the Wielkopolska region, (Western Poland). These lakes are typical macrophytedominated, shallow and polymictic water bodies. Periphyton was collected from two macrophytecovered stations, including the rush vegetation station (Typha angustifolia L.) and the stonewort stand (Chara tomentosa L.) in each examined lake. The material was sampled three times in 2003, including the spring (April), summer (July) and autumn (September) seasons, from the same parts of the lakes. The aim of the study was to find out whether there is an influence of particular macrophyte species, differing spatially and morphologically and representing two different ecological types of aquatic vegetation, on the development of particular periphytic species. There was also an attempt at answering the question of what is more important in the structuring of the periphytic communities – the specific architecture of the macrophyte substratum or the physical-chemical features of a particular lake? The concentrations of chlorophyll a, TN, TP and TOC in water were higher in the Chara beds compared with the Typha stations in most cases. The Shannon-Weaver biodiversity index of periphytic algae revealed very high values in all lakes and amounted in the Typha and Chara stands to the mean values 4.68 and 3.87 respectively in Wielkowiejskie Lake, 3.32 and 4.39 in Budzyńskie Lake and 3.08 and 3.91 in Dębiniec Lake. Furthermore, the standardized index of evenness exhibited the greatest differentiation in the Typha station with the highest (0.76) in Wielkowiejskie and the lowest (0.52) in Dębiniec Lake. The analysis of the growth-forms of periphytic communities showed slightly higher diversity of slowly moving and stalked diatoms in most cases at the Chara stations of all studied lakes. The similarity between periphytic communities in the Typha and Chara stands of the examined lakes, compared using the Ward method and Euclidean distance measure, revealed a stronger relationship within a particular habitat but not a lake. The clearest pattern of similarity grouping a particular habitat was obtained for the summer period, when macrophytes reached their optimum. The Jaccard similarity index confirmed the differentiation of both examined habitats, reaching the mean value of 0.34. Based on the biomass of single periphytic species, habitat selectivity for seven species was found. Significantly higher biomass was obtained in the case of the rush zone for only one algae species – Eunotia lunaris (Ehr.) Grun. In the Chara bed six species revealed significantly higher biomasses – Cosmarium regnelli Wille, Oocystis marssonii Lemm., Ulotrix zonata (Weber et Moor) Kütz., Scenedesmus acuminatus (Lagerh.) Chod., Merismopedia elegans A. Braun and Phacus orbicularis Hübner. The habitat preference of periphytic communities to different macrophyte species may be due to the environmental factors, including the specific architecture of a particular macrophyte substrate such as density or texture of the plant surface. Furthermore, seasonality, as well as physical-chemical parameters may structure periphytic communities within the littoral zone of lakes.
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