Links between biota and climate-related variables in the Baltic region using Lake Onega (European Russia) as an example

This paper aims to reveal current changes (recent decades) in regional climatic variables like water temperature (WT), the duration of the ice-free period (ICE-FREE) and the precipitation rate (P), as exemplified by Petrozavodsk Bay (Lake Onega, European Russia), and to analyse their relationships with the global climatic indices NAO, AO and structural characteristics of biota (chlorophyll a concentration (Chl a), phytoplankton and zoobenthos abundance/biomass) in the lake ecosystem, which lies within the Baltic Sea catchment area. Spearman's rank correlations yielded significant (p