Buttermere

Also within

Cumbria County LAKE DISTRICT National Park

Condition (Natural England)

Habitats

Fast flowing river and stream

Geology & landscape

Rock Type: Slate

Landscape processes: Glacial, Volcanic / Igneous

Birds & fish recorded

Fish

Description

Area, 93.0 hectares 230.0 ac Description Buttermere is one of the best examples in the Lake District of an oligotrophic nutrient poor lake. It lies 14 kilometres south of Cockermouth, 20 kilometres east of Whitehaven and just one kilometre south of Crummock Water which shares the same glacial trough. Of the larger Lake District lakes only Wastwater and Ennerdale have lower levels of nutrients and a lower productivity. Buttermere contrasts with these as a smaller area 93 hectares and shallower mean depth 16.6 metres lake. It lies on the Skiddaw Slate but its water catchment, like Wastwater, is predominantly on Borrowdale Volcanic rocks. Buttermere is fed and drained by the River Cocker. It is one of the lakes that has been least affected by man, with few people living in the catchment and with negligible water abstraction. As such the lake is an important extant example of this once more typical situation. The shoreline is generally stony but in places maintains vegetation typical of the lake's oligotrophic status. This vegetation consists of a belt of shoreweed Littorella uniflora, common spike rush Eleocharis palustris and reed canary grass Phalaris arundinacea in shallow water at the lake margin. Beds of quillwort Isoetes lacustris, bulbous rush Juncus bulbosus var. fluitans, alternate water milfoil Myriophyllum alterniflorum, water lobelia Lobelia dortmanna and, more notably, intermediate water starwort Callitriche brutia ssp. hamulata occur in water to about three metres depth. The fish fauna includes charr, a member of the trout and salmon family which in England is found only in the Lake District. It is an important relic species as it is believed that the population within each particular lake was isolated in that locality after the last Ice Age. Other fish species include perch, pike, three spined stickleback, brown trout, eel and salmon. The lake invertebrate fauna is typical of oligotrophic conditions but the great diversity of waterfleas Cladocera is of special interest. Buttermere differs from Wastwater in that the water flea Daphnia hyalina is present and the bottom dwelling, invertebrate fauna is richer both numerically and in variety. For example, two additional species of flatworm, Polycelis tenuis and Planaria torva, three additional leech species, including Alboglossiphonia heteroclita and one additional snail, Bathyomphalus contortus, have been recorded. The freshwater shrimp Gammarus pulex is also present in small numbers.

Species mentioned

Plant communities