Making a conservation site: Stonewort meadows as lake engineers

The article discusses research conducted in a valuable biocoenosis in the Gnieźnieńskie Lakeland in central Poland. Protected within the Natura 2000 network, the area is simultaneously affected by climate change and anthropogenic pressures. The article suggests reconsidering the conservation site as engineered by the underwater stonewort meadows, rather than understanding it as an object managed by external experts. It is argued that a broader recognition of how the site is co-created and sustained through ecological processes, rather than solely through human investments, fosters a sense of belonging and responsibility towards the environments that people share with others.