Social Conflict Generating Ecological Developments in the Life of Lake Balaton in Recent Decades – Mass Swarming of Non-biting Midges

Abstract

Social Conflict Generating Ecological Developments in the Life of Lake Balaton in Recent Decades – Mass Swarming of Non-biting Midges The mass swarming of adult non-biting midges (Diptera: Chironomidae) can cause strong inconvenience to tourists, disturbing them in resting and recreational activities and often forcing them to leave home earlier than they planned. This problem negatively affects the local businesses, resulting in a claim to the extermination of chironomids. Due to the fact that chironomids are essential for a healthy functioning of the ecosystem of Lake Balaton, the public claim is in contradiction with environmental protection and nature conservation. However, possibilities for controlling the swarming do exist. As a first step of controlling measures, the study on the temporal pattern of swarming has been started in 2010. The characteristics of swarming during the last three years were described. The dominant species, Chironomus Balatonicus caused the most problem at Lake Balaton. However, the swarming of this species showed high year-to-year variation. On the other hand, long-term data on swarming are not available for Lake Balaton, thus it cannot be determined whether the huge swarming recently observed is exceptional or shows a rising tendency.